The Lord is the psalmist’s
strength and song because in the “day that the Lord has made” the right arm of
the Lord has done mighty things. But what about in the day when “the Lord
punished me sorely” and the only place left to go was to be handed over to
death? If every day is a day the Lord has made then
the Lord is my strength and my song everyday even in the dark
day of death. That is why we can speak the words of Psalm 118 “there are shouts
of joy and victory in the tents of the righteous” when we gather under a tent
at a graveside service. Granted our shouts of joy and victory are subdued by
tear stained eyes and sobbing but then contrary to popular thought it is not
our voice that the dearly departed hears. No. They hear the vast multitude too
great too count – a hundred trillion, gazillion voices and beyond shouting
Alleluia (the aloha of heaven) for while we look at a casket and wonder how we
can go on without them the one who has crossed over is filled with the wonder
of beauty beyond imagination, joy beyond description, love that cannot be
contained, life that is pure and full of peace, holy and eternal. Those are the
voices longtime Calvary member Susan Thomas heard yesterday afternoon when she
took her last breath in this life only to take her first breath in the next. As
beautiful as Easter services will be at Calvary this Sunday I can’t imagine
Susan will be sorry to miss them this year. We will miss her. I know I will.
But the promise of Psalm 118 is that one day we will know what she knows and
when the gates of righteousness open for us Susan’s voice will be one of the
vast multitude that welcomes us shouting Alleluia! Aloha!
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