Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 352 · December 18
When They Said
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.”
A car park on a wet morning, engine off, wipers stopped, and a hand that has not gone to the door handle yet.
So, about that first half. The gladness in it is fixed to a particular moment, and he never says he was glad to go. I was glad when they said unto me. Somebody else opened their mouth, and the words were let us, and that is where the joy in the sentence is located: in being included in a plan that was already forming without him having to organise it.
This is one of the songs of degrees, sung on the road by people walking up to Jerusalem in company, so the next line comes out plural and about feet. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. The reasons the psalm gives for caring about the place are all other people. The tribes go up. Thrones of judgment are set there, which means somebody's case gets heard. Luke reports the same habit in one clause about Jesus at Nazareth: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day. A routine, not a mood. And at the end: For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good. He wants the city to do well because of who is in it.
Which raises two questions worth taking into the week, and I am not going to answer either for you. When did somebody last say let us go to you, in any form, about anything to do with God? And whose name would be in that sentence if you were the one saying it on Saturday?
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 352 is Secret Prayer, Open Reward (Matthew 6:6).