September 20, 2023 • 47 mins
Welcome back to Season 4 of the Returning to Joy Podcast! This week we continue in our new series, Sabbath Stories: Embracing Rest in a Restless World. Each episode we will unpack the sacred call to rest and renewal, as well as a practical practice to help you integrate rest rhythms into your life.
This episode we'll dive into the kind of rest that we find in Jesus, and the freedom in it that He calls us and those around us to enter into.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(09:51:31):
Welcome to the return to joypodcast. I'm your host,
Gabrielle Michel Leonard. Herewe're leading people to
cultivate joy throughstorytelling. We hope listening
will reveal pathways tounlocking the healing power of
connection so that you can seeyour relationships and the world
around you transformed fromfractured into flourishing.
(09:51:56):
Welcome back Beloved's I am, youknow, you know the drill excited
about this episode. And if I hadto give it a name, I would. Name
is episode rest is found. As youknow, we are in a series right
now that I've called likeSabbath stories embracing rest
(09:52:19):
in a restless world. And in thelast podcast episode I talked
about rest being a form ofresistance. And in that first
episode, we talked about thatword rest that first shows up in
Genesis chapters one and two,when talks about God resting on
(09:52:39):
the seventh day, after creation,and that word rest, it's the
Sabbath rest. And we talkedabout the primary connotation
for that word is to cease toabstain to desist from or to
terminate. And we were holdingthat just opposed to our like
(09:53:00):
primary connotation that wetypically may have when we think
about rest, thinking about restin terms of like to be inactive,
which that connotation is therein that word, even in the
scriptures, but that's onlysecondary, right? Primarily,
there is this, like, ceasingfrom something when thinking
about that word rest. So we'regoing to continue and unpacking
(09:53:23):
rest, and what does that looklike for us in practice? What
does that look like in terms ofthe biblical narrative, and
really, truly the therestoration that that provides
for our souls, as individuals asthe body, the collective body of
Christ, and the future hope thatwe're there, we're awaiting, but
also in terms of practically,how do we rest? And what's the
(09:53:46):
purpose of that was the value ofit, the benefits of it, but
we're going to jump right inthis I want to preface though
with saying that thisconversation is going to be two
parts, because I had a reallyhard time narrowing it down.
We're going to be camped out inPsalms 84. And there's just
(09:54:06):
there's so there's so much,there's so much. And if you've
if you've ever spent time liketeaching from the Word, and
doing deep study around itbeforehand, you know that when
you get started, and you're andyou're pulling back layers, and
you're seeing things, the moreyou become aware of how much you
don't know, right, like,preparing to record this
(09:54:27):
episode, I became more aware ofhow much I didn't know, that was
not defeating. It wasencouraging. It was exciting. I
got so stirred, convicted,encouraged, and my confidence
did grow to be able to share andtalk with you. But I also became
aware of like, Man, I'm justscratching the surface. So I
need you to know, we're justgoing to scratch the surface.
(09:54:49):
But I want this, this is goingto be in two parts and still be
surface. But we're going to butthese two parts are going to be
talking about the fact that restis found. It's like this journey
of finding rest and what I meanby that, which I'm super excited
about. But let's get starteddiving in. As you know, if you
(09:55:13):
listen to the last episode, youknow that in the month of July,
I went on this month longpractice of rest, I took a
sabbatical, and I didn't workand month of July, I was out of
the country and ended up beingin four different countries
during that time. And, and I'msure at some point in this
(09:55:33):
series, I'll probably touch onaspects of that journey in those
different places. But right nowwe are landing right back again
in Wales. And when I was inWales, as you know, I was I
spent some time at thisChristian prayer and retreat
center that has taken a lot ofinspiration from Celtic
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Christian practices and monasticpractices are really a part of
the rhythms and how they dothings there and the simplicity
of it all. And in this prayerroom, I found myself one of the
one of the evenings or at thislike retreat center, I should
say, one of the evenings, I justdecided, you know, I think I
(09:56:17):
wanted to go to this like littlechapel space. This same chapel
space that I talked about,really hearing phone like I was
hearing God speak and remindingme I enjoy you, right? This is
earlier on in the journey, maybeday two or so. me being in this
at this retreat center and Isaid, I'm going to go there for
the evening and I'm going tospend my time in worship, maybe
(09:56:38):
prayer, maybe looking atscripture, my thought is that I
get it, I would be alone. Thatdidn't actually happen. I wasn't
alone. When I got into that,that chapel, I recognized that
there were a couple other peopleinside, still went inside. And
it ended up being four otherpeople that were present. One
was an English woman who spokeboth German and English. And
(09:57:00):
then three people from fromGermany, who, who own who didn't
speak English very well. Andthey were worshiping and the
language I didn't know. But Istayed in there in that prayer
room with them, because therewas still this sense of
commonality and a shared bond.
And it was beautiful. We worshiptogether. And I was strengthened
and encouraged in it, but Istill wanted to get some time
(09:57:22):
with the Lord in private andsecret as well. And as they're
leaving, as we as they wrap uptheir time together. They're
walking out of this chapel likeprayer room, and it as they walk
out, you know, you step intothis kind of outside path before
you get to the living quarters.
(09:57:43):
And as they're walking out, theythey call my attention, they
said Cabrio Cabrio Look, do yousee do you see, and I picked my
head, just outside of the doorseal. And I look above and I
noticed that they are theseswallows there. There's this
bird's nest literally perchedright on top of the of the door
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seal of this this door thatleads into this chapel space,
this halfway underground chapelspace, and their swallows.
There's like at least fourbabies or three babies in this
mama swallow with her with herbaby birds nesting there. And
they're huddled up, it's the youknow, the evening at signal, the
evenings coming in, they'rehuddled up there, and we were,
(09:58:27):
it was beautiful is cute, too.
Right. And so stirred it feltsignificant. But I didn't
necessarily put two and twotogether immediately. And then
one of the ladies said, becauseyou know, like, do you remember?
Do you remember? And I'm goinglike, what? What are you talking
about? She doesn't rememberlike, in the Psalms, and then
immediately comes to mind. I'mgoing like, oh my gosh, yes,
this is somewhere thissomewhere. I've seen this
(09:58:47):
before. And then she pulls upPsalms 84. For me, and we look
at verse three together when itsays in Psalms 84. It says, Even
the sparrow finds a home and theswallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young atyour altars, oh Lord of hosts,
it gave me chills.
(09:59:11):
And then another lady came lateron during this time with me
being there, I find out thatthey had recently returned
sparrows tend to fly back to thesame nest season after season.
And I had arrived at thisretreat, prayer and retreat
center. During a time that thesparrows were coming back, they
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were returning. I was soencouraged by this, and just
like a marveling at the factthat while I'm here, at this
exact time where these sparrowshave returned, and they have
found their home, their nestingplace, at the altar of the Lord,
like, as close as they could getto the presence of God as close
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as they could get to this placeof worship. They're the
sparrows, where that's very muchso reflected in Scripture. And
so they walk out and I justdecide like, Okay, well, I'm
gonna start there. I'm in this,this prayer room, and I don't
know where to begin in thisjourney. So I will just begin by
opening up Psalms 84, and howwe'll read it and see where the
Lord takes me see where theSpirit takes me. So I began
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reading Psalms 84. And if yougrew up growing up around
Christian folk, you Psalms 84 Ifyou read it all the way through,
we're actually going to readjust the first six verses
because like I said, this isgoing to be broken up into two
parts. And really, the lasteight verses, Oh, Pablo, will
tackle in the next episode. Butin the latter portion of this
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song, you'll you'll find afamiliar line where the psalm is
says, better is one day in yourcourts than 1000 You know,
places elsewhere. And so it'sthat line is very popular. But
there is a lot to be discoveredand reading and understanding
the context of this song, andreading it in edit at a at a
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deeper level. But like I said,still shallow the Word of God is
just too good. And this thisjourney that we're on as as
pilgrims, witnesses to thegoodness of God is yeah, it
can't be contained. But um,anyways, so as I read through
psalms 84 And as I'm reading it,I'm taking it line by line at
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some points I'm, I'm stopping inthe middle of it to sing a line
at some points. I'm like,repeating it over and over at
some points. I'm like, maybe I'mI'm crying out to the Lord in
prayer. I'm interceding, I'mcrying whatever like I'm just
engaging with this fully. Ittakes my mind back to this place
of remembrance because I'mthinking about the the nature of
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I remember growing up there wason if you remember out of Eden,
that Christian worship group,but I they had this song better
is one day and it's based off ofPsalms 84 And I remember if this
reading the psalm again took meto this place of remembrance of
all like this child likeGabrielle this younger Gabrielle
(10:02:04):
that didn't even know what shewas wanting or longing for. And
and I was craving to be with GodI was craving to be free and
didn't even understand thefreedom she I was longing for
right at the time, but it wasjust good. So I want to read
this all the way through some ofthese verses one through six and
then we'll unpack it okay andgive some context. It says how
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lovely is your dwelling place?
