September 10 — Psalm 132

“O LORD, remember in David’s favor all the hardships he endured; how he swore to the LORD and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, “I will not enter my house or get into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” We heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar. “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool.” Rise up, O LORD, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your faithful shout for joy. For your servant David’s sake do not turn away the face of your anointed one. The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my decrees that I shall teach them, their sons also, forevermore, shall sit on your throne.” For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation: “This is my resting place forever; here I will reside, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless its provisions; I will satisfy its poor with bread. Its priests I will clothe with salvation, and its faithful will shout for joy. There I will cause a horn to sprout up for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one. His enemies I will clothe with disgrace, but on him, his crown will gleam.”

Rise up, O LORD, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.

The Ark of the Covenant — it was a “frightening device” — one to be regarded with awe and fear all of the time. It did contain the original tablets of the “Decalogue”, the Ten Commandments, and yet it also produced energy that would kill. This sacred object was revered but it could not be controlled by people. The interesting part of the Ark was that though it “represented” G-d, yet G-d was not “in the box”. It merely represented G-d’s presence among the chosen people.

The Ark was constructed and kept in the Tabernacle during the wilderness wanderings following the captivity in Egypt. When the Jews reached the Jordan River, the priests walked into the river with the Ark, and the waters parted. The people followed, entering the Promised Land on dry ground. Because of this miraculous event, the Israelites regarded the Ark with awe, with superstition, and as I said before, with fear. They later took it into battle as a secret weapon, hoping it would bring them good luck.

It is unclear when the Ark disappeared, but it ceases to be mentioned sometime in 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims to have the Ark (in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, in Axum). It was entrusted by Solomon to the Queen of Sheba and their son Menelik for safekeeping, according to Ethiopian royal chronicles. The Ark allegedly resides in a sanctuary in Axum (the original capital of the Biblical land of Cush), where priests guard it, and no one is allowed to see it.

Hashim Ahmed, an Ethiopian Christian and journalist, writes: “I do believe the Ark is in Axum. It is not tradition; it is factual. It was moved several times during the Italian invasion.”

Whether the Ark does reside in Axum in Ethiopia, or if it is hiding somewhere else, the Ark of the Covenant continues to be an object that produces awe and fear. However, G-d continues to be ever-present in the world through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Let us Pray:

Faithful God, we remember your promises to David, and how you continued to keep them in Jesus Christ. Make our hearts your dwelling place, clothe your people with holiness, and give bread to the poor, that we may rejoice and sing to you; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

September 11 — Psalm 133

“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the LORD ordained his blessing, life forevermore.”

There are few things as precious in this world as believers who worship together, who pray together, and who choose to live together in unity. And one of the marks of a great church is the sense of fellowship and unity we experience in the body of Christ.

Have you ever gone on a road trip with your family? My family did so one year — and by my family I am speaking of my siblings, all of our collective children, plus my Aunt and my parents. It was a long, trying week. But this is how road trips are — they can be really, really good; or they can be really, really bad. Now imagine instead of just your family if you packed in all your relatives and all of your neighbors as well. I am not so sure anyone would want to sign up for that trip today.

But that is what was happening with the annual feasts in Jerusalem. The people would travel to Jerusalem for the feasts along with their neighbors, family and relatives. And as they drew closer to Jerusalem more and more people would come together, people from different regions and different tribes, but all coming together for one common purpose – to worship the Lord at Jerusalem.

Psalm 133 celebrates the goodness of the life with which the Lord blesses those who are assembled together. Augustine claimed that the psalm gave birth to the monasteries; at the least, it was an important text for these brotherhoods assembled by the vocation of G-d. In services of Christian unity, the psalm is a witness that G-d is at work building a family that transcends all the given and instituted barriers that separate and diminish life.

Let us Pray:

Gracious God, you have poured into our hearts the precious oil of your Spirit. Make of us one heart and one will, that as members of the body of Christ, we may be united in the bonds of love; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

September 8 — Psalm 130

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.” The psalmist has every confidence that God will hear and respond to every cry of pain, because mercy, the writer insists, is who God is. “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice!”

The lament of Psalm 130 is familiar to our hearing and our living. The psalmist cries out to God from “the depths”, from the darkest abyss of human suffering. That abyss takes different shapes in our individual and in our communal existence. We all have had or will have some experience of it. Grief, depression, illness, poverty, abuse — any of these experiences, and so many more, can plunge us into a darkness so deep that it can feel almost like death. That the abyss, the pit, the deep, is so centrally and universally a part of human life is reflected in the Psalms’ repeated reference to it.

Augustine, in his exposition on this psalm, likened the abyss to the belly of the whale in which Jonah was trapped: Jonah’s abyss was deep in the water, in the center of the whale’s body, tangled in the “very entrails of the beast.”

Let us Pray:

God of compassion, you sent your Word into the world to announce the dawn of salvation. Do not leave us in the depths of our sins, but give to us the fullness of your redeeming grace; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

September 9 — Psalm 131

“O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time on and forevermore.”

The big surprise when we come to Psalm 131 is that this is a psalm of triumph, but God’s triumph looks a lot different than the world’s triumph. Instead of talking about power and wealth and fame, Psalm 131 is all about humility and contentment. Psalm 131 teaches us that the way up is actually down. Psalm 131 might seem like a step down, but this truly is a step upward to God. As James 4:10 says: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

How is your soul today? Is your soul quiet or disturbed? There may be any number of reasons why your soul is disturbed or agitated; crying out rather than quiet and restful. You may have a guilty conscience; you may be worried about something or envious of someone; you may be distracted or fatigued. But G-d wants you to have a quiet heart, and a soul at rest.

One of the most awesome experiences in life is to quiet your soul in G-d’s presence – to know the Lord’s peace, rest, and comfort. G-d makes peace, rest and comfort available to us at all times, but we do not always take the time to feel them. We each need to take time out each and every day to find some quiet time with G-d.

Psalm 131 is only three verses, but each verse has a simple and clear instruction for us to follow every day: 1) Practice humility. 2) Learn contentment. 3) Live in hope. Those who practice humility before the Lord find contentment, and therefore rest in the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, gentle and humble of heart, you promised your kingdom to those who are like children. Never let pride reign in our hearts, but, holding us with a mother’s embrace, teach us to live in quietness and humility now and forever.

Amen.