Elizabeth Brown:
As I read the June Overtones, I could not help thinking of something I read recently. I have been studying the Psalms and reading a commentary by James Montgomery Boice. He is commenting on Psalm 27:4: “One thing I ask of 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 upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” Boice rejects a completely metaphorical interpretation of this verse, as though the psalmist is seeking only spiritual fellowship. He asserts that for ancient Jews the tangible and intangible were not separated; they actually seemed to experience God in the temple. Then he offers this profound paragraph:
“There is something to be experienced of God in the church that it is not quite so easy to experience elsewhere. Otherwise, why have churches? If it is only instruction we need, we can get that as well by an audio tape or a book. If it is only fellowship, we can find that equally well, perhaps better, in a small home gathering. There is something to be said for the sheer physical singing of the hymns, the sitting in the pews, the actual looking to the pulpit and gazing on the pulpit Bible as it is expounded, the tasting of the sacrament, and the very atmosphere of the place set apart for worship of God that is spiritually beneficial. Isn’t that true? Haven’t you found a sense of God’s presence simply by being in God’s house? I do not mean to deny that God can (and should) be worshiped elsewhere. But I am suggesting that the actual physical worship of God in the company of other believers can be almost sacramental.”
(James Montgomery Boice, Psalms, An Expositional Commentary.)
I read this aloud to my husband, and we both shed tears. One thing this present crisis has done is clarify what is important in life. Due to my husband’s age and dementia, we have both been very careful, avoiding even the grocery store. But as we think about our economy opening up, we would likely take the risk to go to church or be with family – but clearly not to go to a restaurant or the mall, or even to be able to select our own groceries. I surely hope that we have not had our “last dance,” and that we will soon hear the beautiful organ music and even someday be able to sing again.