Oh Lord of hosts, my soul longs.
Yes, faints for the courts ofthe Lord. My heart and flesh
sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a homeand the swallow a nest for
herself, where she may lay heryoung had your alters, oh Lord
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of hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell inyour house, ever singing your
praises. C'est la vie. Blessedare those whose strength is in
you in whose heart are thehighways to Zion. As they go
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through the Valley of Baca, theymake it a place of springs. The
early rain also covers it withpools. How lovely is that first
verse, how lovely is yourdwelling place, oh Lord of
Hosts. This, the writer of thesong the writers of the of the
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psalm era are craving Psalms iscraving to be in the presence of
God craving to be in thedwelling place where God dwells.
But why? What's going on here?
What's happening? This Psalm isa pilgrimage song. It's like
It's like the Psalms of Ascent,which were psalms that were used
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as a form of praise. They werethe things that would have been
sung and recited and called outto one another. As the as Israel
was journeying from whereverthey were maybe up north in
Galilee, as they were journeyingand traveling back to Jerusalem
to worship the Lord. in Israel'shistory, there's at least three
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pilgrim festivals that requiredthat Israel would return to
Jerusalem to celebrate and toworship God. And these psalms,
these Psalms of Ascent of thesepilgrims songs would be what
they would sing during theirjourney. See, they often
reminded the people, they oftenreminded Israel about the
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goodness of God, hisdeliverance, his faithfulness,
His provision, as Providencethey were not where they wanted
to be. They were journeying fromwhere they were, to where they
wanted to be. And these psalmswere the were the background was
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the music that fueled them. Weall know about, like having that
good. That right playlist goingwhen you're going on a journey
for us, we may not necessarilyknow the gruesome have the
gruesome, gruesome practice ofwalking for three, five days to
get to the get to a place, butwe know that feeling of like,
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alright, if I'm gonna drive fromTexas, to Louisiana, or to
Atlanta, we know like, allright, like this journey is
gonna have some good music,what's going to be the playlist
that we're playing that'sfueling this drive? These Psalms
of Ascent was the playlist, itwas what was fueling them on
this journey. This ascent thatwas happening, that Israel was
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required to do was, wasphysical, but it was also
spiritual. It was individual andit was also a corporate
practice. And they needed thesesongs because mainly to keep
them encouraged to buildanticipation this is we're going
to get into this further in thenext episode. But this journey
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was physically laboris taxing,gruesome, hard. This is not an
easy journey they were doing. Itdidn't matter where you are
coming from up north, neararound Galilee if you were
journeying from that area to getback to the temple to get back
to Jerusalem, to worship theLord, at a minimum, you're going
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to be spending three to fivedays on this journey, camping
along the way with other people,no matter what path you took.
This was a long laboris process,painful process, that it that
involved. They're involved allof them. And it was I'm pretty
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sure taxing and pushed them tothe limit at points. And if they
were going to keep going withthis journey, they're going to
stay on the path, stay thecourse and stay with the people
to journey back to this place ofworship. They were going to need
something words that would thatwould stir their soul that would
it build anticipation for beingback in the place where God
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dwelled something to help themkeep their resolve about their
future hope. It is coming. Weare headed that way. Right now
we're experiencing this but oneday, and soon we'll be in the
presence of God. Why I thinkabout this, I'd say there's
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three visions or things thepsalmist envisioned. And like I
said, we're scratching thesurface here. So I'm just
narrowing it down to three inthis moment. But there's at
least three things that I'd saywere being envisioned by the
psalmists, in Psalms 84, butalso in these other Psalms of
Ascent. The Psalmist isenvisioning the resting place of
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God. You see, like in Psalms132, the place where God dwells
is described as this restingplace, the place where like,
yes, God's presence is going tocamp here, because presence is
going to remain here. God'sgonna rest here, God is here.
And the people of Israel wantedto be where God was resting
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regard would reside. So theyenvisioned this future place
that they were journeyingtowards to be a place where God
rested. Secondthing they envisioned was, was
this to be it, it does not tothis messianic kingdom, see this
resting place of God, the theplace where the temple was Mount
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Sinai, the city of David wasalso pointing to this future
Messianic Kingdom, where therewas no more suffering and
oppression and injustice, nomore idols, no more worship of
foreign gods, there was theright and true living God and
King on the throne, because theMessiah was on the throne, then
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there'd be liberty, protection,provision, freedom, for all that
were part of that kingdom. Sothere's this future hope of a
messianic kingdom that's beingpointed to and many of the songs
Psalms of Ascent, as well asthis, this site, this
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envisioning of like, Ah, here'sthe resting place of God. And
then thirdly, there's thisEnvisionment of communal worship
and the joy that happens as youwere in the presence of God and
you were a part of this kingdomthat has no no longer has this
suffering and pain andoppression, but people are
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liberated. And you also havethis communal fellowship of
worship, we are worshipping thesame God, the One True God,
here, and I'm hearing worship ofthe Lord, on my lips, but also
on my neighbor's lips as well.
We are bonded and unified infaith, in the same hope, in the
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same joy. These are all thingsthat we're aspiring and moving
them forward and anchoring them.
Now, when in Psalms 84, versesto which I would say, verse two,
really begins to unpack this,like soul crushing thirst, that
this is not just like a man, Ican't wait for this place I'm
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envisioning in terms of like theworship in terms of the the
kingdom, because it would begood, but it's also there's some
lament, I think one of thethings I love about the Psalms I
love about this Psalm and Psalms42 and 43 and dishsoap. Just
it's everywhere, is you findthis dance in Scripture, of
despair and hope, joy andsorrow, where things become
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those, those elements are moreentwined and entangled than we
realize they are. See wecompartmentalize it and
separated it in and hope can'tbe entwined with sorrow and joy
can't be also connected todespair. But, but actually here
in verse two, we see thatthey're much more entangled than
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maybe we may like the psalmistsays, My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord, myheart and my flesh, sing for joy
to the living God. My soullongs, yes, faints for the
courts of the Lord, I just wantthat. Just focus there with me
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for a second. That word longs,even that feints word I wish I
could have time, maybe nextweek, like unpacking that even
more like that word is a deepand intense sorrow. It's an
agony that's being describedthere, almost even to the point
of death. The Psalm is intalking about this desire to be
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with God, this desire to be backin his courts, where the
presence of God is, is can isconnected to this deep pain,
this weeping this lament. It'snot all joy here, it's not all
singing in praise in terms oflike the way that we phrase or
the way that we think about it.
There is pain, there is an agonyhere. This is a deep heart cry
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of like, God, I just gotta getto you. I got to get to you. And
then when I was in that prayerroom, I so felt that something
before even doing the deep studyhere illuminated for me, because
I'm sitting there, and I'mreading over this, this passage,
and I'm looking at that word, mysoul longs, let Yes, faints. And
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I'm beginning to realize, oh, mygosh, God, this is describing me
in this moment. I see myselfhere in this narrative. See, I
thought that like, I thoughtsomething was wrong with me.
Because before I got here, I wasexperiencing this intense
sorrow. Something wasn't right.
I'm like, am I am I like, is itis it? Is it just depression? Is
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it sadness, like, nothing seemedto quite define what was going
on inside of me. But I, I wasagonizing. And I couldn't find a
framework. It wasn't clear theframework for what does this
mean? I didn't know how to frameit. I didn't know how to like,
make meaning out of it. And soin some ways, I was like
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something wrong, what's wrongwith me? Right, we know like,
there are many times when like,we we need, we need therapy we
need. We need community we needlike to, to build ourselves up
in truth. We need to grieve, weneed to weep. But it was so
helpful for me in this momentwhen I read this in that prayer
room. Like there was thiscontextualization that was
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happening, and I was beginningto realize, oh, my gosh, it is
so it is so biblical. It is so apart of the narrative of
walking, in hopes of Jesus ofwalking in hopes of God's coming
Kingdom. It is normal, to faint,it is normal to long, even to
the point of this sense ofsorrow. We don't remain there in
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a journey. But often I think, werush out of it too quickly. But
it is, it is normal to be like,This is what we're seeing in our
world, the pain, the injustices,the disparity, the oppression,
the suffering, the violence,this is not the Lord's way, it
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wasn't supposed to be this way.
