Sunday, August 12, 2018

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXVI)


If the Lord does not build the house, in vain its builders labor on it. If the Lord does not guard a city, in vain a watchman wakes.” (Psalms 127:1)

Our Sages say that God is the place of the world, and the world is not God’s place. This conception encompasses the purpose of God’s creation, for all comes from Him and sustained by Him. In that regard, the place as the reason for the world to exist is God. Hence we depend on Him and not all the way around.

With this premise we approach the quoted verse. If God’s doesn’t give us a reason for His creation, how can we make anything of it? The “house” here represents what He gives us to make something out of it, and that is goodness. We live in vain if we have a life without meaning.

If we disregard goodness as the cause and purpose of God’s creation, what can we build with anything different from it? The “house” also means our consciousness, and is our duty to build it from that of which the Creator also sustains us. Again, if there is no goodness, what can we build?

We also have mentioned that “mountains” and “cities” represent strong beliefs and ruling principles or ideas by which we conduct our thought, mind, emotions, feelings and instincts. If these are not sustained on God’s ways and attributes, how can we sustain them? In conclusion, we are vain, meaningless and irrelevant passers-by in this world if we have a life absent of what really matters.

“May the Lord bless you from Zion, and see in goodness Jerusalem all the days of your life.” (128:5)

God’s blessings come out of our connection and bond with His ways and attributes. As long as we keep this awareness permanently, goodness flows in every way we approach the moments and circumstances we face every day.

Jerusalem once more is pointed out as the highest level of consciousness, completely free from anything different from goodness. In this sense, Jerusalem is the place in and from which we want to live in this world.

“Turned back and ashamed will be those who hate Zion.” (129:5)

Anything alien to goodness leads us to our falling down to the negative traits and trends of ego’s fantasies and illusions. The verse can be understood in another way. At some point, those who demise and reject goodness will realize the destructiveness of their predicament, and in their shame eventually turn back to it.

All the prophetic references about “returning” or “turning back” are related to regaining the awareness that living in goodness is what truly matters.

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From the Book's Foreword

Let's reexamine our ancestral memory, intellect, feelings, emotions and passions. Let's wake them up to our true Essence. Let us engage in the delightful awareness of Love as the Essence of G-d. The way this book is written is to reaffirm and reiterate its purpose, so it presents its message and content in a recurrent way. This is exactly its purpose, to restate the same Truth originally proclaimed by our Holy Scriptures, Prophets and Sages. Our purpose is to firmly enthrone G-d's Love in all dimensions of our consciousness, and by doing it we will fulfill His Promise that He may dwell with us on Earth forever. Let's discover together the hidden message of our ancient Scriptures and Sages. In that journey, let's realize Love as our Divine Essence, what we call in this book the revealed Light of Redemption in the Messianic era.