a shelter for joy

a time for Sukkot

“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. / From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint. / Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. / Let me abide in your tent forever, find refuge under the shelter of your wings.”

Those are the opening verses of Psalm 61, one of my many favorites among the psalms. “From the end of the earth, I call to you when my heart is faint.” I have imagined — I have visualized — one lying exhausted on the ledge of a cave at a great mountain height, a ledge protruding over a vast desert landscape.

“Let me…find refuge under the shelter of your wings.”

Let me find shelter in this endless wilderness.

This year Sukkot began on Wednesday evening, October 16. It runs for seven days, ending at sundown on the 23rd. I recently went into a little bit of detail on what Sukkot is. The word means “booths” or “huts.” It is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. Shelters are constructed as reminders of the temporary dwellings of the Israelites during their travels to the Promised Land.

This Gentile has never assembled such a structure. I have never sought shelter in a sukkah. I certainly need shelter, though I confess I don’t come even close to the urgent pleading of the psalmist. Perhaps I am too obtuse to recognize the degree of my need.

Speaking about Sukkot, Jeffrey Tigay says in his commentary on Deuteronomy, “This is the most joyous of the festivals, for which reason it has come to be called zeman simchateynu, ‘the time of our rejoicing.’” (158) Referring to the feast, here’s the final part of 16:15, “for the Lord your God will bless all your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but joy.”

Perhaps I am too obtuse to recognize the joy! Perhaps I am too obtuse to recognize the hospitality of Sukkot, which is expressed in the gracious welcome of others.

There is a shelter from what would quench our joy. Finding shelter under the Lord’s wings speaks of protection, warmth, love, and security. It doesn’t say the Lord is a giant mother hen!

It is protection from the strong tower of the enemy. And there are plenty of strong towers. There are plenty of strongholds. Enemies fear joy. There are enemies within us which banish joy. They would prevent us from living in the freedom of our Lord.

Quoting Isaiah 61, Jesus announces, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18–19)

One of my strongholds, one of my inner enemies, is a particular refusal of that freedom, that joy. My wife and I have been called to get out of the box in which we have dwelt for over two decades. Serving the church as parish pastors was good, but we have been called to something else, to the next step, to the next season. Freedom and joy ask from us — they demand from us — to go forward.

Perhaps that is a lesson the spirit of Sukkot can teach us all.