The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
Those with clean hands and pure heart,
who desire not worthless things,
(who have not sworn so as to deceive their neighbour.)
They shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves them.
These are the ones who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
O gates, lift high your heads;
grow higher, ancient doors.
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord, the mighty, the valiant,
the Lord, the valiant in war.
O gates, lift high your heads;
grow higher, ancient doors.
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Who is he, the king of glory?
He, the Lord of armies,
he is the king of glory.
Reflection
Talking to 4-year-old Noah, I asked him about a time when he felt close to God. He thought for a minute, raised his hands up high and answered, “When I’m sitting on Daddy’s shoulders!”
High up places sometimes feel like the mountain of the Lord. When we’re up high, surveying the surrounding landscape, there’s something quite spiritual about it. Whether we’re gazing out over countryside littered with fields, trees and hedges, whether our view is rocky crags with rivers and streams weaving their way between rocks and boulders, whether it’s seascapes, cityscapes or even desert, we sense the awesomeness of God and creation as we absorb the big picture from on high.
We talk of mountain-top experiences, reminded of the transfiguration where the disciples saw the glory of Jesus, a glimpse of the divine in this man they had encountered just sharing ordinary human life together. The mountain top gives us new perspective, a different view.
But the thing about climbing God’s holy mountain is that sooner or later we need to come back down. Climbing a mountain takes effort, as our calves and thighs soon remind us. Climbing downhill takes effort too, maybe even more. Muscles and tendons tense as we brace ourselves against going too fast on that downward slope and ending up in a fall. No admiring the view here – eyes are focused on the path.
So it is with life. We need mountain top moments, but we aren’t called to exist purely observing from afar, where everything looks so small and distant and indistinct. We are called, through God’s spirit, to descend, our eyes are filled with the immediate, the detail, the reality of all-too-human life. Clean hands and pure heart are all very well, but God also calls us to get our hands dirty. God is just as close in the valleys too.
Prayer
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
Let it be me, Lord.
Clean hands and pure heart,
may I worship you on the mountain top?.
But then send me to get my hands dirty again;
back into the everyday, where your people need your word,
back from the mountain
to where people are hungry, anxious, in need.
Balance my worship with discipleship,
My praise with service. Amen