“Highways in the Heart” (Psalm 84:5)
Blessed are those whose
strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. (Psalm 84:5, from
the Gradual for All Saints’ Day)
Jack Kerouac wrote a famous book titled On the Road in the 1950’s. The
two main characters, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, are constantly traveling
across the country, back and forth, along with a stop in Mexico. They go from city to city, from relationship
to relationship, and engage in all sorts of decadent and destructive behaviors. It’s a story about two friends looking for
meaning in life and never quite finding it.
Unlike Dean who can’t seem to settle down, Sal comes to realize that there’s
more to life than being on the go all the time.
There is a certain glamour to the open road. Getting behind the wheel and driving wherever
your heart leads you … with a good friend, maybe all by yourself. Freedom.
A release from all responsibility.
Finding yourself away from the rat race, the hubbub of the city, your
humdrum life in suburbia.
But the open road isn’t always as open as you might
think. There are traffic jams. Detours.
Fallen rocks. Potholes.
And there can be loneliness on the highway. It’s the unsettled nature of traveling from
place to place. You have no roots. People aren’t as friendly as you expected. You are a stranger entering their community, and
they look at you with suspicion. You soon
come to realize that the place where you started is where you belong. Home is
where you belong.
In Psalm 84, the author’s heart is set on the
highway. But his highway does not lead
him back home. He longs for another home. He longs for Zion, the hill upon which the
city of Jerusalem was built. He longs
for Jerusalem, the place where the temple stood. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of
hosts,” he says at the beginning of the psalm.
“My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD!” (Ps. 84:1-2). He envies the priests and Levites who dwell
in or near the temple courts year round (Ps. 84:4). He is jealous even of the birds that nest and
find a home in the temple courts (v. 3).
There he would be near God’s gracious presence in the Holy of Holies. There he would be in the midst of God’s
people as they gather together to offer sacrifices, to offer praise and
thanksgiving, to hear the Word of the Lord, and to receive God’s gifts of
forgiveness and mercy. There, in Jerusalem,
he would also be reminded of the heavenly Zion – our Zion – that all the
patriarchs and prophets had eagerly awaited and were now enjoying. Hebrews 11 reminds us, “These all died in
faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and
greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and
exiles on earth … If they had been thinking of that land from which they had
gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country,
that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:13-16).
It seems as if the psalmist is not able to join other
pilgrims who are on their way to one of the great festivals in Jerusalem. Perhaps warfare was keeping him away. Perhaps it was sickness, or banishment, or
some other misfortune. And even if he was
able to join in the journey, the road of the pilgrim would be dusty, dirty, and
fraught with danger. Verse 6 of the psalm
mentions the “Valley of Baca” through which pilgrims must pass. This place hasn’t been identified, but since “baca”
can mean “weeping” it probably is symbolic for the sorrow the travelers may encounter
during their difficult and dangerous trip.
And so, the writer declares, “Blessed are those whose
strength is in [the LORD], in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” In our pilgrim journey through this life, it
is necessary to rely on the strength of the Lord. On our own we are weak and helpless. There are obstacles in the road. There is the weakness of our own sinful flesh
and its desires that are opposed to God’s will.
There is Satan and his temptations which take us off the pilgrim way. We pass through our own valleys of “Baca.” We face times of spiritual dryness. We face times of sadness. We face the sorrow of the valley of the
shadow of death. That shadow always
looms large over us. Sometimes it
envelops us. All of this describes this
present great tribulation that we endure.
And so we long to stop traveling.
We long to get off the pilgrim road, to get back home … back to our heavenly
home, the place where we belong.
On our own, we are weak and helpless. But there is One who is strong for you. There is One who became flesh and walked the
pilgrim way for you, who endured all the obstacles of this great tribulation
for you, who stood up under Satan’s temptations for you, who bore your sins at
the cross, and who earned forgiveness and eternal life for you. Rely on the strength of the One who rose
again for you and who promises to raise you from the dead on the Last Day.
That word “Blessed” is the same one we heard in the
Gospel lesson today, the Beatitudes. This
is the Gospel reading assigned for All Saints’ Day because it describes the
blessedness of all baptized believers in Christ both now and in eternity. The saints on earth are described as poor in
spirit, meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, persecuted. But Jesus also promises that all the saints will
be blessed in eternity. They will have a
place in God’s kingdom. They will be comforted,
satisfied, receive mercy, and see God.
They will be called sons of God because their Brother, the divine Son of
God, was the greatest peacemaker of all time, satisfying God’s wrath over sin
at the cross and “reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses
against them” (2 Cor. 5:19). John sees the
saints in heaven in his vision and describes them this way: “These are the ones
coming out of the great tribulation.
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb” (Rev. 7:14). This is the faithful
example the saints in heaven set for us and which we follow.
Verse 7 says that the pilgrims who approach Zion “go from strength
to strength.” Think of a long hike you
may have been on. Toward the end, you
get tired and weary. Your muscles
ache. It’s hard to catch your
breath. You feel like giving up. But then, over the crest of the hill, you see
your destination. It’s closer than you
realized. This pumps you up a bit to
keep going. You are still tired, but
your goal is just around the next bend.
You get your second wind. You get
a burst of energy to keep going. Like a
pilgrim approaching the holy city, you “go from strength to strength” because
your destination is nearer than you thought.
And like a saint still enduring this present great tribulation, you hear
the song of the saints in heaven from St. John and you “go from strength to
strength.”
And
when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on
the ear the distant triumph song,
And
hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. (LSB 677.5)
So what is in your heart?
What are you looking forward to the most? Is your heart set on the highways to the
things of this life? Or to the heavenly Zion? To the place of God’s presence? To Jesus?
Jesus is the true highway to Zion.
He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Jesus is the true Holy of Holies.
God’s presence dwells in all its fullness in him (Col 1:19; Col 2:9). Although you pass through the Valley of Baca,
parched and sad, you have been watered with the joy of Christ’s death and
resurrection in Holy Baptism. You are fed
and nourished on your pilgrim way with Christ’s body and blood. And you can proclaim the joy and love of
Christ along the way, watering the parched ground of those around you.
Blessed are you as you receive God’s gifts here in this
place of his presence in word, water, bread and wine. Blessed are you as you set your heart on
Zion, on your true home, on Jesus who will one day bring you home and give you
a place among that countless multitude around the throne of God. You will never be restless again. You will know that this is where you
belong. No longer will you feel the need
to get away. Your pilgrim wanderings will
be over. There the Lamb will be your
everlasting shepherd. There you will
drink from springs of living water that will never run dry. There all your tears will be wiped away by
God himself.
Not unto us but to
Your name be glory, Lord,
For
grace so rich, so wide, so high, so free.
Abide with us till trav’ling days
are over and done,
And
pilgrim feet lead us home, Lord, to you. (LSB 558.4)
Amen.
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