Psalm Reflections Week 4

Psalm 84

Prayer with Psalm 84 invites us to consider pilgrimage. Those of you who in past years have journeyed with us on one or other of our study trips recall what a graced experience this was. Visiting the places made sacred by the memories of events that are recalled there leaves a lasting impression. The tangible remains of places like the Galilee, Hazor, Dan, Capernaum, Mt Tabor, the Jordan, the Dead Sea, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ephesus, Corinth, Antioch really do live within us and, as a result, the biblical accounts take on a vividness that is hard to explain to those who have not experienced being in such places. Whether a particular place is really where some event actually happened is not what is of greatest importance. What gives significance to places of pilgrimage is the memory of what is recalled there and the fact that, over the centuries, the living faith of people have set them out on a pilgrimage to keep the story alive, as we too have set out, to touch the places where God's presence has been recalled in striking ways, where this living God has touched our history.

The destination of the pilgrimage in Psalm 84 is Jerusalem, the dwelling place of "the living God". How dearly does the psalmist love and long for the courts of God! He longs with his "soul" his "heart" and his "flesh". As God is a living God, so the entire life and being of the psalmist is involved in the pilgrimage, the longing for God. Is there envy or a desire to be like the little birds that have a homing instinct to live near God, to live forever and safely within God's house.

In ancient times, such a pilgrimage would have been an arduous trek. We can scarcely imagine what it must have been like. But, as a runner gets a "second wind", so the pilgrim, after long and tiresome days of travel, when first seeing Jerusalem from a distance, they "walk with ever growing strength"! There is some question how best to translate many of the verses in this psalm. Carroll Stuhlmueller says this happens when a piece of biblical writing becomes popular among the people. This psalm would have been a song treasured by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem. As common property, it takes a life of its own and this psalm would have given voice to any and all pilgrims to Jerusalem. For our purpose, the range of meanings might stir us to prayer and this is our purpose.

One way of reading vs 5-6 is:

"Happy those whose strength is in you,

Whose hearts are set on the pilgrimage

As they go through the Baca Valley

They make it a place of springs

The autumn rain covers it with pools."

Is "the pilgrimage" a reference to the travel itself or is pilgrimage more an attitude, a frame of mind… one prepared and attentive to the way God directs ones steps. Such a pilgrimage takes us back to the wandering days of Israel when God directed their steps and showed the way; when all that Israel had to point the way was God, who manifested himself to them in wondrous ways. Isaiah often remembers the days of wandering and makes the claim that God is not finished leading Israel along such a pilgrim way. (see Isa 35!).

An alternative translation of this verse says:

"Happy the one in whose hearts are the highways to Zion"

This would suggest that there is etched in the core of ones being, the reason for the pilgrimage: the sacredness of the memories to be recalled, the holiness of the God who is sought in the journey. Their hearts are full of longing, of remembering, of prayer and the desire for a secure refuge, a home to be found in God alone. This does not require one to undertake a journey, but that one sustains the desire to keep pilgrim ways in the heart.

The "Baca Valley" may refer to the mastic tree that drops down a bitter residue . But the journey of pilgrims makes this bitterness sweet. Another translation of "Baca" is "tears". So the reference to "the valley of tears" which can allude to our life on earth which can become a lighter burden when borne with a pilgrim heart. This "valley of tears" is an expression that found its way into the Marian prayer, Hail Holy Queen. Common to both these meanings, whether tears or bitterness, is that each one is transformed by the pilgrimage.

There is a sense of joyfulness captured in this psalm, of anticipation to be in God's presence. The name "God" is used seven times as is "Lord" also used seven times. There is a sense of intimacy: "my king and my God" (vs 4) and "your dwelling place" "your altars" "your house" (vs 2,4,5).

Today, as we pray this, there are many applications we might make. For those who long to see Zion or to return to Zion, this psalm gives voice to that special hope. But most truly, can we not enter the dwelling of God within our very selves? As important as places may be, is not the remembrance of our moments of encounter with God of far greater and lasting significance?

Think about "home". Be it the place you were born or were raised or where you raised your family. How does this change? Home is not simply a building with familiar walls and doorways and rooms, it is what happened within those walls that is "home". This we carry within us. Home is more a state of mind than it is a place. We may be filled with nostalgia for "home", for the place and the street where we lived, but what is it we most remember? Likely it is the security and the love and the happiness that nurtured life.

So it is with sacred places, Jerusalem being the best and most beloved image. In the Bible, Jerusalem is the dwelling place of God, the site of the Temple, the sacred place where, as in this psalm, the people of Israel came up to worship God through the temple liturgy, a ritual re-enactment and remembering of the sacred and saving acts God performed for them in the past. For sure, some of us have come to love her very stones, her dust! Yet, in our longing to visit or return, can we not long for and encounter God in other places, places close at hand: in God's word, in the celebration of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, in living as the Body of Christ. Jesus, Emmanuel, (God with us) makes pilgrimage something different than a journey to distant places. It can be a journey into ourselves, into prayer, into the sacred Scriptures. Most important to keep in mind is the longing and the seeking and the need to trust God for strength and daily guidance. This is the "Pilgrim Heart"!