And we too, are exci we too arenot in our, in our permanent
home. This is this is not whatis what we will forever be we
are journeying from where we areto where we longed to be, we are
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awaiting the kingdom of God. Andand we are participating in
establishing his kingdom andalong the way we realize like
this is not okay, this is notthe way it's supposed to be. And
there's this there's sometimesthis fainting of the soul,
there's this longing. I want topoint out something that I
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forgot to point out earlier.
That's an important note notethat is very prevalent in the
Psalms as you read them and alot of times when we think about
the Psalms, you'll know for surelike these are very much so
Conversations with God right?
The Psalms are are teaching us amethod of prayer how to pray and
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pray in a way that is fullyembody that brings the whole
self and the and the wholeexperience of being human in the
community before God andengaging with God. So there is a
conversation with God They havethat is happening in the Psalms,
and for sure that is happeningin this one. But there's also a,
a conversation that's happeningwith the community. There's like
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an echoing, if you will. Becauseremember what we said about this
the Psalms of Ascent that wouldbe sung. As they're doing this
journey, this pilgrim journeyback to worship God in
Jerusalem, you would be hearingthese words on the lips of your
neighbor, there was a back andforth and maybe this person
saying this and call andresponse and, and this was a
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collective conversation, acollective witnessing to one
another encouragement of oneanother. So this is a, this is a
communal conversation. It is aconversation with God. And it's
also a conversation with theself, or the soul. As even in
verse two, pointing out my soul,there's a conversation with the
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soul that's also happening,which in our minds, we can often
think about the soul even in acompartmentalized way of being
a, a body that then has a soul.
But the Hebrew mindset isthinking about the soul in a
much fuller and broader picture.
The soul has these dimensions oflike the physical, the
emotional, the intellectual, andthe spiritual. It's not as
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broken up into pieces. And sofor that reason, these
practices, these rhythms, eventhis physical journey of going
back to the temple, it trainedthe whole person. It trained the
whole person, how to engage withGod, and how to engage with the
community and yourself and theearth, in response to the truth
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of God, and who God is, whatthey believe to be true about
God, and what they believe to betrue about the future, in the
coming hope. My soul longs, yes,faints for the courts of the
Lord. So why is the psalmistfainting? Why is the psalm is to
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the point of longing to theirsoul is fainting?
That's the question in terms ofcontext that I want to answer
next. Why is the psalmistlonging for the courts of the
Lord to the point of faintingPsalms 42 and 43 Give us a
little bit better picture herelike these are, this is an
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exile. They're not again, likeyou said, like I said, like
they're, they're not in theplace of God. They're not in
Jerusalem. They're not with thetemple. So there is this exhale.
They are away from this. They'reunder oppression, suffering in
justices. In Psalms 42, versethree, the Psalmist says, My
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tears have been my food day andnight while they say to me all
day long where is your God everjust felt mocked. I'm not even
referring to mocked by people.
Yes, that happens. We get mockedwe can get we can be mocked by
people. We're human flesh ismocking us. But do you ever feel
those times where you're like,you're suffering just feels like
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it's mocking you. And even timeswhen you're like, man, like the
suffering you see of the peoplearound you is mocking God. The
pain you see is like this isthis is mocking. And you feel
like under the burden of thatthis was the experience these
psalms would have experiencedthat. In Psalms 43, I'm just
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gonna actually just go ahead andread the whole thing because it
gives us a context of some ofthe things that are that the
psalmist is wrestling with thatwould lead them to go God I
longed for your coming Kingdom Ilonged to be with your presence
were all of this is away fromme. It's gone. The Somnus and
Psalms 43 says vindicate me, ohGod, and defend my cause,
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against an ungodly people, fromthe deceitful and unjust man
deliver me. For you are the Godin whom I take refuge? Why have
you rejected me? Why do I goabout mourning because of the
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oppression of the enemy? Sendout your light and your truth.
Let them lead me. Let them bringme to your holy hill and to your
dwelling right sound familiar?
Talking about this journey? ThenI will go to the altar of God to
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God My exceeding joy, and I willpraise you with the lair. Oh
God, my God. Why are you castdown on my soul? And why are you
in turmoil within me, hoping Godfor I shall again praise him My
salvation and my God. There isoppression and justice, pain.
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There's a sense of like,scattered history like I'm not
with my people. People around medon't understand they mock me.
They shame me. Suffering. And Iwant to ask you the question, I
think something, it helps usjust like it helps us to ask,
Who is asking for rest here? Andto and to look at, look at these
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other passages and go, Oh,that's who's asking for rest.
It's an exiled people. Oh,that's who's asking for a rest.
This is people that aresuffering under the weight of
oppression under other empires.
He's foreign empires that are inland that was promised to them.
And there isn't, and they're notjust there, but they are causing
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them to suffer their socialstatus, if you will, their their
class is very lonely. And theyare looked down upon and mocked
frequently. There faith andbelief in God is called into
question. They themselvesquestion their, their trust and
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faith and belief in God in lightof their suffering and
oppression. That is, who isasking for rest. Or one vantage
point of it, one element to it.
Like I said, there's a lot to beunpacked here and there. So the
context of what's all happeningto the people of Israel. But
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asking the question of who isasking for rest is important in
understanding the context ofthis psalm, right for, for study
purposes, for applying to ourlives, and understanding what
may God be doing in our ownlives right now? But asking the
(10:23:36):
question, Who is asking forrest? Right now? In your city
right now and your sphere ofinfluence? Who is asking for
rest in our society? Who iswaiting for that? Is, is a
helpful engagement even evenstill, right? Now, here's what I
(10:24:00):
mean by that. Like, it'simportant that we engage
scripture from multiple lenses.
Can I plug them detouring alittle bit here, but it's
important that we when we lookat Scripture, we of course,
we're going to be able to seeourselves and like, man,
identify in this story, youknow, like, like I, like I
mentioned, like, there's certainthings that I was on a journey,
(10:24:21):
walking away from when I leftthe country. And then, you know,
got to this prayer room, certainthings that I was aware of.
Right, I was aware of like, thevantage point that I was seeing
in terms of the pain andsuffering that I'm bearing
witness to, in our cities inAmerica. And I'm aware of the
personal wrestling andsufferings that I was
(10:24:45):
experiencing in my life, or thethings I'm seeing in my family.
Right? We all come with acontext when we're reading
scripture, of what we can easilyconnect things to based on our
experiences in life. But it'simportant to look and engage
scripture from multiple lenses.
(10:25:06):
We asked the question of who isasking for rest, here in Psalms
84, as they're seeing this song,in hopes of coming back into the
temple, and looking at some ofthe things that may have been
leading to this quest for restand experience. But who's asking
for restaurant now? It'simportant for that, because when
(10:25:30):
we have this conversation aboutrest, it's important that we
know this is this is very muchso about you experiencing rest
for your soul, but also to asthe body of Christ were also to
look out and go, who else isrequesting this? And what's my
engagement with them? What mayGod be actually speaking about
(10:25:50):
them? What do they need to hear?
And Mark chapter two, verse 27.
When Jesus is the Pharisees arecalling into question Jesus
actions because he's allowingthe disciples to pick grain on
the Sabbath, Jesus responds tothem and he says, like the
Sabbath was made for man. And heis Lord of the Sabbath is very
(10:26:12):
true. The Sabbath was made forman. But it's important that we
don't just translate that tothat the Sabbath, the Sabbath
rest being made for just you. Sowho is asking for rest? Who else
is asking for rest? In Lukechapter six verses six through
11 On the Sabbath, Jesus heals aman with a withered hand. The
(10:26:36):
religious folk are perfectlyokay. With this man's ailment.
And the suffering this man isunder, they're perfectly okay
with it. What they care about ischeck in Jesus. Because they're
like, no, no, don't you hearthis man on the Sabbath, but
Jesus liberates this man fromhis suffering on the Sabbath.
