“Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing….
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.”
Psalm 100: 2,4
Don’t be too grossed out by Chester’s slobbery lick. After leaving D.C. 355 miles ago, we had finally arrived at Pittsburgh’s Point State Park, a spit of land at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers forming the Ohio River. What I have since found out is there is a fourth subterranean river crossing under the three rivers, Chester and me. This ice age river feeds the fountain behind us with fresh, clean water. Water, water everywhere! We were exuberant.
I was exuberant not just because the long walk was done or because of the fountain’s cool spray on a muggy 4th of July, 2008. I was thankful, and still am, for the deeper water that fed my soul from having spent all those miles learning John’s gospel by heart. It had felt like I was tagging along with the disciples, trying to keep up, trying to understand what in the world Jesus was talking about, why he would do strange things like feed crowds of people who had followed him into the wilderness or why he had walked into a city where he knew he would be killed. The walk, my walk had helped me pay attention to the presence of Christ in all life. In all of life we can come into his presence singing, even if for a time our singing is a groan of deep lament. I’ve had those days and will, no doubt, have more of them before I die. But sitting by a fountain with a dog licking my face I had stepped into one corner of God’s courts with praise and gladness.
As an aside, in our journey through the Psalms we have now completed 2/3 of our way. To celebrate, there is a beautiful, timeworn hymn, “Old Hundredth” or “All Creatures that on Earth Do Dwell” based on Psalm 100. Here it is sung at the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Watch closely on stanza 4. Something about people from different ethnic and faith (or no faith) traditions who gather to sing these words struck me as truly fitting to the purpose of Psalm 100.
“All Creatures that on Earth Do Dwell”
Suggestions:
1. Take this verse with you and ponder its meaning for you throughout the day. What do you notice? What do you wonder?
2. Or read all of Psalm 100 to discover how this verse fits into this psalm.
3. Or comment with a photo of your own that is a window of this verse’s meaning for you.
Tomorrow’s psalm will be Psalm 101:5-6.
Starting January 1, 2016, for 150 days I am posting a daily psalm verse with a photo that is a visual meditation on the text for me. Each day a verse from the next psalm is chosen until all 150 psalms have been featured. To participate you may subscribe to my blog at https://elainedent.net or “friend” me on Facebook and watch for the daily links to blog posts. Disclaimer: I am not a photographer and most of the photos are from a cell phone or small camera while hiking the Appalachian Trail or the C&O Canal/Great Allegheny Passage Trail.
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