 |
| Westminster Abbey, London, layout plan dated 1894 |
I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
In the day when I cried out, You answered me,
And made me bold with strength in my soul.
All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord,
When they hear the words of Your mouth.
Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
For great is the glory of the Lord.
Though the Lord is on high,
Yet He regards the lowly;
But the proud He knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord,
When they hear the words of Your mouth.
Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
For great is the glory of the Lord.
Though the Lord is on high,
Yet He regards the lowly;
But the proud He knows from afar.
When they hear the words of Your mouth.
Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
For great is the glory of the Lord.
Though the Lord is on high,
Yet He regards the lowly;
But the proud He knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
Psalm 138 is about praising God in the midst of things... hence the blog entry title... because I'm Captain Obvious (the archenemy of Captain Crunch). David discusses several instances of giving God worship in the middle of things. He starts the poem off by stating that he would praise God with his whole heart. Why do emotional and romantic poems and songs always talk about the heart? The heart honestly has nothing to do with emotion or love...that's more of a brain thing. Yet it's been that way for millennia. My guess is that it is because the heart is in the middle of the body. It is at the core of your physical being. So the heart symbolizes what you feel in the most inner part of you. At the center (or heart) of Christian worship (for most) is the weekly gathering on Sundays, when congregations of believers gather in a church building. At the center of many of these church buildings is a cross. No literally, if the church is a basilica (or related architectural structure) then it was intentionally built with a cross design in the midst of its foundation. Basilica has a few definitions, but its most basic architectural meaning is a church with a central nave, aisles and a transept section. Basilicas are interesting in that their cruciform foundation testifies to the purpose of the building/faith but the history of basilicas as a church architectural form testifies to the foundational years of Christianity after the Apostles.
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
I will worship toward Your holy temple,
Basilicas were originally huge government buildings in Rome Empire. The Romans borrowed the idea of this great public government chamber from the Greeks. The word "basillica" comes from the Greek βασιλική στοά: The word for a tribunal/stoa/house/palace of a king (basileus). Why would one associate a king's palace with a public tribunal? Well before the contemporary notion divided government (and checks and balances) king's were not only the executive of government, but he judged legal cases (think King Solomon in the Israelite context). Roman emperors (and even governors) also held the powers of a judge. Before the legalization of Christianity, Rome was a Pagan, religiously pluralistic empire that was as antagonistic to Christianity. Actually the clash with Christianity centered around the fact that it was so Monotheistic (and didn't share the protected status that Judaism had). Christianity was illegal and Christians were persecuted for not being polytheistic like most of their neighbors. So the basilica not only stood as a symbol of the Roman state, but the state of polytheism that oppressed the monotheists. After Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity and later made it the official state religion, basilicas would eventually become the seat of church government. Christian bishops would change from being seen as organizers of crime to running a government organization. When Constantine sought a model to be emulated for church buildings, he used the architectural format of government basilicas. Before their Christianizing (I could have just wrote christening, but you get the idea) basilicas lacked the transept section. They had the central nave, aisles and columns but were essentially a hall type structure. The choosing of the basilica architectural format was a very practical choice: they needed a structure that could house hundreds of people at a time. In essence basilicas became the first "mega churches." Constantine's alteration of Roman religious life also altered its architectural landscape and the future of Europe (it can be argued that Christendom later created our notion of Europe). In choosing basilicas for the Christian worship center Constantine changed the "kings house" to a house of prayer to the "king of kings." Basilicas testify to the evolution of the Church in Rome: a city that once knelled before the Pagan gods and idols now sang praise to the One true God.
All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord,
When they hear the words of Your mouth.
