Wednesday 07 July 2021

Psalm 15

Background

I like to sit around a campfire on a summer’s evening. People share fellowship and stories around the fire, but everyone’s gaze is drawn powerfully to the dancing flames – as the evening draws on it becomes harder and harder to see the other faces, but the flames stand out clearer and clearer before you.

This passage is one of the most significant images in the Bible and provides symbols which have been adopted, interpreted and preached about for thousands of years. Moses is off the beaten track in the wilderness when he is drawn to a strange fire from within this bush which is aflame but not burning (strangely, people tend to refer to this as the ‘burning bush’, which it definitely was not!). The fire is somehow an ‘angel’, or perhaps more accurately in English, a ‘messenger’ but when Moses approaches, it is a direct meeting with God that follows. The fire is a sign in the environment that invites and guides Moses into divine encounter.

Asking Moses to remove his sandals could be interpreted in various ways. It is a common sign of respect in various cultures, and it also brings Moses into a new relationship with the place at which God is meeting him.

God confirms that there has been a continuous relationship with Moses’ Israelite ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The identity of God is revealed in a way which is bound up with human relationships and rooted in human history; God is intimately concerned with our lives. Yet God is also beyond us and beyond our comprehension. Moses hides his face so that the revelation is not complete. This fear is a consistent notion in the Hebrew scriptures, that direct contact with God is so awesome and overwhelming that it could kill a human being. The fire that began the encounter is a helpful symbol – it draws us towards itself, lights our environment and leads us to see it in new ways, yet it is also to be fearfully respected and not to be approached too closely.

 To Ponder:

• What signs might you see in your environment that draw you into encounter with God?
• How do you feel about the presence of God? When do you feel comforted? When do you feel awe, respect and fear?

 Prayer

Jesus, confirm my heart's desire
to work, and speak, and think for thee;
still let me guard the holy fire,
and still stir up the gift in me.  (Charles Wesley, StF 564)