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Today's Scripture ~ Psalm 131 (NLT)
Psalm 131
A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. A psalm of David.
1 My Beloved, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
2 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the Beloved—
now and always.
*Italics adaptation of "Lord": Hebrew adonai.
Wisdom Story and Hymn
Near to the Heart of God
Cleland McAfee, a Presbyterian Pastor, was living in Chicago when he received word his two nieces had both died from diphtheria, and within twenty-four hours of each other. The only place McAfee found solace was in the Book of Psalms. As he meditated on verses from Psalms, he wrote the words and tune to the hymn “Near to the Heart of God.” At the funeral McAfee sang the hymn for the first time. Another report has that the Park College choir sang the hymn outside the quarantined house.
There is a place of quiet rest
Near to the heart of God,
A place where sin cannot molest,
Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of comfort sweet
Near to the heart of God,
A place where we our Savior meet,
Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of full release
Near to the heart of God,
A place where all is joy and peace,
Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us who wait before Thee
Near to the heart of God.
Comments
Contemplation, as true Christian spirituality, concerns only one thing ~ Living near to the Heart of God. All else flows from this Being Near; the Center is the Replenishing Wellspring for your whole life~each thought, each deed. The Center is nothing less or more than this Intimacy with Love as Supreme Lord of the Universe.
Here, in this Center of Love, we find what McAfee sings of as "a place of quiet rest" ... "comfort sweet" ... "full release" ... our "blest Redeemer." All blessing in the contemplative life flows from a relationship, between two in Love. Of course, this entails a wholeness that includes love flowing among many~human and otherwise.
Christian contemplation is not centered in theology, spiritual technique, or our sincere effort. Christian contemplation finds its meaning and center in the Mystery of the Triune God.
To contemplate means to surrender. Surrender to what? Surrender ourselves into the Mystery of Christ. And the only source for us to go to find that Mystery in fullness of spiritual depth and in human words is the Gospel and sources that witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Everyone surrenders to something. We are designed to surrender. Even our attempt not to surrender leads into surrender. To resist surrender to God is to surrender to pride, to refuse to find our rightful place in the Divine Life: other, beyond, while within, you and me. Everyone worships at an altar~the question is "Which one?".
Surrender is the relinquishment of my right to fathom even what God is doing within me in contemplation. This Self-Oblation brings me before a Mystery ineffable and blissful, disrobing me of even who I think I am that I might discover God discovering me in God Godself.
Like the psalmist, I must choose to be calmed and quieted before matters my little brain and human heart can never grasp. To rest in this Fullness of Grace is to be quieted beyond understanding and feeling, near to the Heart of God.
Mystical Poem
There is a Loving
beyond the shadow
of rite
There my Hand
waits to touch
your eyes
There is a wine
hidden inside
the red water
There my Heart
waits; drink,
and drop the mind
Why keep looking
in the mirror ~ Repent!
And you'll see I've been Here
all along
Brian was handed a Bible
You said, "Kiss the letters.
Plunge into the Sea.
Make love with Me!"
*Brian K. Wilcox, May 25, 2007
Suggested Spiritual Exercise and Reflection
Take from Psalm 131 or the hymn "Near to the Heart of God" for your practice of Lectio Divina
What does it mean to you to live near the Heart of God? How might God be calling you to live more near to the Heart of God? How do you know when you are living near to the Heart of God?
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