Clinging To The Rock

Psalm 125: 2 – As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore. (1)

This text creates powerful images of home for me! The most beautiful spot in all the world to me is girdled round by hills that end on either side of two massive headlands thrusting into an open sea. The village lies surrounded by hills except for that one window that opens toward the sea; that is the place of my boyhood.

As a youth growing up there, one of my favorite hymns was:

Ye fair green hills of Galilee,
That girdle quiet Nazareth,
What glorious visions did ye see,
When He who conquered sin and death
Your flowery slopes and summits trod,
And grew in grace with man and God? (2)

Perhaps, even then, so many years ago, I felt the mysterious strength of the hills and experienced something of the nearness of the Divine presence.

The writer of Psalm 125 joins our company to celebrate the mystery and majesty of the mountains; he offers the most beautiful metaphor ever: “Like the hills that surround Jerusalem, so God surrounds His people both now and always!”
There you have it! We are one with God! Nothing else matters if you know that!Without that knowledge of God, life is incredibly barren!

This same image that evokes such warmth in the secret places of our being also provokes our most severe criticism of the eternal. There emerges the strange dichotomy of a love-hate relationship. We demand to know: How can we be surrounded by God, shut in with the eternal, and still be in the presence of such sorrow, such devastation, such hatred, such inexpressible tragedy, such crippling fears?

Our inquisition stops when the shadow of a cross appears upon a barren hill. That unbelievable happening confounds us. It is not in some far-flung reaches of the kingdom, beyond the surveillance of God, some domain that the devil has managed to wrest from the ownership of God, that this deed takes place. But this execution is carried out in the same Jerusalem of which the Psalmist said: “As the hills surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and always.” It all happened within the encirclement of God’s everlasting arms. God permits the forces of evil to gather for their most vicious assault upon God’s sovereign rule. The forces will yet experience the victory of God: And He will reign forever and forever!

The arms that surrounded God’s people remained steadfast! God still embraced those who performed this deed. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

The Gospel sounds with clarity like a thousand silver trumpets on the frosty air of morn. Evil did not defeat Him! God is still in control! Evil is conquered and is taken a prisoner in the arms that remain stronger than even death itself. “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit” Jesus prayed at last.

And, for us? Here is the experience the hymn writer, George Matheson, knew, and thousands of others like him:
O Love that wilt is not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow,
May richer, fuller be. (3)

Is that not our only comfort forever? When the darkness of uncertainty overshadows, when we are tempted to be fearful for ourselves and those we love, when a thousand questions chase away the last signs of sleep, when we think about the child about to leave home for the first time and we ponder their preparedness for their new journey; where then shall we turn for comfort if not to the faith that tells us we can never drift beyond His love and care?It is not pedantic or childish to place them and ourselves in the hands of God, knowing that He will make known to all the clasp of His everlasting arms!

What if the far country extends its boundaries, tempting our sons and daughters beyond their endurance? Perhaps the enduring qualities of friendship may not be as dependable as once they were. We cannot bear to think of our children abandoned and alone, maybe hungry and cold. Temptations call even now from the doors of our homes. Now is the time to train ourselves and our children to be faithful and firm in the faith that we are never alone. It may appear that temptation and evil reign, but the victory is won by God.

Perhaps we have been negligent in proclaiming a Theology of Victory? We may not have fully understood the importance of David’s vision in the twenty-third Psalm: “(God) prepare(s) for me a table in the presence of my enemies” (4). Here there is celebrating the victory of God while in the company of the enemy. That is what needs to be happening in this hour! David’s vision is merely a shadow of the victory God has accomplished through Jesus Christ. If the hills of Jerusalem mirror the constant presence of God surrounding His people forever more, then the cross spans eons to bring that blessing to us. The victory of Jesus is for each one of us. The power of God’s spirit in Jesus challenges the world to look up and see that God’s arms surround us still and herein is our victory.The victory is already God’s! We need to appropriate it! We must proclaim it!

Our mission is to remind ourselves, our children, and the children of others, that the ultimate meaning of life impinges upon the discovery of God’s everlasting arms, epitomizing unconditional love. Jesus’s story of the prodigal son is as relevant now as ever. “I will arise, and go to my Father.”

Finally, the text throws more than a few effulgent rays upon what one day will be the last mile of our life’s journey toward the everlasting hills. It will be the same hills; the same arms are waiting to give that final embrace! We travel from God to God, as Wordsworth reminds us. If we set out in the morning of life, seeking His presence to accompany us, in the future, when the way is rough and the testing is severe, we inadvertently discover His loving arms, and then we can be certain of them forever!