(10:26:57):
See that theme that's happeninghere. In terms of rest. There's
this journey that the people ofGod are going on, they Israel's
going on, in anticipation of afuture liberation. Like even
this pilgrim journey is therhythm that isn't that is
faithfully each time they do itincreasing their hope in regards
(10:27:21):
to the final liberation thatwill come this messianic
kingdom, this coming King, whichwe know to be Jesus. They're
made they're doing this practicebelieving that liberation will
come. That the resting place ofGod where there is rest, there's
liberation, and we see Jesus inJesus actions in Luke six, that
(10:27:45):
rest also involved, liberatingsomeone else. So who in your
surroundings who in your city,that you may not be thinking of
who maybe not for as malice, youknow, for as evil intent is the
Pharisees? Who are you? Okay?
With the suffering of you'vemade provision for that you're
(10:28:09):
like, it's just a part of life.
Is that okay? That in fact,heavens not okay with Christ is
not okay with this makes methink of a time I had in the
Philippines. I could have a longtime ago on a podcast episode
talked about this, this journey.
But when I was in thePhilippines a long time ago, a
(10:28:31):
long time ago. 2019 that's whatmade it feel so long because it
was before 2020 But I wasin a an urban inner city
context. And I was in the middleof like, a lot of traffic like
and I was about to tell him toread through psalms 13 sitting
(10:28:51):
on this bench, and I wasstarting to read it noise
everywhere. People you know,going to and fro I started
reading it very much so clearlyfeel like I'm hearing God tell
me Nope. Start again. Read startfrom the beginning of my why am
I gonna begin reading the psalmagain. It's Psalm 13 is like,
when Dave was like, how long theLord, will you forgive me? And
(10:29:13):
you know, when my enemies beagainst me? And basically
David's complaint is like, whereare you at? Got, right? He's
crying. I've got where are you?
How long will I be sufferinghere? And I'm reading it. You
might feel like I'm hearing Godsay like, nope, started again.
I'm reading this story. And Irealized, oh, yeah, I'm David
here. And I'm assuming thatthat's an appropriate place. For
(10:29:36):
me. That's the framework that Ican read this scripture of like,
I'm David, I'm crying outcalling God. How long Oh, lord.
But as I began reading it, Irealize oh, yeah, God, I didn't
ask you. Like, I didn't engagewith you in terms of like a is
there another perspective toread this the story from the
lens of in terms of justdevotion, I wasn't at this time
(10:29:56):
doing any deep dive in terms ofcontext was just got Hulu, you
know, who do I read this fromthe lens of because we always
come with the lens. And so inthat moment, as I begin again, I
look around and I feel like Ican, who stands out to me is
this man right across from mecrunched over a little bit. And
he's he's like making bricks orhe's like, building this like
(10:30:17):
wall like structure ofsomething's happening. But he's
working with his hands. And he'skind of crouched and hunched
over and as he's working, doingthis skilled labor, and it's
looks like a very intensive job.
And as I look, I feel like I'mlike, Oh, I feel called to read
this song from his perspective.
And as I read it from hisperspective, it, it transforms
(10:30:39):
the way I think about it, I'lljust say that. And it makes me
ask questions that I wasn'tgoing to ask that, that wasn't
asking of myself, or the Lordbefore catapulting me into this
very, you know, this verybiblical practice of reflection
of conversation with God, thesoul self and, and hopefully
(10:31:04):
also to the community joining inwith this conversation with the
community. So as you readthrough scripture, it's, I just
need I know this is kind ofdeviated, but I need to point
out the, the crucial thing to doof don't just read it from your
vantage point, you will miss themagnitude of God's redemption
(10:31:25):
and you'll reduce the kingdom ofGod to something that you can
see and understand. And it's somuch be uglier than that. So who
is asking for rest. Rest is a issomething that we find, we go on
a journey to find. And there arepeople like you and unlike you,
(10:31:52):
that are also to crying out tothe Lord for liberation, for
freedom from physical from thephysical oppression, societal
ills, pain, trauma, but alsospiritual oppression, right?
Remember, the soul like it'sit's multi, it's multi
dimensions to it. And God'sengaging the whole person. So I
(10:32:16):
love about these journeys, thesepilgrim journeys that Israel
would would go on, and you stillsee rhythms and practices of
that throughout scripture, thatare involving the whole person.
You see Jesus, when he showingup on the scene, engaging the
whole person, so powerful aboutJesus, liberating this man from
(10:32:39):
the oppression in the socialisolation that he would have
been bound to by having thiswithered hand the judgment that
he would have been bound to byhaving this withered hand, who
knows what his economic statuswould have been, because of this
withered hand, and with and withone touch, Jesus absolves him
(10:33:01):
from it all, frees him from itall. But the religious people
were okay with him remainingwhere he was at. Because Sabbath
was just about rules,regulation, I think Jesus comes
in and says, No Sabbath was madefor man and I am Lord of the
Sabbath. So this rest that weare entering into, it is for
(10:33:27):
you, beloved, it is for you. Butit is also for the person who
you may not be thinking of. Andit is also for the person who
you might be thinking of. And I,I think the intention here in
this conversation is to go, ifyou leave with nothing, it's the
leave with who is asking forrest who else is. And you may be
(10:33:53):
asking for rest, and there is aresponse from heaven for you.
But also, who else is becauseGod is not like, man, God is not
like the religious leaders. Hehears the screams, he hears the
cries of injustice, he hears thelamb in the lament, he hears the
(10:34:17):
pain. The god I've beensuffering, so hard, so bad, to
like said in Psalms 42, that mytears have now become my only
form of sustenance. I am beingnourished by tears, the salt and
my tears are what is what isfeeding me? Do you get how
(10:34:42):
intense that is? Get howphysical that is. God hears
those cries. And the hope wehave in Jesus and the hope we
have in the coming kingdom, butalso in the is that Jesus did
is? And he's going to answer hedid is and is going to answer.
(10:35:11):
How is Jesus answering this restthat is found in the presence of
God that has the smell, thescent, the nature of the kingdom
of God that calls us intocommunity is deeply a part of
(10:35:33):
that response for practicingthat future rest here and now
and also building our hope to itfor it. But who is asking for
rest? How is God responding tothem right now and how is God
(10:35:59):
called you to respond to thatrequest that scream that that
pain to the point of fainting indesperate need for rest hours
God calling you to respond tothe desperate cries for rest of
(10:36:22):
the people you see. And thepeople you don't see. Think
another question to reflect onis there anyone that I become
I'm comfortable with theirsuffering. In that temple on the
Sabbath, we see that Jesus wasnot comfortable with that man
suffering. I think it would be amistake to to read that passage
(10:36:48):
of scripture and to just and togloss over that man's pain as
just in a lot of times. In otherwords, Talak is just glossed
over the fact of that man's painand, and Jesus healing him is
almost just a means to an end ofresponding to the Pharisees. I
don't think Jesus was justresponding to the Pharisees. We
(10:37:10):
just thinking about like, Jesusin the wilderness in the in the
devil, like coming in tauntinghim. And do this is like so
unfazed. So one bothered doesquoting scripture back. I see
Jesus like I'm not arguing withyou. So with that framework in
mind, um, it's hard for me tobelieve that Jesus healing the
(10:37:31):
man with the withered hand isabout responding to the
arguments of the Pharisees, he,he's like, I'm not arguing with
you. I'm on mission. This man iscrying out for rest. And on the
Sabbath, this day that wascreated for man that I am Lord
(10:37:52):
of, I preside over over, I'mgoing to heal him. I'm going to
liberate him from hisoppression. I'm going to respond
to his screams. I'm going torespond to His agony. We've been
called into that work withJesus. We've been called into
that practice of rest. Firstreceiving this rest that Jesus
(10:38:18):
provides and responding to ourneed our request for his
presence that liberates andfreeze and then entering into
that rest and providing freedomfor others. We'll go into that a
lot more than that in the nextepisode. Bye Beloved's.
(10:38:39):
If you're hearing this message,you've listened to the entire
episode. And for that I amdeeply grateful. I hope this
episode resonated with you andif it did help us out by sharing
this episode, and leaving areview on Apple podcasts, and
Spotify. Most importantly, reachout to let me know how you're
engaging with this episode, andwhat topics you'd like to see
(10:39:01):
covered in the future. You canconnect with us on social media,
or get in touch with me directlyat Gabrielle at return to
joy.com to share your heart.
I'll see you in two weeks for anew episode.
Welcome to the return to joypodcast. I'm your host,
Gabrielle Michel Leonard. Herewe're leading people to
cultivate joy throughstorytelling. We hope listening
will reveal pathways tounlocking the healing power of
connection so that you can seeyour relationships and the world
around you transformed fromfractured into flourishing.
