Heather Kohout Meditation
Psalm 27:1-6 and 17-18
| FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2012 | |
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"One thing I have asked of the LORD... That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the fair beauty of the LORD And to seek him in his temple." As he sings these lines, the psalmist is in a remarkably dark place. Evildoers have come to eat his flesh; armies encamp and war arises; enemies are round about; his mother and father have forsaken him; false witnesses and those who speak malice against him have been given voice. These misfortunes have not just dropped out of the sky. The foundations for these conflicts were set long ago, and their construction is ongoing. Our psyches are shaped by the places we live. The ugliness of squalor and violence almost always produce more squalor and violence. Yet the psalmist is able to rest in the temple of his own being—the image of God—and hears the command to seek God’s face. Despite the soul corroding ugliness around him, the psalmist puts his faith in “the fair beauty of the LORD,” reminding us that one of God’s hallmarks is beauty, even in dark, anxious times when beauty can seem to be a luxury beyond our reach. Most Holy One, you call us to worship in the beauty of holiness. Give us grace each day to seek the glory of your temple, the great body of Christ, in whom all live and move and have their being. May we see in every creature the shining of your fathomless face. Amen. Heather Kohout (MAR 1999)
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