Since Rome was an Empire its new state religion of Christianity had access to many nations, languages and people groups. Even before its legalization, Christianity's missionaries (like St. Paul) utilized the Roman Empire's network of roads to spread the Gospel to far away lands. There are legends that St. Paul made it all the way to Spain in his missionary travels. This is probably not true but Christianity did reach the region in his lifetime (or at least soon afterward). Rome's territory stretched all of the way to the British Isles in those days. Eventually Rome would start sending Christian bishops to its outer possessions. They were utilized for their spiritual vocation but also for secular government work. Remember, these were men who could read and write and literacy was a rare and powerful skill the farther you travelled from the more civilized parts of the Empire. Wherever they worked they built churches and spread the language of the empire (Latin... at least in the Western section of the empire). The church buildings may have occasionally added a few aspects of local design and building materials but the general architectural structure was still the basilica format. The network of a common language of learning and worship (Latin), religion, notions of government and military, trade and roads would eventually give rise to what we would later recognize as European culture. Still to this day churches of various stripes of Christianity and of various European countries (and ex European colonies) utilize the cruciform structure of basilicas. One of those is Westminster Abbey in London... in the former outpost of the Roman Empire that became an Empire of even greater size (Britain). Westminster Abbey has both a government and religious function (since the British monarch is also the ceremonial leader of the Anglican Church worldwide). All English/British monarchs since 1066 have held their coronations in this church. It is also the site of the weddings and funerals of the royals. All of this pomp and circumstance should not distract us from the fact that it is still a functioning Christian church. Each week parishioners gather to worship Jesus. In 2010 Pope Benedict (who is the Bishop of the city of Rome) visited Westminster Abbey and reminders of the past and present of the basilica architectural style came together in one place. That Sunday Christians of historic differences assembled in this basilica, united in worship with the cross underneath them as their foundation. They sang Psalm 138. The kings and rulers of the Earth have heard the words of the Lord's mouth and praised His Name.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
When King David wrote Psalm 138 basilicas didn't exist. The temple in Jerusalem didn't even exist yet. To my knowledge David never travelled to Rome or London... they were not even important yet. He knew nothing of a collective European culture or Christendom. What he did know about though was trouble. He knew about the trouble that came from protecting his sheep from predators and the trouble that came from protecting the Israelites from Philistines. He also would come to understood the trouble that lurked within his own lustful heart. David understood that God revives believers in the midst of trouble. DISCLAIMER: Let me be perfectly clear on this point; though God can always be trusted to save your soul, God has not promised to always save your life. He will not always heal you, fix your finances or deliver you from a perceived threat. He can do it but He does not always decide to do it. This may come as a shock to some Christians believers who have been taught: and it may seem like common sense to non-believers and the non-religious. Faith is not about being able to coerce or change the will of God to our benefit but trusting the will of God and trusting God as a friend who has your best interests at heart. Truth be told God will not always heal your body, because sickness or bodily deterioration is always the prerequisite of death and death is one of the ingredients in the process of salvation (you can't rise from the dead unless your dead first... am I right zombies?) When God promises to revive us in the midst of trouble, it is a promise to re-energize us with the power of the Holy Spirit. It enables us to live out the spiritual fruit of long suffering... and do it with a joy that frankly makes Christians look bonkers. But who cares what people think when you have peace that passes understanding? One of the greatest examples of this is the story of the martyrdom of the early Christian bishop Polycarp. He was one of those fortunate enough to be a disciple of the Apostle John, who had been a disciple of Jesus (and he was probably also six degrees of separation away from Kevin Bacon). Polycarp was also one of those unfortunate souls that lived in the Roman Empire in a period of great persecution of Christians. In his era (well before Christianity's legalization) the local basilica in his hometown of Smyrna (in the Roman province of Asia Minor: modern day Turkey) was just another government tribunal. A place to receive judgment from a government that deemed Christianity as criminal. At this given point the conflict between the Roman state and Christianity wasn't just due to Christians refusal to bow to Pagan gods but rather their refusal to bow to the Roman emperor as a god. The pledge of loyalty to the state at this particular time was to burn incense in worship to the Roman ruler. Polycarp could not bring himself to worship any false god, let alone a man parading himself to be a deity. This act of treason against the State brought Polycarp a death sentence. Polycarp met the days leading up to his execution with joy. His spirit was revived because he knew that the Roman State could only destroy his mortal body. The true core of who he was had already been saved by God. His martyrdom would only release his spirit from its earthly shell and send it to freedom with God. The Roman basilica may have judged Polycarp but God was judging the Roman basilica. Within two hundred years God would execute a death sentence on what the basilica had been and resurrect it to new life in His purpose. No longer would it be the place of judgment against men who worshiped the Christian God: God re-christened it to be the place where men would worship in gratitude of being free from God's judgment.
