His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. Romans 1:19-20 NRSV.

I read our psalm this morning, Psalm 122, written by David, and couldn’t help but hear the joy David knew in Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. Finding our joy in our God, how can we help but rejoice and share that joy with others…I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up – the tribes of the Lord – to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel. There stand the thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.” For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.” For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity.

There were many distractions this morning flitting through my thoughts as I sat quietly and tried to just be with God. And I kept hearing the joyous sounds of music given in praise we have sung before in church. And I thought about how wonderful it would be if everyone on earth, every single person, could join in with bands around the world playing and all of us singing praise to our God with great joy. Can you imagine? I realized as I prayed, that there are 2 roads in this life. Both are strewn with roots, rocks, boulders, dark depths of valleys, heights of mountains, streams and oceans…experiences good and bad. And yet with one path, just as strewn as the other, we never walk alone and we begin to find meaning and purpose for all that has been and will be.

Jerusalem. I used to wonder why was Jerusalem so special. David wrote about it in our psalm. The Temple would be built in it by David’s son, Solomon. That temple would be destroyed and another rebuilt not as glorious. That, too, would be destroyed just as Jesus said it would be. Think of Jerusalem throughout all the ages of men. Has there ever been peace? The kind of peace David wrote about? One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal…I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:9-11, 22-27.

The glory of our God…Can we rejoice and trust Him? Can we trust Him to help us? He alone is worthy to remove the hard, calloused lining of our hearts, to remove our blindness and to unstop our ears in His Love for us. Only God can bring clarity for joy and hope in Him that will be for all eternity. Thank You, Lord, for so great a Love! Thank You for the miracle of You.