Timing is Everything.

For the third night in a week now I have woken up at 1:30 AM almost on the dot, and not been able to go back to sleep. The first night I wrote an email to a Brother-in-Law whom I cherish, and yet because we don't have much in common, and are both silent types in a way, I don't have the relationship I want with him. So, being the writer I am, I shared some stuff with him in the easiest way posssible, and then was finally able to go back to sleep. The second such night (or morning I guess!) I tried to go back to sleep and couldn't so I watched the history channel. Did you know that the US dropped 99 MILLION tons of explosives on Europe in the three years odd years from 1942-late '44, and almost 2/3 of that from the absolutely beautiful B-17 flying fortress? I bet you didn't. But now you do. I have always said that I am an Urn of absolutely useless information and that night added to my stores. Hurray!!!

Anyway, tonight I decided that I would update my blog. I am not the best when it comes to scripture study. Finding the time to get into the "Word" is not easy for me, unless it is academically. When I do, then it is refreshing and fulfilling, but it doesn't often happen. Knowing that this is key to "knowing" God, I have asked for some accountability in this area, and this here ol' space is where that is gonna take place y'know. I am sure that other things then just scripture stuff will pop up, since the menagerie is so much a part of my life but then so is theo-philosophy so they "you can't have one without the ooooooother" (that's a line from a song I think).

So on with the project . . . I have been meditating and contemplating Psalms 63 and some of the passages surrounding it this week.

Considering the fact that we have about six different Bibles laying around the house, and of course one of my favorite research sites bible.com, I read this in many different versions. I liked the NASB for a couple of reasons.

Let me set the scene, as I understand it. Our friend David has been running from Saul's armies for who knows quite how long at this point. Unfortunately, though it might once have been part of a "Fertile Crescent" it ain't so fertile at this particular juncture. The only place where there is fertility is where the towns and cities are: around oases and rivers/streams. Now David, being the smart fellow we know him to be isn't real likely to be hangin' out in those towns and cities. In fact, he is in the "wilderness."

Now, to most of us in the West, we see "wilderness" as vast . . . tracks of land, covered by pine forests, inhabited by lots of yummy things to eat like squirrels, white tail deer, elk and moose (oh yeah, and the occasional wolf, mountain lion, and Grizzly, but hey not everything can be rosy!) And of course the wonderful refreshment of glacier fed streams. Yeah, that ain't David's wilderness.

David is just kinda chillin out in desolate, parched, desert. He must be close to starving, and definitely close to death with dehydration. His tongue is swollen and dry, his lips cracked so deep that anytime he moves them they split and dark claret blood oozes from scabs. And yet, in the NASB translation this is what he has to say:

This is how the NASB translates it:

"1O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. 3Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. 4So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. 5My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips. 6When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches, 7For You have been my help, And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy. 8My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me. 9But those who seek my life to destroy it, Will go into the depths of the earth. 10They will be delivered over to the power of the sword; They will be a prey for foxes. 11But the king will rejoice in God; Everyone who swears by Him will glory, For the mouths of those who speak lies will be stopped."

Now, being a chronic pain sufferer I know that pain can become all consuming and I am sure that David was in a lot of pain in a lot of ways. Yet he is not concerned with his physical being. He is crying out to a God who is beyond being, beyond materiality. David's soul thirsts and his body yearns for God, not for water. He has seen God in the "sanctuary" and has seen him in Power and Glory. Now I am not sure what the Hebrew word is but to me this can mean only one thing: David has encountered God in such a way that he was almost pulled into the throne room. That is the only way that I can imagine that at that point in time he could say that God' love is better than life, that he could open those cracked and bleeding lips in joy to praise a God who has not delivered him from the wilderness. It is the only way that he could be satisfied with marrow and fatness in his soul, while his body slowly dies. Experience the love that must abound within the throne room of God is the only way that any man that I could imagine could look back upon the agonies David has experienced to this point and say that God has been his help and he has been under the protective shadow of God's wing. Truly encountering the overwhelming presence of the unthinkable Other which is God in trinitarian community and love is the only way that David could possibly say that his enemies (remember were talking about a large army here folks) would be put to sword.

We, as christians (at least as evangelical christians) commonly call the room in which we sing, have announcements, do baby dedications, and jot down grocery lists while the pastor rambles on about something or other, the "sanctuary." If we look at the word, we have the root "sanct" (now it is 4AM so I aint gonna go get out my research books and get the terminology totally correct here so bear with me) now this root always means holy or consecrated. In the OT sanctuary usually meant the Tabernacle of the Ark. SIMPLY PUT: I get the feeling that "sanct" basically means God's dwelling place, because the only places I know that are holy or consecrated are where God has been.

Now in our modern sanctuary we are often sanctimonious, but that is because we are forgetting, through mere common usage what the "sanctuary" is all about. This is not to say that we should be in suit and tie, or dresses and hats when we enter the sanctuary (I don't think David's Armani suit stood up to well to the rigors of the wilderness). And thought the sanctuary may sometimes become a true sanctuary where God feeds us with fatness and marrow, the sanctuary -- the holy and consecrated dwelling place of that awesome communal Other -- is now no longer within the Tabernacle of the ark of the covenant. It is within us. We are the dwelling place. We are the holy and sanctified place.

So in the end, what does all of this mean? It means that we are ALWAYS under the shadow of the wing of God, we are always being fed with marrow and fatness, our enemies: those who fight against us in our journey of faith, are already scattered, put to the sword and under the earth (notice that David says that little bit first?). And yet, are we singing praises? Are we joyful? Do we see his "lovingkindness"? Do our souls cling to him? Sure sometimes, but hey we are in the sanctuary, we are the sanctuary of the loving trinity that is God ALL THE TIME.

I am off to glory in the presence of the Lord in the sanctuary He has made of me.


Oh yeah, and a side note to Kate: Yes I realize that God may like incense in his sanctuary but tabacco smoke is NOT incense. I'm workin on it babe.