(09:51:56):
Welcome back Beloved's I am, youknow, you know the drill excited
about this episode. And if I hadto give it a name, I would. Name
is episode rest is found. As youknow, we are in a series right
now that I've called likeSabbath stories embracing rest
(09:52:19):
in a restless world. And in thelast podcast episode I talked
about rest being a form ofresistance. And in that first
episode, we talked about thatword rest that first shows up in
Genesis chapters one and two,when talks about God resting on
(09:52:39):
the seventh day, after creation,and that word rest, it's the
Sabbath rest. And we talkedabout the primary connotation
for that word is to cease toabstain to desist from or to
terminate. And we were holdingthat just opposed to our like
(09:53:00):
primary connotation that wetypically may have when we think
about rest, thinking about restin terms of like to be inactive,
which that connotation is therein that word, even in the
scriptures, but that's onlysecondary, right? Primarily,
there is this, like, ceasingfrom something when thinking
about that word rest. So we'regoing to continue and unpacking
(09:53:23):
rest, and what does that looklike for us in practice? What
does that look like in terms ofthe biblical narrative, and
really, truly the therestoration that that provides
for our souls, as individuals asthe body, the collective body of
Christ, and the future hope thatwe're there, we're awaiting, but
also in terms of practically,how do we rest? And what's the
(09:53:46):
purpose of that was the value ofit, the benefits of it, but
we're going to jump right inthis I want to preface though
with saying that thisconversation is going to be two
parts, because I had a reallyhard time narrowing it down.
We're going to be camped out inPsalms 84. And there's just
(09:54:06):
there's so there's so much,there's so much. And if you've
if you've ever spent time liketeaching from the Word, and
doing deep study around itbeforehand, you know that when
you get started, and you're andyou're pulling back layers, and
you're seeing things, the moreyou become aware of how much you
don't know, right, like,preparing to record this
(09:54:27):
episode, I became more aware ofhow much I didn't know, that was
not defeating. It wasencouraging. It was exciting. I
got so stirred, convicted,encouraged, and my confidence
did grow to be able to share andtalk with you. But I also became
aware of like, Man, I'm justscratching the surface. So I
need you to know, we're justgoing to scratch the surface.
(09:54:49):
But I want this, this is goingto be in two parts and still be
surface. But we're going to butthese two parts are going to be
talking about the fact that restis found. It's like this journey
of finding rest and what I meanby that, which I'm super excited
about. But let's get starteddiving in. As you know, if you
(09:55:13):
listen to the last episode, youknow that in the month of July,
I went on this month longpractice of rest, I took a
sabbatical, and I didn't workand month of July, I was out of
the country and ended up beingin four different countries
during that time. And, and I'msure at some point in this
(09:55:33):
series, I'll probably touch onaspects of that journey in those
different places. But right nowwe are landing right back again
in Wales. And when I was inWales, as you know, I was I
spent some time at thisChristian prayer and retreat
center that has taken a lot ofinspiration from Celtic
(09:55:55):
Christian practices and monasticpractices are really a part of
the rhythms and how they dothings there and the simplicity
of it all. And in this prayerroom, I found myself one of the
one of the evenings or at thislike retreat center, I should
say, one of the evenings, I justdecided, you know, I think I
(09:56:17):
wanted to go to this like littlechapel space. This same chapel
space that I talked about,really hearing phone like I was
hearing God speak and remindingme I enjoy you, right? This is
earlier on in the journey, maybeday two or so. me being in this
at this retreat center and Isaid, I'm going to go there for
the evening and I'm going tospend my time in worship, maybe
(09:56:38):
prayer, maybe looking atscripture, my thought is that I
get it, I would be alone. Thatdidn't actually happen. I wasn't
alone. When I got into that,that chapel, I recognized that
there were a couple other peopleinside, still went inside. And
it ended up being four otherpeople that were present. One
was an English woman who spokeboth German and English. And
(09:57:00):
then three people from fromGermany, who, who own who didn't
speak English very well. Andthey were worshiping and the
language I didn't know. But Istayed in there in that prayer
room with them, because therewas still this sense of
commonality and a shared bond.
And it was beautiful. We worshiptogether. And I was strengthened
and encouraged in it, but Istill wanted to get some time
(09:57:22):
with the Lord in private andsecret as well. And as they're
leaving, as we as they wrap uptheir time together. They're
walking out of this chapel likeprayer room, and it as they walk
out, you know, you step intothis kind of outside path before
you get to the living quarters.
(09:57:43):
And as they're walking out, theythey call my attention, they
said Cabrio Cabrio Look, do yousee do you see, and I picked my
head, just outside of the doorseal. And I look above and I
noticed that they are theseswallows there. There's this
bird's nest literally perchedright on top of the of the door
(09:58:04):
seal of this this door thatleads into this chapel space,
this halfway underground chapelspace, and their swallows.
There's like at least fourbabies or three babies in this
mama swallow with her with herbaby birds nesting there. And
they're huddled up, it's the youknow, the evening at signal, the
evenings coming in, they'rehuddled up there, and we were,
(09:58:27):
it was beautiful is cute, too.
Right. And so stirred it feltsignificant. But I didn't
necessarily put two and twotogether immediately. And then
one of the ladies said, becauseyou know, like, do you remember?
Do you remember? And I'm goinglike, what? What are you talking
about? She doesn't rememberlike, in the Psalms, and then
immediately comes to mind. I'mgoing like, oh my gosh, yes,
this is somewhere thissomewhere. I've seen this
(09:58:47):
before. And then she pulls upPsalms 84. For me, and we look
at verse three together when itsays in Psalms 84. It says, Even
the sparrow finds a home and theswallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young atyour altars, oh Lord of hosts,
it gave me chills.
(09:59:11):
And then another lady came lateron during this time with me
being there, I find out thatthey had recently returned
sparrows tend to fly back to thesame nest season after season.
And I had arrived at thisretreat, prayer and retreat
center. During a time that thesparrows were coming back, they
(09:59:31):
were returning. I was soencouraged by this, and just
like a marveling at the factthat while I'm here, at this
exact time where these sparrowshave returned, and they have
found their home, their nestingplace, at the altar of the Lord,
like, as close as they could getto the presence of God as close
(09:59:52):
as they could get to this placeof worship. They're the
sparrows, where that's very muchso reflected in Scripture. And
so they walk out and I justdecide like, Okay, well, I'm
gonna start there. I'm in this,this prayer room, and I don't
know where to begin in thisjourney. So I will just begin by
opening up Psalms 84, and howwe'll read it and see where the
Lord takes me see where theSpirit takes me. So I began
(10:00:16):
reading Psalms 84. And if yougrew up growing up around
Christian folk, you Psalms 84 Ifyou read it all the way through,
we're actually going to readjust the first six verses
because like I said, this isgoing to be broken up into two
parts. And really, the lasteight verses, Oh, Pablo, will
tackle in the next episode. Butin the latter portion of this
(10:00:38):
song, you'll you'll find afamiliar line where the psalm is
says, better is one day in yourcourts than 1000 You know,
places elsewhere. And so it'sthat line is very popular. But
there is a lot to be discoveredand reading and understanding
the context of this song, andreading it in edit at a at a
(10:01:00):
deeper level. But like I said,still shallow the Word of God is
just too good. And this thisjourney that we're on as as
pilgrims, witnesses to thegoodness of God is yeah, it
can't be contained. But um,anyways, so as I read through
psalms 84 And as I'm reading it,I'm taking it line by line at
(10:01:22):
some points I'm, I'm stopping inthe middle of it to sing a line
at some points. I'm like,repeating it over and over at
some points. I'm like, maybe I'mI'm crying out to the Lord in
prayer. I'm interceding, I'mcrying whatever like I'm just
engaging with this fully. Ittakes my mind back to this place
of remembrance because I'mthinking about the the nature of
(10:01:44):
I remember growing up there wason if you remember out of Eden,
that Christian worship group,but I they had this song better
is one day and it's based off ofPsalms 84 And I remember if this
reading the psalm again took meto this place of remembrance of
all like this child likeGabrielle this younger Gabrielle
(10:02:04):
that didn't even know what shewas wanting or longing for. And
and I was craving to be with GodI was craving to be free and
didn't even understand thefreedom she I was longing for
right at the time, but it wasjust good. So I want to read
this all the way through some ofthese verses one through six and
then we'll unpack it okay andgive some context. It says how
(10:02:26):
lovely is your dwelling place?
Oh Lord of hosts, my soul longs.