Concerning all this, St. Paul wrote, “Now we know in part, then shall we know even as we are known! When that day dawns and the shadows flee, may we know that we go to walk among hills well known to us, and there we will lie down and rest awhile!

Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh, (5)
When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee.

Alone with Thee, amid the mystic shadows,
The solemn hush of nature newly born;
Alone with Thee in breathless adoration,
In the calm dew and freshness of the morn.

Still, still with Thee! As to each newborn morning
A fresh and solemn splendor still is given,
So does this blessed’ consciousness awaking,
Breathe each day nearness unto Thee and heaven.

So shall it be at last, in that bright morning,
When the soul waketh, and life’s shadows flee;
O in that hour, fairer than daylight dawning,
Shall rise the glorious thought – I am with Thee.

(Excerpts from a sermon preached at Nashwaaksis United Church)
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1. Holy Bible, NIV. Psalm 125 :2
2. Eustace Rogers Conder, “Ye Fair Green Hills Of Galilee” #84 p71. The Hymnary: The United Church Of Canada.
3. George Mattheson, “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go”
vs 1 #84 p.71. The Hymnary. The United Church Of Canada.
4. Holy Bible. NIV. Psalm 23: 5
5. Harriet Beecher Stowe. “Still, Still With Thee” #539 p435.
The Hymnary. The United Church Of Canada

There was a death that occurred at Estey Bridge one night some years ago that I find so hard to forget. I wasn’t even there to bid my last farewell. And that grieves me deeply. I saw it coming. The end was inevitable. But I kept hoping that it would not be yet. I knew that nothing could be done to reverse the condition. And so that night it happened, and Fredericton will never be the same again! The grand old barn that stood by the side of the road at Estey Bridge fell that night! It lay a heap of broken rubble in the arms of Mother Earth. ” Earth to earth, ashes to ashes dust to dust.”

The end always inspires a look at the beginning! How did this stately old landmark have its beginning? This building already stood finished in the mind of its creator long before one beam has lain or one board was hewn Other family members too shared the architect’s plan to build, and to offer advice on spending hard earned cash to the extent necessary for such a project. But that was not the total worth of this building. What about the callused hands, the sweaty brows, and long hours of labor from daylight to dark that crowded in upon other family expectations. After all, the total value of this project must be a consideration.But a home must be provided for others of God’s creation! There must be a place where cattle and their food will be safe. This place may even become home for some other treasures not permitted in finer locations, but they might be safe in a man’s second castle! A million thoughts preceded the laying of the beams and the shaping of the timbers.

It would be intriguing to hear the saga unfold if only those old boards could speak, relating fables and yarns from a far away yesteryear. Would there be the memory of children playing in the hayloft or of days when these friendly old boards provided a shelter for boys who came secretly to sneak their first puff and now turning a sickly green forced these boards to record the groans of those who thought for certain that their death was imminent! There would be stories of change. Perhaps the arrival of the first farm tractor initiates a secret visit in the night to somehow comfort the animals that were soon to be displaced. Somewhere there would be recorded the memory of slowing footsteps and the observation that the necessary repairs took longer now and the effort was no longer equal to the task for the hands of the one for whom it had been such a singular pleasure!
Then there would be the slow, painful recalling of the days when the visits to these almost sacred walls became less frequent. I say sacred because I am sure that this place held the secrets of a man’s soul and the very essence of life might well be here.

Remember that God was with Jesus as He toiled in the carpenter’s shed. The eternal Truths of this life were revealed to the Young Nazarene here on this very spot.
Long gone now is the carpenter’s shed and the place thereof is known no more. It’s very foundation decayed and gone. But The Word Made Flesh remains ever renewed! In the shed that once stood on that forgotten spot, Jesus took loving care to make a comfortable yoke for beasts of burden. As He did He mused how he might be able to fashion a spiritual yoke that would enable humans to bear their burdens in triumph and help to bear the burdens of others. Never decry the labors of human hands; forever so often they mirror the soul of the laborer!

Finally, the old place at Estey Bridge would remember that evening when the door slowly opened and, across the threshold there came the man who had given this place its birth. His eyes are grown misty now. Slowly he walked about and reverently touched the remaining treasures of a lifetime. Then with the eye of a master builder, he took one last look at the old beams and the roughly hewn boards; then bowed his head and slowly passed through the doors into the gathering darkness.

(Written for and published in The North Side News Fredericton, 2005)