Lent week 2, focussed only on Psalm 27 this week.
I am an art lover. I like all kinds of art. Some of you will know, I think I talked about this in our Advent course a few years back when we looked at paintings, that I have a degree in the history of art. That degree taught me to spend time looking at all the detail, to learn about the context and the background of pieces of art, it taught me to look deeper.
Artwork has the power to move us, to make us feel emotions, to be awestruck, it can be political, it can have meaning, and it can be worth next to nothing financially but mean the world to us – like a painting done by a loved one, a child for example.
The artwork we appreciate often draws us in, you might know that in the National Gallery and others, many rooms have long benches in front of the bigger paintings where you can just sit and gaze at pictures for as long as you want. Sometimes you find art students on the floor sketching them and in the summer the benches in the rooms of old masters are often filled with bored teenagers over from the continent sat scrolling through their phones – surrounded by these amazing paintings, but would rather be on TikTok, one imagines.
I think my favourite piece of art is The Pieta by Michelangelo – it’s a marble sculpture which depicts Mary holding the dead Christ and it is very powerful. It is displayed in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and usually has a queue of people wanting to see it. Sadly though in the 1970s it was attacked with a hammer and badly damaged, so after being restored it is now displayed behind bullet proof glass. Protected, but it is kept away from people who long to see it up close. I was lucky enough to see it in Rome a few years back, and found it incredibly moving.
Because there is something about wanting to see up close isn’t there. If you look at some of the impressionist paintings of the early 20th century for example, Monet and others. If you get up close you can see the texture of great big blobs of paint, a brush stroke, maybe even a finger print of the artist. We can see the full picture by standing back but sometimes we need to spend time looking really close up.
A few minutes ago we heard Psalm 27. It is my favourite Psalm and contains one of my favourite verses in the whole Bible, so when I saw it on the lectionary I had to focus on it, even though I know I have talked about it before. It is such a deep and rich Psalm, there is so much declaration in it:
It starts with:
The Lord is my light and my salvation? The Lord is the stronghold of my life
So there is no need to be afraid. Then – God will protect us from our enemies
It’s about worship v 4-6
That God v7 God hears us when we call
God is a guide and teacher v11
v13, I can be confident in God and who God is in my life
and my favourite verse, 4:
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:4 (NIV)
Such poetry and beauty and depth in that verse alone.
This a psalm that we know is attributed to David. David who was Israel’s king, who had many victories in battle, who had riches, palaces, staff, wives, concubines, but the one thing he seeks is to just be with God, always. It is so simple and profound and yet a little bit overwhelming.
It reminds me of those seats in the National Gallery where art lovers sit just gazing on paintings they love, looking deeper, wanting to know more, seeking understanding. They might be looking at a painting they have known and loved for years, or perhaps have only seen a print or a version of it online, and now here they are in front of the real thing, right before their eyes. David longs to gaze on the Lord like this, to sit in wonder and awe, gazing on God’s beauty.
David’s words actually remind me a bit of Moses who was not satisfied with what he’d experienced of God, and I think it’s quite comedic really that Moses had had all these amazing experiences – he’d seen God in the burning bush, he’d been in God’s presence, he’d spoken to God on the mountain, and yet he still asked to see God’s glory in Exodus 33. In a way he was like David saying, that’s all I need God, I just want to see you, let me gaze upon you.
It reminds me a little of a wonderful line in the morning prayer of the Church of England which says: as we rejoice in the gift of this new day, so may the light of your presence O God, set our hearts on fire with love for you. it’s such a great prayer – may the light of your presence O God, set our hearts on fire with love for you.
So I want to challenge us all this morning, what might it mean for us to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord?
What might it mean for you?
We have talked about Lent being a time, an opportunity to seek God further, to go deeper in our faith.
So are you taking time with God or, scrolling on by while the masterpiece is right in front of you? Are you getting up close looking at the brush strokes and the detail or just standing back and thinking ‘nice picture’.
How are we gazing in wonder at the Lord?
We will all find different ways I am sure, time in quiet contemplation, maybe using an icon for prayer, next Friday Elaine is leading a meditation on the passion of Jesus, why not go along to that?
Moses was lucky enough to these amazing encounters with God, God did show him his glory as he passed by. But before Jesus’ ministry, in Jewish worship, the temple had a curtain or wall, or something which kept the central, most sacred part of the temple closed off. it was in the holy of holies they believed God resided and only the chief priest could go into this special area, and only at key times. There was a barrier, a physical barrier, between the people and God. David must have faced that same barrier in his worship. I wonder if his longing for God’s presence was because he just couldn’t get as close as he wanted.
When Jesus died, as we will read in a few weeks time, the curtain, the barrier was torn in two. A physical sign that the barrier between God and humanity was taken away once and for all. Thanks to Jesus there is now no barrier between us and God.
But I wonder if for some of us it still feels like there’s a barrier in place, a curtain between the reality of heaven and the reality of earth? We talked about this in the Lent course this week, how the kingdom of God, or heaven itself can feel so far away, so other.
God is not behind a curtain or behind bullet proof glass, we don’t have to queue to see God, or to talk to him, we don’t have to lift a physical curtain in order to approach God, but perhaps there’s a veil on our own hearts? what do we need to remove from our lives, in order to encounter God in a deeper way? Where are those points we can we connect with God the easiest – thin places we sometimes say?
For me, as I talk about a lot, I often find God in creation. I sometimes write reflections based on my times of prayer with God in nature. Having been gazing on the beauty of all God has created. This week I was really struck that wherever I walked there was a robin or robins singing. So unafraid just sat in the hedgerows or branches of a tree, so unbothered by my human presence or even the dog! It drew me to thinking about the beauty of their song, as if it were itself an act or worship, giving of themselves, embodied, in praise to their creator.
I have listened and watched them singing in so many places this week! It made me think of how the Bible says all creation praises God and just gave me a wonderful image of God being surrounded by animals, creatures, insects, people, angels, all worshipping God together, such a beautiful sight to gaze upon, but also a beautiful sound. Voices, songs, tunes, roars, tweets, squeaks, clicks, barks and calls, every note of creation’s musical score in jubilant harmony.
What or where are those places of times when you might be able to gaze on the Lord?
Psalm 27 finishes with: Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
I want to encourage you to take these verses from Psalm 27 and make them a prayer this week, and then wait on the Lord. let us all seek to encounter God afresh this Lent.
Loving God,
You are all we seek, we long to encounter you.
May we meet with you, remain with you, drawing closer to you, gazing and wondering on who you are, seeing your beauty.
And as we gaze, may the light of your presence, set our hearts on fire with love for you.
Amen.
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