Yes, faints for the courts ofthe Lord. My heart and flesh
sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a homeand the swallow a nest for
herself, where she may lay heryoung had your alters, oh Lord
(10:02:51):
of hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell inyour house, ever singing your
praises. C'est la vie. Blessedare those whose strength is in
you in whose heart are thehighways to Zion. As they go
(10:03:13):
through the Valley of Baca, theymake it a place of springs. The
early rain also covers it withpools. How lovely is that first
verse, how lovely is yourdwelling place, oh Lord of
Hosts. This, the writer of thesong the writers of the of the
(10:03:38):
psalm era are craving Psalms iscraving to be in the presence of
God craving to be in thedwelling place where God dwells.
But why? What's going on here?
What's happening? This Psalm isa pilgrimage song. It's like
It's like the Psalms of Ascent,which were psalms that were used
(10:03:59):
as a form of praise. They werethe things that would have been
sung and recited and called outto one another. As the as Israel
was journeying from whereverthey were maybe up north in
Galilee, as they were journeyingand traveling back to Jerusalem
to worship the Lord. in Israel'shistory, there's at least three
(10:04:24):
pilgrim festivals that requiredthat Israel would return to
Jerusalem to celebrate and toworship God. And these psalms,
these Psalms of Ascent of thesepilgrims songs would be what
they would sing during theirjourney. See, they often
reminded the people, they oftenreminded Israel about the
(10:04:46):
goodness of God, hisdeliverance, his faithfulness,
His provision, as Providencethey were not where they wanted
to be. They were journeying fromwhere they were, to where they
wanted to be. And these psalmswere the were the background was
(10:05:06):
the music that fueled them. Weall know about, like having that
good. That right playlist goingwhen you're going on a journey
for us, we may not necessarilyknow the gruesome have the
gruesome, gruesome practice ofwalking for three, five days to
get to the get to a place, butwe know that feeling of like,
(10:05:27):
alright, if I'm gonna drive fromTexas, to Louisiana, or to
Atlanta, we know like, allright, like this journey is
gonna have some good music,what's going to be the playlist
that we're playing that'sfueling this drive? These Psalms
of Ascent was the playlist, itwas what was fueling them on
this journey. This ascent thatwas happening, that Israel was
(10:05:51):
required to do was, wasphysical, but it was also
spiritual. It was individual andit was also a corporate
practice. And they needed thesesongs because mainly to keep
them encouraged to buildanticipation this is we're going
to get into this further in thenext episode. But this journey
(10:06:15):
was physically laboris taxing,gruesome, hard. This is not an
easy journey they were doing. Itdidn't matter where you are
coming from up north, neararound Galilee if you were
journeying from that area to getback to the temple to get back
to Jerusalem, to worship theLord, at a minimum, you're going
(10:06:36):
to be spending three to fivedays on this journey, camping
along the way with other people,no matter what path you took.
This was a long laboris process,painful process, that it that
involved. They're involved allof them. And it was I'm pretty
(10:06:58):
sure taxing and pushed them tothe limit at points. And if they
were going to keep going withthis journey, they're going to
stay on the path, stay thecourse and stay with the people
to journey back to this place ofworship. They were going to need
something words that would thatwould stir their soul that would
it build anticipation for beingback in the place where God
(10:07:21):
dwelled something to help themkeep their resolve about their
future hope. It is coming. Weare headed that way. Right now
we're experiencing this but oneday, and soon we'll be in the
presence of God. Why I thinkabout this, I'd say there's
(10:07:45):
three visions or things thepsalmist envisioned. And like I
said, we're scratching thesurface here. So I'm just
narrowing it down to three inthis moment. But there's at
least three things that I'd saywere being envisioned by the
psalmists, in Psalms 84, butalso in these other Psalms of
Ascent. The Psalmist isenvisioning the resting place of
(10:08:07):
God. You see, like in Psalms132, the place where God dwells
is described as this restingplace, the place where like,
yes, God's presence is going tocamp here, because presence is
going to remain here. God'sgonna rest here, God is here.
And the people of Israel wantedto be where God was resting
(10:08:30):
regard would reside. So theyenvisioned this future place
that they were journeyingtowards to be a place where God
rested. Secondthing they envisioned was, was
this to be it, it does not tothis messianic kingdom, see this
resting place of God, the theplace where the temple was Mount
(10:08:55):
Sinai, the city of David wasalso pointing to this future
Messianic Kingdom, where therewas no more suffering and
oppression and injustice, nomore idols, no more worship of
foreign gods, there was theright and true living God and
King on the throne, because theMessiah was on the throne, then
(10:09:19):
there'd be liberty, protection,provision, freedom, for all that
were part of that kingdom. Sothere's this future hope of a
messianic kingdom that's beingpointed to and many of the songs
Psalms of Ascent, as well asthis, this site, this
(10:09:42):
envisioning of like, Ah, here'sthe resting place of God. And
then thirdly, there's thisEnvisionment of communal worship
and the joy that happens as youwere in the presence of God and
you were a part of this kingdomthat has no no longer has this
suffering and pain andoppression, but people are
(10:10:06):
liberated. And you also havethis communal fellowship of
worship, we are worshipping thesame God, the One True God,
here, and I'm hearing worship ofthe Lord, on my lips, but also
on my neighbor's lips as well.
We are bonded and unified infaith, in the same hope, in the
(10:10:28):
same joy. These are all thingsthat we're aspiring and moving
them forward and anchoring them.
Now, when in Psalms 84, versesto which I would say, verse two,
really begins to unpack this,like soul crushing thirst, that
this is not just like a man, Ican't wait for this place I'm
(10:10:53):
envisioning in terms of like theworship in terms of the the
kingdom, because it would begood, but it's also there's some
lament, I think one of thethings I love about the Psalms I
love about this Psalm and Psalms42 and 43 and dishsoap. Just
it's everywhere, is you findthis dance in Scripture, of
despair and hope, joy andsorrow, where things become
(10:11:19):
those, those elements are moreentwined and entangled than we
realize they are. See wecompartmentalize it and
separated it in and hope can'tbe entwined with sorrow and joy
can't be also connected todespair. But, but actually here
in verse two, we see thatthey're much more entangled than
(10:11:45):
maybe we may like the psalmistsays, My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord, myheart and my flesh, sing for joy
to the living God. My soullongs, yes, faints for the
courts of the Lord, I just wantthat. Just focus there with me
(10:12:08):
for a second. That word longs,even that feints word I wish I
could have time, maybe nextweek, like unpacking that even
more like that word is a deepand intense sorrow. It's an
agony that's being describedthere, almost even to the point
of death. The Psalm is intalking about this desire to be
(10:12:31):
with God, this desire to be backin his courts, where the
presence of God is, is can isconnected to this deep pain,
this weeping this lament. It'snot all joy here, it's not all
singing in praise in terms oflike the way that we phrase or
the way that we think about it.
There is pain, there is an agonyhere. This is a deep heart cry
(10:12:56):
of like, God, I just gotta getto you. I got to get to you. And
then when I was in that prayerroom, I so felt that something
before even doing the deep studyhere illuminated for me, because
I'm sitting there, and I'mreading over this, this passage,
and I'm looking at that word, mysoul longs, let Yes, faints. And
(10:13:18):
I'm beginning to realize, oh, mygosh, God, this is describing me
in this moment. I see myselfhere in this narrative. See, I
thought that like, I thoughtsomething was wrong with me.
Because before I got here, I wasexperiencing this intense
sorrow. Something wasn't right.
I'm like, am I am I like, is itis it? Is it just depression? Is
(10:13:38):
it sadness, like, nothing seemedto quite define what was going
on inside of me. But I, I wasagonizing. And I couldn't find a
framework. It wasn't clear theframework for what does this
mean? I didn't know how to frameit. I didn't know how to like,
make meaning out of it. And soin some ways, I was like
(10:13:59):
something wrong, what's wrongwith me? Right, we know like,
there are many times when like,we we need, we need therapy we
need. We need community we needlike to, to build ourselves up
in truth. We need to grieve, weneed to weep. But it was so
helpful for me in this momentwhen I read this in that prayer
room. Like there was thiscontextualization that was
(10:14:22):
happening, and I was beginningto realize, oh, my gosh, it is
so it is so biblical. It is so apart of the narrative of
walking, in hopes of Jesus ofwalking in hopes of God's coming
Kingdom. It is normal, to faint,it is normal to long, even to
the point of this sense ofsorrow. We don't remain there in
(10:14:47):
a journey. But often I think, werush out of it too quickly. But
it is, it is normal to be like,This is what we're seeing in our
world, the pain, the injustices,the disparity, the oppression,
the suffering, the violence,this is not the Lord's way, it
(10:15:11):
wasn't supposed to be this way.
