UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

READ PSALM 121-125

SUGGESTED PATTERN: READ PSALM 121 AGAIN with spouse or household.

SPEND A FEW MINUTES GOING THROUGH 4 STEPS OF LECTIO DIVINA (1), ON  PSALM 121:1-4

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

READING  “Put the food whole into your mouth”

MEDITATION,  “Chew it up”

PRAYER “Extract its flavour”

CONTEMPLATION “The sweetness which gladdens and refreshes”

(4 stages of Lectio Divina) (1)

Share together with your spouse or household what the Lord has been saying. Finally one person reads out loud the devotional below and then pray for one another.  

Are you a  pilgrim or a spiritual tourist? Derek Tidball refers to Zygmunt Bauman, who he says has suggested  (1) “that whereas the key symbol of people in previous generations was the pilgrim today it’s the tourist. Both are on journeys passing through other people’s territory but there the similarity ends. Pilgrims are purposeful and travel in a group to which they belong, towards a spiritual destination. They journey in a morally responsible way and transform the places they pass through for the better. The journey may take them through inhospitable terrain at personal cost. By contrast says Bauman, tourists are rich tramps. They’ve time to fill and are going nowhere in particular. They owe no loyalty to their fellow travellers and they take no responsibility for the territory. They only leave litter behind for others to remove. Since they can pay, they expect others to serve them. And when one journey is over they look forward to the next. Are we pilgrims or spiritual tourists?”

Psalm 121 is the second of 15 psalms, called the songs of ascent. They form a chain, a chiastic structure, with the most important one Psalm 127 in the middle. (2) “Historically in Israel the songs were sung by ‘the faithful’ as they walked from great distances up to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles.”  Eugene Peterson inspired by these psalms of Ascent wrote a book on discipleship called (3) “A long obedience in the same direction.” Does that describe your walk of discipleship if you see yourself as a pilgrim rather than a  spiritual tourist?

Two of the songs of Ascent, Psalm 121 and Psalm 123  both begin with the phrase . “I lift up my eyes.”Every pilgrim must have their eyes set above. Traditionally in the church throughout the centuries there has been a strong focus on ‘seeing God’. Hans Boersma wrote (4)“Seeing God; the beatific vision in the Christian tradition.” Robert Louis Wilkens wrote (5) “The Spirit of early Christian thought (subtitled) Seeking the face of God.” He says that Psalm 105:4 “Seek his face always,” captures the spirit of early Christian thinking. This verse is cited four times by Saint Augustine in his work ‘The Trinity’.

The orthodox church and early church have had more of a pilgrim posture than the current western Charismatic evangelical church, and if Zygmunt Bauman is correct and the current generation is a generation of spiritual tourists, some changes are definitely necessary.  Metropolitan Kallistos Ware in his book “The Orthodox Way says (6)” the traveller upon the spiritual way, the further he advances becomes increasingly conscious of two contrasting facts of the otherness and yet the nearness of the eternal…. In the first place he realises more and more that God is mystery… yet in the second place, this God of mystery is at the same time uniquely close to us, filling all things, present everywhere around us and within us. And he is present not merely as an atmosphere or nameless force but in a personal way.”

To a charismatic evangelical this all sounds very mysterious!.. but  Dr Atef Meshreky says that “Apostle Paul (7) used the word mystery frequently in his epistles. We read that faith is a mystery, salvation is a mystery, Christ is a mystery, the church is a mystery, the gospel is a mystery and even transgression is a mystery”, maybe we should not be phased by the word mystery! (8)

Dr Atef  Meshreky says (8) when the Holy Spirit gathers ..what he calls  “kingdom units” the spiritual Zion, not necessary physically but spiritually, He will fulfil God’s final purposes: the final harvest and the preparing (of)  the scene on earth for the return of Christ the King. As we travel as pilgrims on the spiritual way, drawing closer to our personal yet mysterious God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we read these songs of Ascent, we do know from Psalm 132 that the Lord God of the universe has chosen Zion, the city of God, as Jesus Christ’s dwelling place with man. But..how this will happen.. is again a mystery. “How can we discover these mysteries?  We can be encouraged by Matthew 13:11‘it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.’”

Prayer

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

References

(1)Tidball, D , Signposts, Psalm 121, quoting Zygmunt Bauman.See https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/123891/mod_resource/content/1/Baumann-%20From%20Pilgrim%20to%20Tourist.pdf

(2) Orthodox Study Bible, 766.

(3) Peterson, E. A long obedience in the same direction.

(4) Boersma, H. Seeing God.

(5) Wilkens, R.L. The Spirit of Early Christian thought: Seeking the face of God, xxii,

(6) Ware, M.K, The Orthodox Way, 18.

(7) Meshreky, A. Zion: A Scriptural Study and a vision for ministry, 147.

(8) Meshreky, A. Zion: A Scriptural Study and a vision for ministry, 147.

(9) Meshreky, A.  Zion: A Scriptural Study and a vision for ministry, 171-189.