Commands or Visions?

AM Psalm 61, 62 • PM Psalm 68:1-20(21-23)24-36
Jer. 2:1-13 • Rom. 1:16-25 • John 4:43-54

“Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; sing praises to the Lord. He rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; he sends forth his voice, his mighty voice.”

Language is tricky. That first sentence is technically/grammatically a command. Perhaps our response 2500 years later is to dutifully comply—or the opposite, to roll our eyes because we just don’t understand the point. I understand both responses; but we may also have a deeper instinct to drop down into the author’s primal vision—the vision that grounds the language.

If so, the author’s vision becomes our vision—an overwhelming insight into an intelligence, love, and skill that seems to hover over everything, calling us, luring us. This vision calls forth the people of the earth into something vaster and utterly more novel than anything we could have imagined or invented on our own. We call this God or the Kingdom of God. Our clarity is enhanced when we share new details emerging from our own participation in it. Perhaps it is a vision of beauty, delight, and cooperation that washes over us—dissolving accumulations of fear, despair, and desire to control.

I understand how such haunting insights get turned into commands, but maybe (obviously?) the underlying vision comes first. We humbly open to it, welcome it to come in. These visions are something we can lean into—a direction to walk that still might save us and guide us into new life. The language ceases to be a demand and becomes a song, perhaps a dance, perhaps something that moves joyfully and practically down into our feet and hands.

Written by David Orth

Is often amazed at how little he understands. But trying is something he very much enjoys.