City on a hill

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City on a hill

A reflection on Psalm 48:12-14
By the Rev. Jim Wilson
Walk about Zion, go all around it, count its towers, consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He/she will be our guide forever.

— Psalm 48:12-14

The city built on a hill,
crowned with the great temple,
a holy place to wanderers, with gates open wide,
that hospitality might be its great hallmark

Ramparts, towers, citadels,
all moot in times of war,
the city overrun when the “guide” is neglected,
and the fortifications of stone are revered

How grand the coming together,
north and south unified on the holy mountain,
treating each other with special care,
welcoming one and all into the midst of the wonder of holiness

Prophets, priests, kings and lepers,
called into the march through time,
guided on the journey by the call of God unto salvation,
passing truth to generation after generation

Free were they to praise God, dancing up the holy mountain
singing; hymns and psalms in total praise
recognizing the leadership toward wholeness
flowing from the throne of God

Trusting not in their mighty war machines,
trusting not in their wealth, trusting not in political alliances,
noting all these fail from time to time
rather noting: “God will be our guide forever.”

Our armies are great, and so are theirs,
freedom, salvation, wholeness, flowing never there from,
filling our lives as we look to this great guide
rather than citadels, ramparts and towers

A nation freed to be whole, a cause to celebrate
and listen carefully for the call to hospitality,
praying to be open vessels
of truth proclamation.

We are called by God into being as a nation, nothing unique about that, the unique will be worthy of celebration when we are determined to allow God to be our guide!

Editor’s note: The Rev. Jim Wilson is a retired clergy member of the Louisiana Conference. For the past 14 months, he has been living in New Orleans while his wife, the Rev. Ellen Blue, also a member of the Louisiana Conference, is conducting a project to learn how The United Methodist Church in New Orleans is reinventing itself following Hurricane Katrina. Blue is on sabbatical from Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Okla., where she is Mouzon Biggs Jr. Associate Professor of the History of Christianity and United Methodist Studies. The couple will return to Tulsa at the end of July.

August 3, 2009