Sometimes God doesn't deliver you from the fire but rather jumps in with you
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
The enduring legacy of Basilicas reveal the fulfillment of the plea in the last stanza of Psalm 138:God does not forsake the work of His hands. Men built basilicas. before basilicas they illegally gathered to worship in houses and amongst the tombs of catacombs. Basilica architecture is still utilized in many church buildings but there are many contemporary styles gathering places for worship. Maybe you meet in a small store-front church. Maybe you attend bible study in the chapel of a hospital you are confined to or the prison that you are incarcerated in. God can be worshiped anywhere as long as, like a basilica, the cross is the foundation. God didn't build basilicas: he built men... and then he rebuilt them. The book of Genesis tells us that God created Adam and Eve by hand from the dust of the earth: God recreates us spiritually in the midst of our spiritual dirtiness. Christ's cross is at the foundation of our spiritual cleansing and reconstruction. Jesus was a carpenter by trade: a man who was used to working with his hands. This woodworker's greatest work was wrought on two intersecting pieces of wood. The next time you see a church building, walk into it. Walk around and appreciate ate its basilica architectural foundation. Then take time to reflect upon what that design element speaks of. It symbolizes a new foundation for you: one where God will never leave or forsake you. It is a foundation of a God who will be with you in the midst of it all.
 |
| Westminster Abbey |
I will worship toward Your holy temple,
Basilicas were originally huge government buildings in Rome Empire. The Romans borrowed the idea of this great public government chamber from the Greeks. The word "basillica" comes from the Greek βασιλική στοά: The word for a tribunal/stoa/house/palace of a king (basileus). Why would one associate a king's palace with a public tribunal? Well before the contemporary notion divided government (and checks and balances) king's were not only the executive of government, but he judged legal cases (think King Solomon in the Israelite context). Roman emperors (and even governors) also held the powers of a judge. Before the legalization of Christianity, Rome was a Pagan, religiously pluralistic empire that was as antagonistic to Christianity. Actually the clash with Christianity centered around the fact that it was so Monotheistic (and didn't share the protected status that Judaism had). Christianity was illegal and Christians were persecuted for not being polytheistic like most of their neighbors. So the basilica not only stood as a symbol of the Roman state, but the state of polytheism that oppressed the monotheists. After Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity and later made it the official state religion, basilicas would eventually become the seat of church government. Christian bishops would change from being seen as organizers of crime to running a government organization. When Constantine sought a model to be emulated for church buildings, he used the architectural format of government basilicas. Before their Christianizing (I could have just wrote christening, but you get the idea) basilicas lacked the transept section. They had the central nave, aisles and columns but were essentially a hall type structure. The choosing of the basilica architectural format was a very practical choice: they needed a structure that could house hundreds of people at a time. In essence basilicas became the first "mega churches." Constantine's alteration of Roman religious life also altered its architectural landscape and the future of Europe (it can be argued that Christendom later created our notion of Europe). In choosing basilicas for the Christian worship center Constantine changed the "kings house" to a house of prayer to the "king of kings." Basilicas testify to the evolution of the Church in Rome: a city that once knelled before the Pagan gods and idols now sang praise to the One true God.
 |
| "The Coronation Theatre, Westminster Abbey: A Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2012", painted by Ralph Heimans |
When they hear the words of Your mouth.
Since Rome was an Empire its new state religion of Christianity had access to many nations, languages and people groups. Even before its legalization, Christianity's missionaries (like St. Paul) utilized the Roman Empire's network of roads to spread the Gospel to far away lands. There are legends that St. Paul made it all the way to Spain in his missionary travels. This is probably not true but Christianity did reach the region in his lifetime (or at least soon afterward). Rome's territory stretched all of the way to the British Isles in those days. Eventually Rome would start sending Christian bishops to its outer possessions. They were utilized for their spiritual vocation but also for secular government work. Remember, these were men who could read and write and literacy was a rare and powerful skill the farther you travelled from the more civilized parts of the Empire. Wherever they worked they built churches and spread the language of the empire (Latin... at least in the Western section of the empire). The church buildings may have occasionally added a few aspects of local design and building materials but the general architectural structure was still the basilica format. The network of a common language of learning and worship (Latin), religion, notions of government and military, trade and roads would eventually give rise to what we would later recognize as European culture. Still to this day churches of various stripes of Christianity and of various European countries (and ex European colonies) utilize the cruciform structure of basilicas. One of those is Westminster Abbey in London... in the former outpost of the Roman Empire that became an Empire of even greater size (Britain). Westminster Abbey has both a government and religious function (since the British monarch is also the ceremonial leader of the Anglican Church worldwide). All English/British monarchs since 1066 have held their coronations in this church. It is also the site of the weddings and funerals of the royals. All of this pomp and circumstance should not distract us from the fact that it is still a functioning Christian church. Each week parishioners gather to worship Jesus. In 2010 Pope Benedict (who is the Bishop of the city of Rome) visited Westminster Abbey and reminders of the past and present of the basilica architectural style came together in one place. That Sunday Christians of historic differences assembled in this basilica, united in worship with the cross underneath them as their foundation. They sang Psalm 138. The kings and rulers of the Earth have heard the words of the Lord's mouth and praised His Name.
