Free & Fit - Summer with the Psalms - Saturday 24th August Psalm 84
Summer with the Psalms
Saturday 24th August Psalm 84
Psalm 84: 4-5
“Blessed and greatly favored are those who dwell in Your house and Your presence; They will be singing Your praises all the day long. Selah. ¶Blessed and greatly favored is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways to Zion.”
Psalms 84 in full:
Pause, Reflect and Pray
“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live [together] with Him.”
Romans 6:8
Reflection on Psalm
This same doubt or anxiety is not dissimilar for any Bride or Bride groom when they are at their wedding. Especially at the moment when the Priest calls on the congregation to state if their is any persons here present who would oppose or see any reason as to why these two people can not be partnered to marry in Holy matrimony. That little moment causes some doubt even in the celebrant of the wedding.
The congregation, when first addressed at a wedding ceremony, are greeted as “Dearly Beloved.” The phrase “Beloved” is defined in three different forms within the Hebrew. Firstly in reference to “my beloved.” In the Bible study tools online it states that “my beloved, used by prophets of ׳י under figure of husbandman Isaiah 5:1 (twice in verse); so my (thy, his) beloved.
I love to read the Bible in the Amplified version and find it here in Isaiah helping me to understand more relationally that the “my beloved” in this text refers to our relationship with God.
“Now let me sing for my greatly Beloved [LORD ] A song of my Beloved about His vineyard (His chosen people). My greatly Beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile slope (the promised land, Canaan).”
Isaiah 5:1 AMP
Secondly, another contextual definition of “Beloved” from Bible Hub tools is “lovely, מַהיְּֿדִידוֺת מִשְׁכְּנוֺתֶיךָ Psalm 84:2 how lovely are thy habitations!.” Which again sounds fantastic in the amplified version. It astoundingly resonates with our first commandment to love the Lord our God.
“My soul (my life, my inner self) longs for and greatly desires the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.”
Psalms 84:2 AMP
Finally, the excellent Bible Hub tools defined “Beloved” as a feminine plural as abstract substantive שִׁיר יְדִידֹת Psalm 45:1 = a song of love. Again, I love to hear it in the Amplified which reads as follows and leads us into a new song: a Song of Songs.
Which draws me to a different hymn that has been excellently interpreted by the Episcopal Priest The Rev. Diana E. Carroll who speaks into the feminine beloved through scripture and the Song of Songs from verse 2:10 which says: “My beloved speaks and says to me: Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” (Song of Songs 2:10).
In closing, Carrol picks a part of the new hymn which melts my heart to read and listen to. From this extract, a part of the poem I will read in a moment, dnd firstly her, Carroll’s commentary, highlights the beauty of Gods love for us as we focus on the feminine parts of the Beloved. This will act as our closing reflection and prayer.
Carroll states that “At the beginning, as in the Song of Songs, it is the way the couple addresses one another. “You are my beloved.” “I am your beloved.” But the second part of the hymn shifts to a much wider meaning for “beloved.” We recognize here that the two people are not alone in their love, for they are also God’s beloved, individually and as a couple. Even more, they belong to a beloved community. Recall how the Letter of James addresses the whole church as “my beloved.” In the church, we are beloved of one another and of God.”
I would love to welcome us all home with a welcoming home this day today with our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, together, either silently or aloud feel free to repeat after me.
This Closing Prayer is adapted from the Dearly Beloved Wedding hymn.
Dear Lord I am your beloved.
All I have I share with you O Lord
All I am I give you O Lord
All things I will bear for you O Lord
With this solemn promise O Lord
With you O Lord two have become one.
I am your beloved O Lord.
Until all our lives are done.
In Jesus name.
Amen
Sources:
Jobe, Kari. (2020). Source: Accessed: (March, 2021): https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/karijobe/mybeloved.html
Carroll, Rev. Diana, (2020). Source:
Accessed: (March, 2021), , https://www.thehiveapiary.com/post/you-are-my-beloved-a-new-wedding-hymn
Bible Hub. Text on Beloved Definitions. Accessed: Source: (March, 2021): https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3039.htm
“So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.”
Lamentations 3:26 NLT
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