Suggested Scripture: Psalm 147; Luke 22: 39 – 53
Scripture Emphasis:
Psalm 147: 13-14
He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you.
He grants Peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
Psalm 147: 13-14
He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you.
He grants Peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
“A picture is worth a thousand words” is an English language adage. It refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single picture”. That adage is true. It is also true that there are some pictures, imprisoned in a person’s mind, which cause such an emotional response as to render words attempting to describe the image, completely impotent. The incident of the Hebrew tribe held captive in Babylon, longing for the familiarity of their beloved homeland is impossible to capture, either by visual art or in mere words because tears remain impossible to translate.
” By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and, we wept when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 137)
The Scripture emphasis for this meditation falls into the same category of indescribable emotions. Permit yourself to shadow the main character in Psalm147, and try, as hard as that may be, to capture something of the feelings herein or in your own experience under similar circumstances.
” By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and, we wept when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 137)
The Scripture emphasis for this meditation falls into the same category of indescribable emotions. Permit yourself to shadow the main character in Psalm147, and try, as hard as that may be, to capture something of the feelings herein or in your own experience under similar circumstances.
You are now all alone, and in that meditative mode, where a deep silence is touching and infiltrating everything. Completely uninvited by you, your mind suddenly produces thoughts of your present situation. There is a marked absence of the sounds and the images, still fresh in your mind, from a recent newscast. There is no sound of gunfire, nor harsh commands directed at you. Nothing interrupts your reverie. You are at home, and the serenity of your dearly loved homeland seeps into every pore of your body, resulting in a sigh of perfect contentment. The surrounding Peace is pregnant with thoughts of the Divine, prompting you to turn your eyes unto the surrounding hills and mouth the words, “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord.” Without any movement or stir to suggest otherwise, you become aware that you are no longer alone. This present experience is so pleasurable for you that you long to share it with the most precious people to you in all the world, and so your family members are all here! Not in physical form, but rather united with you in spirit. In reality, all of them are hundreds of miles from you, having left home a long time ago to embrace lives of their own. “The tie that binds their hearts to your’s is blessed indeed. Distance has no meaning now! In an instant, miles are absolved, and you are all together, sharing in this exquisite moment of bliss! The experience may extend even further, to include the presence of ” someone loved long since and lost awhile.” You brush aside a tear and then lovingly you commit each into the arms of God once more!
Further, without breaking the mystique of the moment, there comes tripping into your consciousness, thoughts of kindness and the expressions of genuine love that binds this community together, like a family, where everyone has all things in common, and one man’s larder is never empty while another’s is full! (see Acts 2). The present view from your window begs admission into your meditation. It is of a meadow where a father, mother, and their seven children are engaging in the reaping of a bountiful harvest! Now let your dreaming end!
Further, without breaking the mystique of the moment, there comes tripping into your consciousness, thoughts of kindness and the expressions of genuine love that binds this community together, like a family, where everyone has all things in common, and one man’s larder is never empty while another’s is full! (see Acts 2). The present view from your window begs admission into your meditation. It is of a meadow where a father, mother, and their seven children are engaging in the reaping of a bountiful harvest! Now let your dreaming end!
In reality, neither paint nor pen can capture the essence of such an experience as this, as beautiful as that representation may be. What are the emotions which lie concealed inside the heart? Love? Gratitude? Faithfulness? A sense of sheer Awesomeness? If the experiences recorded above come anywhere close to reflecting your own, then perhaps this is the moment to amplify the voice of the Psalmist’s Praise: ” Praise Your God, all you people! “Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet— Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.” ( Alfred Lord Tennyson) 2.
Herein is meaning given to the essential ingredient for true Worship! Worship begins within the privacy of an individual’s soul. That moment transports one beyond the usefulness of words and representations of any sort! We must embrace the Eternal One, Who comes to embrace each one who takes the time to be still and know that He has indeed come to us at that given moment!
It is significant, as well as being a thing of beauty, that some things, thought to be ordinary by one person, can be vested with an ability to stir another person deeply. The British Romantic Poet, William Wordsworth expresses something of this thought in ” My Heart Leaps Up”: ” My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! ” 3.
In Psalm 147:13, the mention of ” A barred gate” evokes such deep feelings in me, from early childhood to this present moment. “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within your walls. He grants Peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.” Ps. 147:13) It is always possible to dismiss the immediate application of any particular text in Scripture and to concentrate upon the differences in time and space. Be that as it may, I must, on this occasion, yield to my experience of this text. It is the barred gate, and the protection it affords, that demands my attention from childhood and to this hour!
Sitting, as it does close to the roadway, it was the reason why at the end of the lane from the back yard of my boyhood home, there was a gate. The gate was constructed of solid wood and bore all the signs of workmanship by one who toiled with pride and purpose. It was a ‘horned gate’ that was bolted snugly in place to the adjacent gatepost by a ‘U’ shaped iron instrument. But a more captivating detail yet awaits mention! It was the iron bar on the inside of the gate which remained in the blocking position except briefly to allow access or exit for the neighbor’s children and our friends. It is that barred gate that provides for me, even yet, moments of both ecstasy and refreshing uplift! The barred gate came to symbolize much of the essential preparation for the life we would yet experience.
