A post written by my very good friend, Ron Saxby. He and Marcelle live in Tauranga, New Zealand.
Contemplation is a wonderful experience in the presence of an Almighty God.
“You have prepared a table for me in the presence of the enemy, You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows….” …. with liberty I add ‘the Word you speak there brings Life, gives Grace, builds courage into the future’ Ps 23:5
A conversation started some 30 years ago between 2 closed doors! This has recently opened up a way that exceeded my expectation. I have been here before was the thought, but right now, it was a way that felt quite different. After what seemed to be a long time of waiting, a new horizon appeared before us. It is remarkable to discover that there is no time in heaven and therefore the encouragement to ‘wait’ can feel quite intense and at times relegated to the backdrop. Scripture however, is quite clear on the precise instruction to “wait on the Lord” in Psalms, with the hand in hand call to “come and talk with me”. Ps 27: 7-8 and 14NLT
THE IN DEPTH CONVERSATION:
“You have hedged me behind and before, then laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, beyond understanding” Ps 139:5-6NKJV
Today there is a sense of a fresh breeze at this moment in time. I stand in Grace with an open heart … open hands …exposed … beautifully in over my head. An entirely new and fuller discovery as more is revealed in conversation.
In this space, I wonder how Joseph felt in the pit … in Potiphar’s prison, hedged in and seemingly forgotten! I think too of Saul, zealously preaching Christ and confounding the Jews. He is then sent home to Tarsus for about 10 years. Forgotten, until Barnabas sees the new horizon on the streets of Antioch. This is an echo of David’s experience noted in Ps 139. “The hand of God laid upon me…” somewhere between anointing and reigning?
My wondering shifts a little as I consider Paul’s well known “God is in all things …” and I stumble, through a margin reference, to Moses between the first and second editions of the Ten Commandments historically believed to be carved on sapphire. I smile!
THE TENT OF INTIMACY
Exodus 33 tells us more than just the recorded text. There he is pitching the tent of intimacy! We see him ‘heart to heart’ with God Almighty. A reoccurring interface between heaven and earth! A confluence which reflects the heart of God since Eden. A man who has found grace in the sight of the Father. A remarkable set of events that takes my consideration to the astounding inference of ‘image bearer’ as recorded in creation, all the way to Paul’s teaching.
I can imagine Moses writing the Pentateuch scrolls in that environment. Written under the ‘hand of God’, The Torah reflects the heart of the Father for not just a people chosen to be His, but that the whole of creation to be brought together as one in Him.
Notably, Moses only wrote one psalm in the tent of ‘intimacy’! I have spent some time in that psalm in the last 30 years. It reflects and resounds so much of what happened in Exodus 33. It is a psalm of remarkable insight!
Part Two follows next week….