Mind Meld of A Different Kind

PSALM 11
For the choir director: A psalm of David.
I trust in the Lord for protection.

So why do you say to me, “

Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!

The wicked are stringing their bows

and fitting their arrows on the bowstrings.

They shoot from the shadows

at those whose hearts are right.

The foundations of law and order have collapsed.

What can the righteous do?”

But the Lord is in his holy Temple;

the Lord still rules from heaven.

He watches everyone closely,

examining every person on earth.

The Lord examines both the righteous and the wicked.

He hates those who love violence.

He will rain down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked,

punishing them with scorching winds.

For the righteous Lord loves justice.

The virtuous will see his face.

Camped among us
I’ve known it for a long time, at some level, but its reality became significant to me only in recent years. When David speaks about the temple he refers to a tent, not the magnificent structure he planned his son, Solomon, built in Jerusalem.

So when David speaks about confidence in the mighty God who dwells among the ancient Israelites, he points to a rather flimsy structure rather than a massive stone edifice. The surrounding nations boasted mighty structures reflecting the greatness of their gods and goddesses. But the Almighty happily camped on earth in a tent. Some source of inspiration!

Much later the Apostle John spoke about God tenting among us (John 1:14), not in the massive Temple edifice an embarrissed king had wanted God to allow them to build (2 Samuel 7:1-17), but in the rather feeble body of a man who would hang on a cross. Then Saints Peter and Paul would insist that God’s earthly dwelling place consisted of all those who gave allegiance to that ridiculed man.

As if to highlight the frightening vulnerability of this living temple, reading through the New Testament, the first place this idea shows up is in 1 Corinthians! Surely there never existed a more difficult and less inspiring group of Jesus followers than these.

I don’t think David fully understood the radical notion he stumbled over every time he looked to the Temple/tent as a symbol of God’s almighty presence. I know I don’t.

Not only does God present himself in ways that humans do not expect, or respect, but he exercises his sovereign might in ways that completely puzzle. David anticipates God raining down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked. And God does. Only the recipient of that judgment is his righteous Son. Strange justice. Even stranger exhibition of power.

So I must ask myself when I feel threatened by the obvious might of wicked forces, “will I trust what seems mighty to me, mountains and massive temples? Or will I trust a God whose majesty and strength come to me in ways I perceive as weak, unimpressive, even unstable?”

God of heaven’s majesty and a tent’s vulnerability, with the same resolve as David, I will run to you when evil threatens me and mine. Even when you seem flimsy in the face of evil’s power, I will run to the tent that is Jesus and his spiritual body, the Church, and expect to find you there – fully capable to offer ultimate protection. - Mike Leamon