To Hear, to See, and to Hope

After a rough night, I came to Psalm 48 again planning to continue in this verse: 

“We have thought on your steadfast love (hesed), O God,
    in the midst of your temple.” 

I believe this is to be the way of the church, to constantly think about, and talk about, and praise God for, his agapè-hesed-love. I have so often seen church-folk argue against God’s love for them when it is so clearly revealed in the gospel. But I am so mindful of both the Enemy Mode experiences of the past, along with the Relational Mode opportunities before us.

 

However, as I read through Psalm 48 again, wondering what new things God had in mind for me, he stopped me on this verse: 

“As we have heard, so have we seen
    in the city of Yahweh of hosts,
in the city of our God,
    which God will establish forever.” 

First, I gravitated to the expression, “as we have heard, so we have seen”. It pictures people who had not only heard of God’s glorious works on behalf of his people in the past, but in their lifetime had also seen these works for themselves. That is what I want for us. I want to see the freedom in Christ I have heard about, and the Experiencing God stories I have heard about, and the promises of God, and the kind of revivals others have experienced. This verse is telling me to seek this reality. 

Second, I was drawn into the past, present, future, aspects of this while considering that the Hebrew mind thought in terms of things being complete or incomplete. For us westerners, the past is what they heard, the present is what they had personally witnessed in their time, and the future was the eternal establishment of Mount Zion. For the Jews, the writers had experienced a sense of completeness in that the things they had heard of Yahweh’s blessings on his people had been fulfilled/completed in their lifetime, and there was a sense that it was not yet complete that Mount Zion would be established forever. 

I think today is about marveling. We are to marvel at the testimonies of Mount Zion in the Scriptures, especially the psalms, as they show our Gentile minds what is now our heritage in Christ. We combine this with our awe and wonder at the imagery of Hebrews 12 where we presently come to Mount Zion in the kingdom of God as we let our hearts embrace what is ours in Christ even while we cannot fully fathom it at all. And we give deep and rich and meaningful thought and pondering of the hope-filled pictures of Revelation showing us the New Jerusalem in its perfection, giving us a symbolic representation of the glories of the new heavens and the new earth as our eternal Jerusalem, the Mount Zion that is established forever. 

And this morning I simply know in a fresh way (Higher-and-Deeper) that I can come to Mount Zion as I am, no pretending, dealing with whatever is in my heart, and I can think about the agapè-hesed-love of God that is mine as our God reigns from the throne of Mount Zion.

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)