In the Garden
But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. Psalm 3:3-4 NIV
Shield – We know what a shield is, right? It’s a piece of armor designed to protect the one who bears it. We have plenty of historical examples. Ah, but our history, the history of Western warfare, diverts us from David’s meaning. We should have realized that there was something odd about this “shield” when he says that it surrounds him. Our images of shield don’t do that. In fact, the word David uses is magen, derived from the Hebrew ganan (“to defend’) and also the root of gan or ganna (“garden”). What David has in mind is not a piece of metal that I hold in front of me but rather a wall or hedge that surrounds me. In other words, a protected garden.
Gan Eden, the garden of Eden, is such a place. When I enjoy the presence of the Lord, I am in gan Eden, his protected garden. I am surrounded by everything that He put behind the secure wall, everything that delights Him. I am free to roam this garden knowing that all He placed in it is purposeful and beneficial. Even the Tree. I have no fear in the garden because it belongs to the Creator God and He oversees it. I have a job to do in this garden—to care for it, to husband it, to steward it—but I am not the creator of this place of protection. He is. His magen, His ganna, encloses me.
When YHVH surrounds me with His protective hedgerow, He is my glory. “Glory” is the word kavad. It is a word often used in its metaphorical sense of significant, important or worthy. David proclaims that in the safety of God’s garden he knows that YHVH gives him significance. David’s importance is the extension of the majesty of YHVH. The very fact that YHVH has placed him within the protected garden is a sure sign that David matters to God.
What do we learn from David’s declaration? Has the Lord protected you? Has He placed you within His garden? If you look carefully at the course of your life, do you see that He has been watching over you? Do you notice that some things that could have happened, that should have happened to you, didn’t? Can you see that all that you deserved didn’t come to pass? Why not? Was it because you were actually in the garden without realizing it? Were you actually surrounded by His protection but, like Jacob, you didn’t know that God was in this place? And now that you see it, what do you think? What do you feel?
Do you realize, at last, that you are safe? “. . . to be swept by the enigma and to pause—rather that to flee and to forget—is to live within the [garden].”[1] Day 22.
Topical Index: garden, magen, shield, ganna, Psalm 3:3-4
[1] Abraham Heschel, Man Is Not Alone, p. 16.
“…to be swept by the enigma and to pause – rather than to flee and to forget – is to live within the (garden).”
How do I get to such a response? How do I stay there? How do I overcome the impulse to flee and forget: to run in terror and shame and to seek altered states of reality because reality cannot be faced in my own skin? How do I rest in His love? How do I stay and worship in His holy mountain, instead of either being chased back down it by my sin, or just passing out; or, worse, continue to defy Him; continue to block that love and that care because I cannot trust its Source?
What has to change?
Repentance. “Put away the sin that is among (between) you” then “I will be your God, and you shall be my people”. Holiness. Set apartness. Purity from the sin that defiles. The cherubim stand at the gate to that Garden with flaming swords to keep out all who would presume to avail themselves of the Tree of Life that grows within, without purifying themselves; without purging themselves of sin first. We desire to live forever in that Garden, which is a righteous desire, but we desire to do so in our flesh which, because our flesh is unclean, pollutes that desire, and so we desire immortality for immoral purposes. Because we do not worship Him in spirit and in truth but rather in our flesh and for deceitful, hidden purposes, our offering is not consumed with the fire of consummation, and we cannot stay.
If I am to be swept off my feet by love then I must become willing to “set aside the sin that so easily besets (me)” and lay down my arms in exchange for His. Sin sets me in opposition to all that the Garden represents. It is my own rebellion that keeps me from resting; from staying in His love. “There is no peace, I say, for the wicked.” The troubled sea of the world has no rest, but the Garden is all about rest. The Sabbath, then, is probably the closest we get to it this side of eternity. The Sabbath, kept correctly, gives us a WAY to stay, because, if we follow the instructions for the Sabbath correctly, we learn to follow the sequence of actions we need to take to get ourselves to true rest; or, relief from sin and its consequences (the tormentors; or, curses).
