Tag: Zion

Photo Credit Anna Christina Fordham

"Going" is what life does. You've heard it said, "Life goes on." The journey doesn't ever stop, even if it is upended by continuous disasters, minuscule and epic.

Psalm 84:5-7 says, "Blessed are those whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion."

The possibility that the heart can move forward when the body is pulling forcefully backward is the present reality of life in Christ on a planet  that is passing away. Believers are assured the journey is toward our heavenly home, an eternity that will never stop, where heart and body finally blend forward in their highways to Zion and arrive there! And then, no more wrenching tears, no more calamitous pain, no more betrayals. No more suffering. No more Valley of Baca...

The Valley of Baca in the Bible can be translated "the valley of weeping." Baca would include any difficult or devastating place in life. Any place of hopelessness. Any place of helplessness. Zion, on the other hand, is the "City of Holiness" or "city of refuge" in the Bible.  It is the place of hope. It is the place where God dwells, where the Lord protects His people. Where suffering ends. Where relationship with God is unhampered and joyful. Where nothing keeps the heart's highways from being Godward. Where nothing prevents the worship of the One True God. Where there is no more doubt. Where there is only certainty that God has kept all His promises. Where God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Where God reigns and all is well.

So how can the springs and early rains even be found in our present "valley of weeping?" Only via hearts that are truly highways to Zion, where Zion is the place of God's presence now and in the future, full of the springs of His life-giving word, packed with the refreshing rains of His mercy and grace, abounding in pools of truth and selfless love. These highways of the heart have no detours, no construction slow-downs, no left-lane sitters. These highways flow unimpeded in one direction - toward Him.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." 

Let the highways of your heart point you to Zion.