“Walk in Zion, and go round about
her; count her towers. Mark ye her ramparts, traverse her palaces; that ye may
tell it to the next generation.”
(Psalms 48:13-14)
King David invites us
to thoroughly know the city of God for obvious reasons. We have to know our
Creator, the One who sustains us and provides us with the goodness necessary to
live in this world.
Furthermore, this knowledge is actually more about us than
God. As we have said frequently, Jerusalem is the highest level of
consciousness by which we relate and bond with Him.
We are talking about
elevated traits, attributes and qualities as the strongholds represented by “towers”,
“ramparts” and “palaces” we share with God. The more we know them, recognize
them, and embrace them as part of who we are, we will begin to also get acquainted
with Whom we share them, in the unique place He calls His dwelling.
“For such is God, our God, forever
and ever. He will guide us eternally.”
(48:15)
Let’s be aware that
this process of divine awareness is an eternal one, for God is unfathomably
eternal. In this understanding we realize that our knowledge of the Creator is
for all times and all generations, which means that our children and
grandchildren are also born to share this divine destiny.
“Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God has shined forth.”
(50:2)
We have said that
light in contrast to darkness, perfection in contrast imperfection, beauty in
contrast to ugliness, are all references and abstractions of goodness. By
definition, there is no taint, error, or defect in goodness.
This is the same
quality of Zion, for it is the place and throne of the goodness emanated from
God. Our Creator “shines” out of Zion, for goodness is the perfection of beauty
He wants us to live, experience and enjoy for eternity.
The verse invites us
to reflect on our required permanent awareness that goodness is what we must
pursue for ourselves individually and collectively as our bond with God.
“Do goodness in Your desire to
Zion; build [You] the walls of Jerusalem.”
(51:20)
Our Sages refer to
this verse as a prayer to ask God for goodness and the protection of Jerusalem as
goodness. We can read the verse also as an invitation for us to evoke and bring
goodness as the best in us, represented by Zion.
We too have to build the walls
to protect goodness as the source and sustenance of our well being, happiness
and complete fulfillment.
“Then You shall delight in the
offerings of righteousness, the burnt offering and all the entire offerings;
then will they offer bulls upon Your altar.”
(51:21)
The Psalmist
reiterates that the goodness we want to be, have and do, sustains itself in righteousness,
for goodness is the ethical ruling principle in God’s creation.
The offerings
we elevate in the Temple of Jerusalem represent our willingness and
determination to make goodness rule every aspect, dimension and expression of
our consciousness.
No comments:
Post a Comment