From the Center to the World

Psalm 9:13-14

    Have mercy on me, O LORD!

    Consider my trouble from those who hate me,

    You who lift me up from the gates of death,

    14      That I may tell of all Your praise

    In the gates of the daughter of Zion.

    I will rejoice in Your salvation.

We sit in the gate of Zion here, at the Lord’s table, among His people, at the center of the world. The wicked who think they are God try to convince us that they have the center. Hollywood, DC, Richmond, that’s where it really happens. No, it isn’t. Christ is the center. We ought to go to those places, but we go to colonize, not as wide-eyed country bumpkins coming into town. We go to the gates of Sheol, the gates of death, the gates of hell, which will not prevail against the gates of Zion.

And we go to convince and conquer for Christ.

But we go not as another lobby group among many. We go there from the center. This Word we’ve heard, this bread and wine we eat and drink, are the definition of reality, of the center. And at this table we find atonement shown, your troubles seen and dealt with, arms of forgiveness flung open wide, joy splashed around, sure protection for the asking. All in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms.

6/30/13