And we too, are exci we too arenot in our, in our permanent
home. This is this is not whatis what we will forever be we
are journeying from where we areto where we longed to be, we are
(10:15:33):
awaiting the kingdom of God. Andand we are participating in
establishing his kingdom andalong the way we realize like
this is not okay, this is notthe way it's supposed to be. And
there's this there's sometimesthis fainting of the soul,
there's this longing. I want topoint out something that I
(10:15:59):
forgot to point out earlier.
That's an important note notethat is very prevalent in the
Psalms as you read them and alot of times when we think about
the Psalms, you'll know for surelike these are very much so
Conversations with God right?
The Psalms are are teaching us amethod of prayer how to pray and
(10:16:19):
pray in a way that is fullyembody that brings the whole
self and the and the wholeexperience of being human in the
community before God andengaging with God. So there is a
conversation with God They havethat is happening in the Psalms,
and for sure that is happeningin this one. But there's also a,
a conversation that's happeningwith the community. There's like
(10:16:42):
an echoing, if you will. Becauseremember what we said about this
the Psalms of Ascent that wouldbe sung. As they're doing this
journey, this pilgrim journeyback to worship God in
Jerusalem, you would be hearingthese words on the lips of your
neighbor, there was a back andforth and maybe this person
saying this and call andresponse and, and this was a
(10:17:04):
collective conversation, acollective witnessing to one
another encouragement of oneanother. So this is a, this is a
communal conversation. It is aconversation with God. And it's
also a conversation with theself, or the soul. As even in
verse two, pointing out my soul,there's a conversation with the
(10:17:27):
soul that's also happening,which in our minds, we can often
think about the soul even in acompartmentalized way of being
a, a body that then has a soul.
But the Hebrew mindset isthinking about the soul in a
much fuller and broader picture.
The soul has these dimensions oflike the physical, the
emotional, the intellectual, andthe spiritual. It's not as
(10:17:51):
broken up into pieces. And sofor that reason, these
practices, these rhythms, eventhis physical journey of going
back to the temple, it trainedthe whole person. It trained the
whole person, how to engage withGod, and how to engage with the
community and yourself and theearth, in response to the truth
(10:18:14):
of God, and who God is, whatthey believe to be true about
God, and what they believe to betrue about the future, in the
coming hope. My soul longs, yes,faints for the courts of the
Lord. So why is the psalmistfainting? Why is the psalm is to
(10:18:38):
the point of longing to theirsoul is fainting?
That's the question in terms ofcontext that I want to answer
next. Why is the psalmistlonging for the courts of the
Lord to the point of faintingPsalms 42 and 43 Give us a
little bit better picture herelike these are, this is an
(10:19:02):
exile. They're not again, likeyou said, like I said, like
they're, they're not in theplace of God. They're not in
Jerusalem. They're not with thetemple. So there is this exhale.
They are away from this. They'reunder oppression, suffering in
justices. In Psalms 42, versethree, the Psalmist says, My
(10:19:26):
tears have been my food day andnight while they say to me all
day long where is your God everjust felt mocked. I'm not even
referring to mocked by people.
Yes, that happens. We get mockedwe can get we can be mocked by
people. We're human flesh ismocking us. But do you ever feel
those times where you're like,you're suffering just feels like
(10:19:48):
it's mocking you. And even timeswhen you're like, man, like the
suffering you see of the peoplearound you is mocking God. The
pain you see is like this isthis is mocking. And you feel
like under the burden of thatthis was the experience these
psalms would have experiencedthat. In Psalms 43, I'm just
(10:20:11):
gonna actually just go ahead andread the whole thing because it
gives us a context of some ofthe things that are that the
psalmist is wrestling with thatwould lead them to go God I
longed for your coming Kingdom Ilonged to be with your presence
were all of this is away fromme. It's gone. The Somnus and
Psalms 43 says vindicate me, ohGod, and defend my cause,
(10:20:33):
against an ungodly people, fromthe deceitful and unjust man
deliver me. For you are the Godin whom I take refuge? Why have
you rejected me? Why do I goabout mourning because of the
(10:20:53):
oppression of the enemy? Sendout your light and your truth.
Let them lead me. Let them bringme to your holy hill and to your
dwelling right sound familiar?
Talking about this journey? ThenI will go to the altar of God to
(10:21:14):
God My exceeding joy, and I willpraise you with the lair. Oh
God, my God. Why are you castdown on my soul? And why are you
in turmoil within me, hoping Godfor I shall again praise him My
salvation and my God. There isoppression and justice, pain.
(10:21:41):
There's a sense of like,scattered history like I'm not
with my people. People around medon't understand they mock me.
They shame me. Suffering. And Iwant to ask you the question, I
think something, it helps usjust like it helps us to ask,
Who is asking for rest here? Andto and to look at, look at these
(10:22:06):
other passages and go, Oh,that's who's asking for rest.
It's an exiled people. Oh,that's who's asking for a rest.
This is people that aresuffering under the weight of
oppression under other empires.
He's foreign empires that are inland that was promised to them.
And there isn't, and they're notjust there, but they are causing
(10:22:28):
them to suffer their socialstatus, if you will, their their
class is very lonely. And theyare looked down upon and mocked
frequently. There faith andbelief in God is called into
question. They themselvesquestion their, their trust and
(10:22:50):
faith and belief in God in lightof their suffering and
oppression. That is, who isasking for rest. Or one vantage
point of it, one element to it.
Like I said, there's a lot to beunpacked here and there. So the
context of what's all happeningto the people of Israel. But
(10:23:13):
asking the question of who isasking for rest is important in
understanding the context ofthis psalm, right for, for study
purposes, for applying to ourlives, and understanding what
may God be doing in our ownlives right now? But asking the
(10:23:36):
question, Who is asking forrest? Right now? In your city
right now and your sphere ofinfluence? Who is asking for
rest in our society? Who iswaiting for that? Is, is a
helpful engagement even evenstill, right? Now, here's what I
(10:24:00):
mean by that. Like, it'simportant that we engage
scripture from multiple lenses.
Can I plug them detouring alittle bit here, but it's
important that we when we lookat Scripture, we of course,
we're going to be able to seeourselves and like, man,
identify in this story, youknow, like, like I, like I
mentioned, like, there's certainthings that I was on a journey,
(10:24:21):
walking away from when I leftthe country. And then, you know,
got to this prayer room, certainthings that I was aware of.
Right, I was aware of like, thevantage point that I was seeing
in terms of the pain andsuffering that I'm bearing
witness to, in our cities inAmerica. And I'm aware of the
personal wrestling andsufferings that I was
(10:24:45):
experiencing in my life, or thethings I'm seeing in my family.
Right? We all come with acontext when we're reading
scripture, of what we can easilyconnect things to based on our
experiences in life. But it'simportant to look and engage
scripture from multiple lenses.
(10:25:06):
We asked the question of who isasking for rest, here in Psalms
84, as they're seeing this song,in hopes of coming back into the
temple, and looking at some ofthe things that may have been
leading to this quest for restand experience. But who's asking
for restaurant now? It'simportant for that, because when
(10:25:30):
we have this conversation aboutrest, it's important that we
know this is this is very muchso about you experiencing rest
for your soul, but also to asthe body of Christ were also to
look out and go, who else isrequesting this? And what's my
engagement with them? What mayGod be actually speaking about
(10:25:50):
them? What do they need to hear?
And Mark chapter two, verse 27.
When Jesus is the Pharisees arecalling into question Jesus
actions because he's allowingthe disciples to pick grain on
the Sabbath, Jesus responds tothem and he says, like the
Sabbath was made for man. And heis Lord of the Sabbath is very
(10:26:12):
true. The Sabbath was made forman. But it's important that we
don't just translate that tothat the Sabbath, the Sabbath
rest being made for just you. Sowho is asking for rest? Who else
is asking for rest? In Lukechapter six verses six through
11 On the Sabbath, Jesus heals aman with a withered hand. The
(10:26:36):
religious folk are perfectlyokay. With this man's ailment.
And the suffering this man isunder, they're perfectly okay
with it. What they care about ischeck in Jesus. Because they're
like, no, no, don't you hearthis man on the Sabbath, but
Jesus liberates this man fromhis suffering on the Sabbath.