 |
| Westminster Abbey |
When King David wrote Psalm 138 basilicas didn't exist. The temple in Jerusalem didn't even exist yet. To my knowledge David never travelled to Rome or London... they were not even important yet. He knew nothing of a collective European culture or Christendom. What he did know about though was trouble. He knew about the trouble that came from protecting his sheep from predators and the trouble that came from protecting the Israelites from Philistines. He also would come to understood the trouble that lurked within his own lustful heart. David understood that God revives believers in the midst of trouble. DISCLAIMER: Let me be perfectly clear on this point; though God can always be trusted to save your soul, God has not promised to always save your life. He will not always heal you, fix your finances or deliver you from a perceived threat. He can do it but He does not always decide to do it. This may come as a shock to some Christians believers who have been taught: and it may seem like common sense to non-believers and the non-religious. Faith is not about being able to coerce or change the will of God to our benefit but trusting the will of God and trusting God as a friend who has your best interests at heart. Truth be told God will not always heal your body, because sickness or bodily deterioration is always the prerequisite of death and death is one of the ingredients in the process of salvation (you can't rise from the dead unless your dead first... am I right zombies?) When God promises to revive us in the midst of trouble, it is a promise to re-energize us with the power of the Holy Spirit. It enables us to live out the spiritual fruit of long suffering... and do it with a joy that frankly makes Christians look bonkers. But who cares what people think when you have peace that passes understanding? One of the greatest examples of this is the story of the martyrdom of the early Christian bishop Polycarp. He was one of those fortunate enough to be a disciple of the Apostle John, who had been a disciple of Jesus (and he was probably also six degrees of separation away from Kevin Bacon). Polycarp was also one of those unfortunate souls that lived in the Roman Empire in a period of great persecution of Christians. In his era (well before Christianity's legalization) the local basilica in his hometown of Smyrna (in the Roman province of Asia Minor: modern day Turkey) was just another government tribunal. A place to receive judgment from a government that deemed Christianity as criminal. At this given point the conflict between the Roman state and Christianity wasn't just due to Christians refusal to bow to Pagan gods but rather their refusal to bow to the Roman emperor as a god. The pledge of loyalty to the state at this particular time was to burn incense in worship to the Roman ruler. Polycarp could not bring himself to worship any false god, let alone a man parading himself to be a deity. This act of treason against the State brought Polycarp a death sentence. Polycarp met the days leading up to his execution with joy. His spirit was revived because he knew that the Roman State could only destroy his mortal body. The true core of who he was had already been saved by God. His martyrdom would only release his spirit from its earthly shell and send it to freedom with God. The Roman basilica may have judged Polycarp but God was judging the Roman basilica. Within two hundred years God would execute a death sentence on what the basilica had been and resurrect it to new life in His purpose. No longer would it be the place of judgment against men who worshiped the Christian God: God re-christened it to be the place where men would worship in gratitude of being free from God's judgment.
Sometimes God doesn't deliver you from the fire but rather jumps in with you
 |
| Westminster Abbey |
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
The enduring legacy of Basilicas reveal the fulfillment of the plea in the last stanza of Psalm 138:God does not forsake the work of His hands. Men built basilicas. before basilicas they illegally gathered to worship in houses and amongst the tombs of catacombs. Basilica architecture is still utilized in many church buildings but there are many contemporary styles gathering places for worship. Maybe you meet in a small store-front church. Maybe you attend bible study in the chapel of a hospital you are confined to or the prison that you are incarcerated in. God can be worshiped anywhere as long as, like a basilica, the cross is the foundation. God didn't build basilicas: he built men... and then he rebuilt them. The book of Genesis tells us that God created Adam and Eve by hand from the dust of the earth: God recreates us spiritually in the midst of our spiritual dirtiness. Christ's cross is at the foundation of our spiritual cleansing and reconstruction. Jesus was a carpenter by trade: a man who was used to working with his hands. This woodworker's greatest work was wrought on two intersecting pieces of wood. The next time you see a church building, walk into it. Walk around and appreciate ate its basilica architectural foundation. Then take time to reflect upon what that design element speaks of. It symbolizes a new foundation for you: one where God will never leave or forsake you. It is a foundation of a God who will be with you in the midst of it all.
No comments:
Post a Comment