In My Heart A Highway

“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” – Psalm 84:5

We’re now in the thick of the holiday travel season, with more Americans than ever (over 110 million) traveling this year, according to the AAA. We ourselves are girding up for a flight back East: no small thing for six people in terms of cost and hassle, but going back to their grandparents’ house is probably the thing the kids are most looking forward this winter break.

The Psalmist here longs for a house, the temple of God. A day there, he says, is better than lifetimes elsewhere. If I stop long enough, I realize this is the longing underneath all my longings. What I long for in the latest Star Wars movie, heart-to-heart catch-up conversations with old friends, meeting a new nephew, returning to my childhood home, and everything else that may happen during this trip—all of it is really the longing for the epic glory, the intimate understanding, the wonder and belonging I find in the presence of God. 

The journey to God’s presence is pictured here as a pilgrimage, one with obstacles, of which Palestine had its share. The geography there was rugged, with central hilly spines, desert regions with twisting narrow valleys, unpassable sandy dunes along coastal plains. Getting from one place to another was not straightforward, and the importance of highways like the Via Maris and the King’s Highway were well known.

Happiness, says the Psalmist, the meeting of my longings, comes when there are highways to Zion in my heart. Open, level, protected, oft-trod ways in my inner being that lead me to the strength of God’s presence. What are these highways? Perhaps attending to the integrity of my inner mental life. Maintaining spiritual routines that tend to get thrown off during travel. Being fully present to unexpected experiences of God’s presence and glory. Actively resisting distractions and temptations. Looking back on the roads of the past year. Whatever it is, it is something inside us; it involves knowing well and navigating wisely the inner topography of our hearts and minds.

In the ancient near east, being constantly in a diety’s presence was a privilege much longed for, expressed by Babylonian kings and hymns to Marduk. Some worshippers went to great lengths to find their gods. According to one footnote, “in the third millennium BC, Sumerian worshippers tried to accomplish this objective by placing statuettes of themselves in the posture of prayer in the temple.” The revolutionary thing about the Christmas message is that Jesus came to us, not the other way around. When he did, the words that came to John the Baptist and the writer of the gospel of Mark were these from Isaiah: “make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” (Isaiah 40:3-5). Jesus himself said, “I am the way.” The obstacles are removed. There is raised up for us a way, straight through to the happiness and strength our hearts long for.