(10:26:57):
See that theme that's happeninghere. In terms of rest. There's
this journey that the people ofGod are going on, they Israel's
going on, in anticipation of afuture liberation. Like even
this pilgrim journey is therhythm that isn't that is
faithfully each time they do itincreasing their hope in regards
(10:27:21):
to the final liberation thatwill come this messianic
kingdom, this coming King, whichwe know to be Jesus. They're
made they're doing this practicebelieving that liberation will
come. That the resting place ofGod where there is rest, there's
liberation, and we see Jesus inJesus actions in Luke six, that
(10:27:45):
rest also involved, liberatingsomeone else. So who in your
surroundings who in your city,that you may not be thinking of
who maybe not for as malice, youknow, for as evil intent is the
Pharisees? Who are you? Okay?
With the suffering of you'vemade provision for that you're
(10:28:09):
like, it's just a part of life.
Is that okay? That in fact,heavens not okay with Christ is
not okay with this makes methink of a time I had in the
Philippines. I could have a longtime ago on a podcast episode
talked about this, this journey.
But when I was in thePhilippines a long time ago, a
(10:28:31):
long time ago. 2019 that's whatmade it feel so long because it
was before 2020 But I wasin a an urban inner city
context. And I was in the middleof like, a lot of traffic like
and I was about to tell him toread through psalms 13 sitting
(10:28:51):
on this bench, and I wasstarting to read it noise
everywhere. People you know,going to and fro I started
reading it very much so clearlyfeel like I'm hearing God tell
me Nope. Start again. Read startfrom the beginning of my why am
I gonna begin reading the psalmagain. It's Psalm 13 is like,
when Dave was like, how long theLord, will you forgive me? And
(10:29:13):
you know, when my enemies beagainst me? And basically
David's complaint is like, whereare you at? Got, right? He's
crying. I've got where are you?
How long will I be sufferinghere? And I'm reading it. You
might feel like I'm hearing Godsay like, nope, started again.
I'm reading this story. And Irealized, oh, yeah, I'm David
here. And I'm assuming thatthat's an appropriate place. For
(10:29:36):
me. That's the framework that Ican read this scripture of like,
I'm David, I'm crying outcalling God. How long Oh, lord.
But as I began reading it, Irealize oh, yeah, God, I didn't
ask you. Like, I didn't engagewith you in terms of like a is
there another perspective toread this the story from the
lens of in terms of justdevotion, I wasn't at this time
(10:29:56):
doing any deep dive in terms ofcontext was just got Hulu, you
know, who do I read this fromthe lens of because we always
come with the lens. And so inthat moment, as I begin again, I
look around and I feel like Ican, who stands out to me is
this man right across from mecrunched over a little bit. And
he's he's like making bricks orhe's like, building this like
(10:30:17):
wall like structure ofsomething's happening. But he's
working with his hands. And he'skind of crouched and hunched
over and as he's working, doingthis skilled labor, and it's
looks like a very intensive job.
And as I look, I feel like I'mlike, Oh, I feel called to read
this song from his perspective.
And as I read it from hisperspective, it, it transforms
(10:30:39):
the way I think about it, I'lljust say that. And it makes me
ask questions that I wasn'tgoing to ask that, that wasn't
asking of myself, or the Lordbefore catapulting me into this
very, you know, this verybiblical practice of reflection
of conversation with God, thesoul self and, and hopefully
(10:31:04):
also to the community joining inwith this conversation with the
community. So as you readthrough scripture, it's, I just
need I know this is kind ofdeviated, but I need to point
out the, the crucial thing to doof don't just read it from your
vantage point, you will miss themagnitude of God's redemption
(10:31:25):
and you'll reduce the kingdom ofGod to something that you can
see and understand. And it's somuch be uglier than that. So who
is asking for rest. Rest is a issomething that we find, we go on
a journey to find. And there arepeople like you and unlike you,
(10:31:52):
that are also to crying out tothe Lord for liberation, for
freedom from physical from thephysical oppression, societal
ills, pain, trauma, but alsospiritual oppression, right?
Remember, the soul like it'sit's multi, it's multi
dimensions to it. And God'sengaging the whole person. So I
(10:32:16):
love about these journeys, thesepilgrim journeys that Israel
would would go on, and you stillsee rhythms and practices of
that throughout scripture, thatare involving the whole person.
You see Jesus, when he showingup on the scene, engaging the
whole person, so powerful aboutJesus, liberating this man from
(10:32:39):
the oppression in the socialisolation that he would have
been bound to by having thiswithered hand the judgment that
he would have been bound to byhaving this withered hand, who
knows what his economic statuswould have been, because of this
withered hand, and with and withone touch, Jesus absolves him
(10:33:01):
from it all, frees him from itall. But the religious people
were okay with him remainingwhere he was at. Because Sabbath
was just about rules,regulation, I think Jesus comes
in and says, No Sabbath was madefor man and I am Lord of the
Sabbath. So this rest that weare entering into, it is for
(10:33:27):
you, beloved, it is for you. Butit is also for the person who
you may not be thinking of. Andit is also for the person who
you might be thinking of. And I,I think the intention here in
this conversation is to go, ifyou leave with nothing, it's the
leave with who is asking forrest who else is. And you may be
(10:33:53):
asking for rest, and there is aresponse from heaven for you.
But also, who else is becauseGod is not like, man, God is not
like the religious leaders. Hehears the screams, he hears the
cries of injustice, he hears thelamb in the lament, he hears the
(10:34:17):
pain. The god I've beensuffering, so hard, so bad, to
like said in Psalms 42, that mytears have now become my only
form of sustenance. I am beingnourished by tears, the salt and
my tears are what is what isfeeding me? Do you get how
(10:34:42):
intense that is? Get howphysical that is. God hears
those cries. And the hope wehave in Jesus and the hope we
have in the coming kingdom, butalso in the is that Jesus did
is? And he's going to answer hedid is and is going to answer.
(10:35:11):
How is Jesus answering this restthat is found in the presence of
God that has the smell, thescent, the nature of the kingdom
of God that calls us intocommunity is deeply a part of
(10:35:33):
that response for practicingthat future rest here and now
and also building our hope to itfor it. But who is asking for
rest? How is God responding tothem right now and how is God
(10:35:59):
called you to respond to thatrequest that scream that that
pain to the point of fainting indesperate need for rest hours
God calling you to respond tothe desperate cries for rest of
(10:36:22):
the people you see. And thepeople you don't see. Think
another question to reflect onis there anyone that I become
I'm comfortable with theirsuffering. In that temple on the
Sabbath, we see that Jesus wasnot comfortable with that man
suffering. I think it would be amistake to to read that passage
(10:36:48):
of scripture and to just and togloss over that man's pain as
just in a lot of times. In otherwords, Talak is just glossed
over the fact of that man's painand, and Jesus healing him is
almost just a means to an end ofresponding to the Pharisees. I
don't think Jesus was justresponding to the Pharisees. We
(10:37:10):
just thinking about like, Jesusin the wilderness in the in the
devil, like coming in tauntinghim. And do this is like so
unfazed. So one bothered doesquoting scripture back. I see
Jesus like I'm not arguing withyou. So with that framework in
mind, um, it's hard for me tobelieve that Jesus healing the
(10:37:31):
man with the withered hand isabout responding to the
arguments of the Pharisees, he,he's like, I'm not arguing with
you. I'm on mission. This man iscrying out for rest. And on the
Sabbath, this day that wascreated for man that I am Lord
(10:37:52):
of, I preside over over, I'mgoing to heal him. I'm going to
liberate him from hisoppression. I'm going to respond
to his screams. I'm going torespond to His agony. We've been
called into that work withJesus. We've been called into
that practice of rest. Firstreceiving this rest that Jesus
(10:38:18):
provides and responding to ourneed our request for his
presence that liberates andfreeze and then entering into
that rest and providing freedomfor others. We'll go into that a
lot more than that in the nextepisode. Bye Beloved's.
(10:38:39):
If you're hearing this message,you've listened to the entire
episode. And for that I amdeeply grateful. I hope this
episode resonated with you andif it did help us out by sharing
this episode, and leaving areview on Apple podcasts, and
Spotify. Most importantly, reachout to let me know how you're
engaging with this episode, andwhat topics you'd like to see
(10:39:01):
covered in the future. You canconnect with us on social media,
or get in touch with me directlyat Gabrielle at return to
joy.com to share your heart.
I'll see you in two weeks for anew episode.
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