Reflection from the book of Zechariah 4:1-14
Blessed vision
Blessed visitation from The Lord of Hosts
In His love, His holy temple shall be rebuilt
Behold the beautiful synergy
Of the Love of the Most High
And the humble service of His men
For men's efforts without God's blessing are nothing and vain
Everything is moved and to be blessed in the Holy Spirit
Human efforts under the power of God the Holy Spirit yield everything God wills in His goodness
Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
My sweetness, my true joy, and life
Blessed art Thou!
Praying the Psalms
This week I come across some of instructions from some holy fathers about beautiful spiritual habit among devout Christians since the ancient times. And surprisingly I found that this wisdom is profound for us to make progress in the path of life that is pleasing to God, namely memorizing the psalms.
We live in the age of internet; instant gratifications and escape from boredom can be reached just one click away. Applications, games, fancy entertainments and social media fit in to be alternative of stressful hours or even spare times in between. More and more young people spend their times online doing games and amusing stuff on the internet.
The very idea of sitting there reading, pondering and memorising the psalms thus is not very appealing. It needs sacrifice and spiritual podvig, at least at the start.
But once we by the grace of Merciful Lord remain steadfast and willing to offer our time in silent and secret meditations of His words, we will soon find how delightful this habit can be! For it nourishes our hearts and minds to dwell unceasingly in the blessed remembrace of The Lord's love through praying the Psalms...
On reading and memorising Psalm 1 in my mother tongue, Indonesian, I find how deep and innumerable is God's wisdom and love in between the words of this first chapter...
It started with blessing from the Lord to avoid the way of the wicked, those ways of life that don't put The Lord in the center of errands, that do not acknowledge God and His love immanent in all things. Not to walk, stand or even sit with such ideas and ways of life. Rather to dwell and to take root in the blessed commandments of the Lord. With such fervent desire and yearning to please God and understand his will... We are to meditate on them day and night.
In this manner thus we will find meaning in life. Instead of focusing and being swept away by rough and merciless storm of passions and self-love, we find our refuge and peace in the Lord's Light. Thus the Lord is with us in every undertaking and with his blessings we will be prosperous as He deigns for the salvations of many.
With constant temptations and trials in life, those who shelter themselves with the love of God stand still in the judgment and they encourage and commend each other in the assembly of righteous but the wicked will be like chaff in the mercy of wind, for they trust not God but their own power and understanding.
Blessed is the Lord unto the ages of ages!
We live in the age of internet; instant gratifications and escape from boredom can be reached just one click away. Applications, games, fancy entertainments and social media fit in to be alternative of stressful hours or even spare times in between. More and more young people spend their times online doing games and amusing stuff on the internet.
The very idea of sitting there reading, pondering and memorising the psalms thus is not very appealing. It needs sacrifice and spiritual podvig, at least at the start.
But once we by the grace of Merciful Lord remain steadfast and willing to offer our time in silent and secret meditations of His words, we will soon find how delightful this habit can be! For it nourishes our hearts and minds to dwell unceasingly in the blessed remembrace of The Lord's love through praying the Psalms...
On reading and memorising Psalm 1 in my mother tongue, Indonesian, I find how deep and innumerable is God's wisdom and love in between the words of this first chapter...
It started with blessing from the Lord to avoid the way of the wicked, those ways of life that don't put The Lord in the center of errands, that do not acknowledge God and His love immanent in all things. Not to walk, stand or even sit with such ideas and ways of life. Rather to dwell and to take root in the blessed commandments of the Lord. With such fervent desire and yearning to please God and understand his will... We are to meditate on them day and night.
In this manner thus we will find meaning in life. Instead of focusing and being swept away by rough and merciless storm of passions and self-love, we find our refuge and peace in the Lord's Light. Thus the Lord is with us in every undertaking and with his blessings we will be prosperous as He deigns for the salvations of many.
With constant temptations and trials in life, those who shelter themselves with the love of God stand still in the judgment and they encourage and commend each other in the assembly of righteous but the wicked will be like chaff in the mercy of wind, for they trust not God but their own power and understanding.
Blessed is the Lord unto the ages of ages!
Readings and Reflections
Beloved readers,
I know it has been a while since the last time I wrote and posted on my humble blog. Pardon my sloth and lack of willpower to write in the past year. You might have had the experience of getting very difficult to put down your thoughts into words for innumerable reasons. Well, it becomes more and more compelling for me to 'resuscitate' this blog which has been a personal journal since 2009. Now that I have realised it is being the tenth year this blog being in existence, I would love to orient this blog into more reading, thoughts and reflection which in turn will be beneficial for anyone who comes across this blog, both my faithful readers or anyone who happened to land on this blog. Welcome!Let me start with my reflection on the book of Zechariah 3:1-19:
How sweet are Thy words, O Lord
they restore my soul and heart
Thy beloved high Priest Joshua
foreshadowing Thy loving presence
bore a wonderful vision
of Thy mercy and love
testified by the Archangel from high
At the time of Thy people
returned from the exile to their own homeland
Thou adorned Thy beloved priest with new and clean garment
O mystery of repentance
of having Thee always at the heart
and Thy commandments be ever ready at hand
Thy will be done
Thy love incarnate in Thy beloved servant
Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven
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