Psalm Meditation 664
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 10, 2013

Psalm 87
1 On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. (Selah)
4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; Philistia too, and Tyre, with Ethiopia — "This one was born there," they say.
5 And of Zion it shall be said, "This one and that one were born in it"; for the Most High himself will establish it.
6 The LORD records, as he registers the peoples, "This one was born there." (Selah)
7 Singers and dancers alike say, "All my springs are in you."
(NRSV)

Many of us have a list of favorite places that include a favorite place to live and a favorite place to visit. For a few people, the same place is at the top of each list, they love where they live and have no desire to go or be anywhere else. For the rest of us, there are cities and places which are a part of lives because we go there often enough that they feel like home. At the same time we have an awareness that part of the attraction is that it is not home and if we were to move there it would lose some of its appeal. As we fell into habits and routines in this favorite place it would lose some of the exotic sense that keeps us going back with regularity.

Another reason a place becomes special is the people who live there. The place where grandparents live loses its attraction when those grandparents move out. Without the special people in that place there is no reason to go. In truth it is not the place that is special, it is the person or people who make the place special by their presence.

The psalmist reminds us that Zion is special because the presence of God makes it special. Anywhere that includes a life changing experience of the presence of God becomes a special place for us. It may be a very specific place, a particular seat, bench or rock where we were sitting when we felt the touch of God. It may be a larger area that renews our sense of the presence of God. It may be that the place we meet God is in our hearts, even though the way to get there is to remember a geographic spot. To experience the presence of God makes that place one of our favorites. It is not the place, it is the encounter with God that makes it special. It is not the locale, it is the memories and feelings the place evokes in our hearts and lives that gets us to sing, “All my springs are in you.”

March 3, 2013