portion

This week worship begins with:

Lamentations 3:20–24

My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call

to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never

ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is

your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will

hope in him.”

"bowed down" (šûaḥ) is an unfortunate translation because it often describes worship.  Other translations use "depressed", "bent over", "humbled", or "languishes" because the soul is in torment because of its own memories.

The prior verse contains those memories and a prayer to God that God too would join with him in these memories.

Lamentations 3:19

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

    the wormwood and the gall! 

But then out of the memories, many of which would crush the soul, one arises.  

Lamentations 3:21-22

But this I call to mind,

    and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

    his mercies never come to an end;

This does not erase the memories or the current circumstance.  It gives hope.  The ultimate hope is that "The LORD is my portion".  That "portion" (ḥēleq) is an inheritance.  It is what will come.

way

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 85:10-13

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from

the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.

Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.

Steadfast love and Faithfulness never ceased, but they were no longer working together.  Righteousness and Peace had not seen each other since the Garden of Eden.  

For when sin entered the world, Righteousness retreated to heaven and Peace splintered into the isolation caused by hiding from God.  So, Steadfast Love and Faithfulness were separated by the gulf that was caused.

But here, we are witnessing their grand reunion, and a grand blessing for our good that the Psalmist knows will become the Way (dereḵ).

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

unchangeable

This week we begin worship with:

Hebrews 6:17-18

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 

His oath was "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." (Hebrews 6:14).

It was quoted from:

Genesis 22:16-17
“By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.”

While a promise was sufficient, God sealed it with a vow.  Why?  For us, our encouragement.  Nothing more.

We rest in the "unchangeable".

James 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Teacher

This Easter morning we begin worship with:

John 20:11-16
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

John was very specific: two angels positioned one at the head one at the feet.  We will see two angels again at the Ascension.

Acts 1:9-11

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” 

And we have seen them before, or at least a carved image of them on the mercy seat.

Exodus 25:21-22

And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. 

What John wanted to make sure was understood, this is not simply another resurrected man like Lazarus (John 11:38-44), but rather the Eternal Teacher, who commanded Moses from the Mercy seat, and who commanded us from the mountain:

Acts 1:7-8

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Rabboni!