Devotion • December 11
Today’s Hymn
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Reflection
Technically this hymn isn’t meant to be comical and technically Handel’s Messiah, from which this hymn is plucked, isn’t known as a humorous offering. Maybe this hymn isn’t exactly a side-splitter as much as a bringer of a wry smile. The language of this hymn has an air of cognitive dissonance, and that sort of thing always makes me laugh.
Oh sure, we want a God who commands that the heavy, imposing gates protecting the city are to be flung wide open. Lift up the gates! King of kings and king of glory sounds like a slogan that won a political party’s focus group. Even the imagery of my heart becoming a temple evokes visions of an edifice of strength or some sort of imposing fortress.
The hymn is based on Psalm 24, and when King David penned the psalm, he used metaphors for the God he wanted — strong, imposing, commanding. But the joke, the irony, the dissonance is that when God arrives, God takes on human flesh in the form of a defenseless baby. Babies typically don’t command gates to open. Before babies have formed a coherent word or taken one baby step, no one bets on them becoming the king of kings. And yet…
And yet we know that baby, the Christ, will show us what love looks like. And that love is powerful beyond anything that was ever imagined. That baby would grow to upend what is expected and would grow to be the messiah we needed. Indeed, our hearts must be set apart for they need to expand to know God’s love and reflect it to a hurting world.
Prayer
Holy God, your power is on perfect display in your unrelenting love. Thank you for pursuing us even when we get things wrong. Help us to see your majesty in vulnerability. Set apart my heart for you. Amen.
Written by Andrea Denney, Executive Director of Operational Ministries
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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