Get thee up into the high mountain ...

I've sung this passage many times in Handel's Messiah but it took on a whole new meaning to me this morning [as God's Word often does when I stop and ponder].

“O Zion, that bringest good tidings, 

get thee up into the high mountain;

 O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, 

lift up thy voice with strength; 

lift it up, be not afraid; 

say unto the cities of Judah, 

Behold your God!”

(Isa 40:9 KJV)

Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of our Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see but little: the mountain itself appears to be but one-half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the foot of the mountain. Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and widens beneath your feet. Go higher, and you see the country for four or five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening prospect. Mount still, and the scene enlarges; till at last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north, and south, you see almost all England lying before you. Yonder is a forest in some distant county, perhaps two hundred miles away, and here the sea, and there a shining river and the smoking chimneys of a manufacturing town, or the masts of the ships in a busy port. All these things please and delight you, and you say, “I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation.” Now, the Christian life is of the same order. When we first believe in Christ we see but little of Him. The higher we climb the more we discover of His beauties. But who has ever gained the summit? Who has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, “I know whom I have believed,” for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial had been like ascending another summit, and his death seemed like gaining the top of the mountain, from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of Him to whom he had committed his soul. Get thee up, dear friend, into the high mountain. [Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, June 25]

My son in the Tennessee mountains

Thank you, Lord, for the many experiences of my life that help me see Your faithfulness and love.