What are the Sabbath instructions? Lets look at Friday; or, preparation day. What do we do then? First, we wrap up the business of the flesh, then we prepare nourishment, then we conduct a mikvah, or ritual cleansing for ourselves, as well as what surrounds us: THEN, we welcome the Sabbath; or, place in time to commune with our Maker. What has the Sabbath been given to us, then, as a template; or a picture, of? The Sabbath, by design, shows us – reminds us – of the correct order of operations to get ourselves out of the sin that drives us, enslaves us and keeps us from rest (peace) so that we can be free to worship (connect) with our Lover, Who can stand no degree of separation (sin).
Ok, let’s go back and look again. First, I have to forsake my ‘own’ ambitions, desires and unholy alliances of the flesh, and submit myself back to His Will instead. As nature abhors a vacuum, I must replace the desire of the flesh (sin) with His Will, which I find in His Word. I must renew my mind with the washing of the water of the Word. That Word is the Bread of Life that I must have to live forever, and represents the Tree of Life to me right now. I must obey its instructions and stand on its promises before I have the fortitude, the nourishment, that I must have to withstand evil. Last but not least, I must repent for my sins before the sun goes down on the day of my salvation. I must be clean before the sun sets, and my Lord shows up to walk in the cool of that evening with me again and talk to me face to face. If I am not free of sin; if I am not clean; then I am going to run and hide from that Face and cry for the rocks to fall on me.
My sins of rebellion separate me; they fracture and isolate me from Him. If I am to stand there in my own skin, then that skin had better be clean! This is what the Sabbath teaches me, but it gives me more than that! The Sabbath gives me the venue for worship here and now. If I follow the instructions, I have a way and a place (time) to commune with Him, which I must have to live. In my sin, I can’t live with Him; I cannot worship; I cannot be “swept by the enigma, and pause”, for my sin will not allow me the freedom of awe. It is humility that allows me the experience of awe, but the shame of my sin keeps me from that humility. To repent and forsake sin then, is to free me so that I can return to my true natural state. Repentance, by means of that altar before the Gate, is what allows me entrance back into that Garden, which only the truly humble will enter. Only repentance can free me from shame (that keeps me in hiding) and returns me to the freedom I need to obey, but obedience is only possible from a truly humble heart. It is the humility that comes from true obeisance (now THERE”S a word we should not have left behind!) that allows me into that Presence, which is the Source of all awe. Worship is only possible with “clean hands and a pure heart”. Awe is something a wicked heart can never truly know, then, but awe in that Presence is also what the Garden is all about.
This is one of my favorite verses! Thank you for taking it even deeper!
The Perfecting Protecting Power of Praise
(according as it is written),
~ He that glorieth, — let him glory in the LORD ~
(1 Corinthians 1.31)
~ May the peoples praise You, O God;
May all the peoples praise You! ~
~ Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe His prophets, and you will succeed.” And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise Him in holy array, as they went before the army, and say,
“Give thanks to the LORD, for His steadfast [covenant] Love endures forever.”
And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed ~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY3Y7v2m0k4
~ Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe His prophets, and you will succeed.” And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise Him in holy array, as they went before the army, and say,
“Give thanks to the LORD, for His steadfast [covenant] Love endures forever.”
And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed ~
Carl I love this passage. If you read this entire account, you will find the story of Jehoshaphat tearing down all the high places where the blended worship of YHVH and the pagans were practiced. He restored the pure Torah instruction and Temple (only) worship to Judah and that is why YHVH came to their defense.
What came to me when I read this was the Transfiguration in Matthew. I hope that’s a good mental picture – a cloud of protected conversation.
A poem by Brian St Clair: “I Remember”
No place to hide, but hiding is what I did.
No place to run, but my feet were swift to carry me to places I should have never known.
An orphan on the inside, looking for my parents to make me their own on the outside.
Lost in a home in which I was never found.
A brother and sisters close by in proximity, but far away in every other.
Someone to be strong when I was not strong.
Someone to be whole when I was broken.
Someone to love me when I was unlovable.
A family is a place I belong!
A safe place.
A whole place.
A connecting place.
A loving place.
I remember.