Day Twenty Four

Psalm 48

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised:
in the city of our God.

2 High and beautiful is his holy hill:
it is the joy of all the earth.

3 On Mount Zion, where godhead truly dwells, stands the city of the Great King:
God is well known in her palaces as a sure defence.

4 For the kings of the earth assembled:
they gathered together and came on;

5 They saw, they were struck dumb:
they were astonished and fled in terror.

6 Trembling took hold of them, and anguish:
as on a woman in her travail.

7 Like the breath of the east wind:
that shatters the ships of Tarshish.

8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts:
in the city of our God, which God has established for ever.

9 We have called to mind your loving-kindness, O God:
in the midst of your temple.

10 As your name is great, O God, so also is your praise:
even to the ends of the earth.

"All of us, in one way or another, stifle what we have it in us to be. We do it without knowing ('Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do'). And we do it, not because we're wicked, but because we're frightened, frightened of letting ourselves go, frightened of being us, frightened because we don't really believe we're made in the image of God. So frightened, that when a full and perfect man lived on this earth he had to be killed as a measure of security. And Jesus Christ continues to be crucified inside each of us.…" From "The True Wilderness" by H.A. Williams (Library of Anglican Spirituality ed. Susan Howatch) 1994 p90