For Reading and Meditation:
Psalm 24:1-10
We spend one more day meditating on the words: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." The concluding words of this Beatitude are often misunderstood. Many believe them to have reference to the saints' eternal reward in heaven. Tennyson expressed this thought in his famous lines: "I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar." The thought contained in this phrase, however, is not so much related to seeing God in heaven, but to seeing God now. Seeing God means seeing God in everything. Let me put it another way: not to see God is to fail to find the meaning of life and to see no purpose in anything. Such a condition, one must admit, produces an emotional overload on the personality that leads inevitably to despair. Some who fall prey to this mood can end up committing suicide. As one person commented: "Those who can't see the why have little energy to cope with the what." Seeing God is being acquainted with Him, sensing His acceptance, comprehending what it means to be forgiven and made anew. Raymond Cramer puts it beautifully when he says: "To the pure in heart, seeing God is viewing a stained glass window from the inside rather than the outside. The pure in heart are aware of a reality which most people miss. They are sure of God." Seeing God must be connected with purity of heart, for we must see and sense God first in our own inner being before we can see Him and sense Him elsewhere. See Him within and you will not fail to see Him without.
Gracious and loving Father, I recognise that an uncleansed heart causes more ill health and more unhappiness than anything else. Help me take the prescription You have given me with a thankful heart. Amen.