Inside the gate, we learned about many of the ingredients that go into a healthy, and meaningful life! There was the art of ‘getting along’ with others; the necessity of compromise without surrendering truth and honor! We learned how essential it is, to always be honest, and trustworthy. Inside that barred gate, we learned the importance of discipline and how disobedience brings with it consequences. Within, there was unconditional love! Not that we kids, and there were seven of us, never quarreled, but within the confines of the space behind the barred gate, there was always a voice of profound wisdom. Love is never permitted to fail. And that lesson is even more challenging to learn when the immediate family circle is stretched to include our friends and neighbors. The doing unto others as you would have them do unto you isn’t always easily accomplished! This is always a challenge but a fundamental life lesson to be learned!
Sitting, as it does close to the roadway, it was the reason why at the end of the lane from the back yard of my boyhood home, there was a gate. The gate was constructed of solid wood and bore all the signs of workmanship by one who toiled with pride and purpose. It was a ‘horned gate’ that was bolted snugly in place to the adjacent gatepost by a ‘U’ shaped iron instrument. But a more captivating detail yet awaits mention! It was the iron bar on the inside of the gate which remained in the blocking position except briefly to allow access or exit for the neighbor’s children and our friends. It is that barred gate that provides for me, even yet, moments of both ecstasy and refreshing uplift! The barred gate came to symbolize much of the essential preparation for the life we would yet experience.
Inside the gate, we learned about many of the ingredients that go into a healthy, and meaningful life! There was the art of ‘getting along’ with others; the necessity of compromise without surrendering truth and honor! We learned how essential it is, to always be honest, and trustworthy. Inside that barred gate, we learned the importance of discipline and how disobedience brings with it consequences. Within, there was unconditional love! Not that we kids, and there were seven of us, never quarreled, but within the confines of the space behind the barred gate, there was always a voice of profound wisdom. Love is never permitted to fail. And that lesson is even more challenging to learn when the immediate family circle is stretched to include our friends and neighbors. The doing unto others as you would have them do unto you isn’t always easily accomplished! This is always a challenge but a fundamental life lesson to be learned!
Although tragic circumstances produced the situation that made it impossible for us children to own all the many things that others owned; behind the barred gate, we came to discover that we had something to be treasured more than things, we had each other!
The barred gate reminds me of something more yet! In no way was the gate barred to shield us from the harsher realities of life. On the contrary, inside this gate, we were constantly learning how to face the challenges that await everyone in the broader field. The gate suggests to me a place of refuge inside which I find safety. Within this space, I will always be welcome ( if now but only in my meditation and dreams). There I still find healing and restoration after failing to realize some higher dream, or when I am wounded or weary. I recall how here we were permitted to dream, but not allow dreams ‘to be our masters.’ Further, we learned that all things and every dream could yet be accomplished through faith in God. And our mother’s life bore eloquent witness to that certainty.
An older man I am now, who is compelled all the more to ” Praise the Lord.” for the barred gate!
I am unable to tell you that my days in ministry have never been without loneliness, heartache, sorrow, and failure. There have been days, when like Peter, following his anguish for his failure, after Jesus’ crucifixion, announced to his friends, ” I am going fishing.” So have I thought of doing just that, many a day. It is then that I push open the gate,and going through, I meet the Master face to face. And then at His behest, I am ready “to brave another cruise.”
I am unable to tell you that my days in ministry have never been without loneliness, heartache, sorrow, and failure. There have been days, when like Peter, following his anguish for his failure, after Jesus’ crucifixion, announced to his friends, ” I am going fishing.” So have I thought of doing just that, many a day. It is then that I push open the gate,and going through, I meet the Master face to face. And then at His behest, I am ready “to brave another cruise.”
Each of You also has a gate, through which you may go to meet the Master Face to Face, and may that meeting fill your heart with endless praise.
You Are Invited To Make The Following Prayer Your Own
Jesus, My Lord,
Sometimes I feel unworthy to step inside the gate! When in my thoughts I see You kneeling in prayer, asYou were praying in the Garden of Gethsemane; as much as I desire to steal quietly to Your side, and just kneel there beside you, I am reluctant to intrude upon such a sacred moment! It is my sense of unworthiness that suggests my next action should be to tip-toe away into the silence of the night. I am stopped in my tracks when I hear my name on Your lips! You are praying for me! My heart feels the magnetic pull of Your love unleashed, Jesus! The next thing I know, I am kneeling at Your side! I try to pray and the only words that escape my lips, in a mixture of excited disbelief and gratitude, are, ” You remembered me. Today I am with You here in Paradise!”
“Be not afraid, Lo I am with you always,” I hear You say.” You will yet come to realize that wherever we are together, that is Paradise! In life, in death, in life beyond death, we are together, and that is Paradise! Arise, now and let us go forward and invite everyone we meet to join us in a living Paradise”. Amen
I Come To The Garden Alone ( Please click on the link below
Editorial Notes
1. The Scripture references are from NIV translation
2. Alfred Lord Tennyson. The Higher Pantheism.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45323/the-higher-pantheism
3. William Wordsworth. My Heart Leaps Up.https://poets.org/poet/william-wordsworth
