The earth belongs unto the Lord,
And all that it contains;
The world that is inhabited,
And all that there remains.
For the foundations thereof
He on the seas did lay,
And He hath it establishèd
Upon the floods to stay.
Who is the man that shall ascend
Into the hill of God?
Or who within His holy place
Shall have a firm abode?
Whose hands are clean, whose heart is pure,
And into vanity
Who hath not lifted up his soul,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He from th’Eternal shall receive
The blessing him upon,
And righteousness, ev’n from the God
Of his salvation.
This is the generation
That after Him inquire,
O Jacob, who do seek Thy face
With their whole heart’s desire.
Ye gates, lift up your heads on high;
Ye doors, that last for aye,
Be lifted up, that so the King
Of glory enter may.
But who of glory is the King?
The mighty Lord is this;
Ev’n that same Lord, that great in might
And strong in battle is.
Scottish Psalter, 1650
The Haven
When all the darkness of a world gone mad with "me" and "mine"
presses against your heart with its dark futility,
watch the world and see what happens
when self becomes the measure of the truth,
no one way better or worse than another,
with no standard to give it value.
Relativism – a place with no verities.
What type of world is it
when millions of selves become the arbiters of what is right,
of what is holy,
what is worth believing,
each competing,
the child molester no less worthy of admiration
than the hero who rescues the dying,
where killing the sick and old seeming as good a deed as healing,
and children seem a futility of expense.
Listen to that cacophony of competing voices
drowning out a truth they do not want to face,
the fact that without family,
there is an empty hole in life,
where self-loathing shadows over the death of hope,
the fact that chasing sex and intoxication
will never sustain,
that things break,
heros fail,
that isms are imperfect answers for that hole in their lives,
and that no matter how they veil the reality,
their choices are leading them to a nightmare world,
where they try to make shifting desires the center of all,
turning the old granite of truth into quicksand,
unable to sustain a purposeless life.
Listen, and ask yourself,
have we not created the tower of Babel anew,
confusing our hearts, our spirits, our future
in our hubris to say Man, and not God is the center?
Where then, is the firm land
that will let you stand while the chaos grows,
as the center cannot hold,
and things fall apart?
The answer was given to you in the life of a single person
sent here with one purpose,
to bring you home.
Even now, he calls through the bitter waters of modern life,
and offers that transformation
that creates a sanctuary against the storm.
Look upon his cross,
his tomb,
his resurrection and know
one greater than any man
has touched the world,
leaving a cross-shaped beacon pointing the way
to the place where heaven and earth come crashing together,
an island of meaning against the midnight,
bought with blood,
sustained by love.
Laugh at him as old fashioned as you cry against the dark,
or listen to what he has to say,
and find the purpose you were missing.
KAC
Dear KAC,
I am already praying for you. I read a comment of yours about moving and that can't be easy, and you took the time to start the prayer room, too.
I love Ps 24 which the Scottish Psalter beautifully records.
Lord I ask you for restorative sleep and rest tonight for your people. You love to Bless us. You are good, and your Mercy endures for ever. I thank you for another day of waiting on you in prayer. Bless my sisters and the work of their hands.
Psa 121:1 A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
Psa 121:2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psa 121:3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Psa 121:4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psa 121:5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
Psa 121:6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
Psa 121:7 The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
Psa 121:8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.