Ruach Breath Of Life

Learning to worship, and to be content in all circumstances is not something that comes easily to most of us. When we have endured many stern and bruising challenges, it can be hard to pursue and grasp hold of that spirit. Having found, or more probably rediscovered it, however, knowing when to rest in contentment, and when (and how) to resist something that is not right, is a matter of both experience and discernment. (Compare Luke 3:14, 1 Tim. 6:8 and Heb. 13:5 with James 4:7 and 1 Pet. 5:9) One thing is for certain, all who are eager to move in the power of God will inevitably find themselves going through many tests and trials, just as David did – however much smaller out own may be. As the Jewish sage Joshua ben Sirach reminds us, My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for testing. Set your heart right and be steadfast, and do not be impetuous in time of calamity. Cling to Him and do not depart, so that your last days may be prosperous. Accept whatever befalls you,

When Absalom launched his lethal attack against his father, and drove King David into the wilderness, we can imagine the pain in David's father heart. In this piece we have imagined David longing for his son in such a way that we can make it the basis for our own cries to God on behalf of those we love and are concerned for, but who are currently not walking with the Lord Jesus. The stunning first piece of music is by Francis Cummings and is called Síocháin: which evokes a calm and gentle peace in Irish Gaelic. As the name indicates, the music is in the Celtic tradition. This is followed by a lovely piece for piano by Justin Coldstream that we have called 'Inheritance.' It looks forward to our children and loved ones reaching out to receive the new birth that the Lord is offering them: 'a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, and which is kept in Heaven for you, who, through faith, are shielded by God’s power until the

Jesus boldly declared that ‘The meek with inherit the Earth.’ (Matt. 5:5) But who are the meek? It is not primarily people who have a particularly ‘docile’ nature whom Jesus is talking about here, but rather those who have deliberately humbled themselves before the Lord of Heaven and Earth, and asked Him to be Lord of their lives. Consciously and contritely, they have acknowledged their need of His cleansing and restoration – and in His love and mercy, God has noted and welcomed their reaching out to Him, and made them part of His eternal Kingdom. This lovely song, written by Francis Cummings and sung by Linda Entwistle, brings together twin themes: David’s plea of repentance in Psalm 51 following his moral lapse with Bathsheba, and his great thirst for the Lord, which we have been exploring in Psalm 63. May these qualities of profound repentance on the one hand, and spiritual thirst and desire on the other, be the ongoing stamp and hallmark of our lives – and, in time, of the many ‘prodigals’ we are prayin

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. (Ps. 63:7) What a blessing it is when, having been caught up in challenging trials and tribulations, there come times of deep such peace and settledness, when we sense the Lord as it were spreading His wings over us. As our friend, the poet Laurie Klein writes, we live in the shadow of God’s ‘wingdom.’ I love that thought! I wonder what the phrase ‘in the shadow of His wings’ speaks of to you?

Many of us will be in the habit of drawing up checklists before setting out on major trips. On a spiritual plane, it is worth checking, too, just what is it that our hearts are a-thirst for. Is it for the Lord’s presence and purposes, or for something more self-centred? May we continue to thirst, long and even pine for the Lord in the way that David speaks of in Psalm 63 – even in those times when we feel more aware of the Lord’s absence than of His presence! As we draw this series to a close, we read the psalm right through one final time, as interpreted by the NLT editors, occasional phrases from the CEV, along with many of the tremendous truths that David declares in Psalm 145. We have set the readings to a piece called Adonai, written and played for us on the Celtic harp by Jane Horsfall.

It can be tempting to put Biblical characters – as well as certain high-profile believers through – on a pedestal as we consider their great exploits and compare them with our own. But, as James writes concerning Elijah, they are people ‘just like us, and . . .’ (Jas. 5:17) I love that ‘and!’ Think of all God adds when we turn and seek Him! David is another such. Like many of us, he had to pass through many bleak and barren wildernesses, and knew His sustaining power even as the pressures piled on, and his life appeared on more than one occasion to be hanging by a mere thread, as the choices and decisions he had made over many years were all illumined by the stark desert light, that was itself a picture of God’s eternal searchlight. Whether as the result of some acute peril, or through the sheer monotony of life in the wilderness, there are crunch times when our human resources seem totally insufficient for the situation that we are facing. But never forget the ‘and.’ The Almighty God is always our refuge a

It is not until the last three verses of Psalm 63 that David hints at what he has really been up against, and all that he has to overcome. It is a powerful testimony of faith – as well as a sobering reminder of the fate that awaited those who were seeking his life. The music is from Robert Weston’s ‘Evin Suite,’ and a piece he wrote for cor anglais called ‘The Song of the Stranger in a Strange Land,’ written specifically to help us pray for people who have been displaced.

Finding ourselves in a wilderness of one sort or another can leave us inclined to look back nostalgically to those times when we have seen the Lord so clearly in His sanctuary, and known Him move so powerfully. We long to be back into that place where we delighted in the sense of His presence, and His ready provision that satisfies our needs. Whatever the origin of the wildernesses – yes, even those we have brought on ourselves by our own recklessness or neglect – the invitation to come into His sanctuary remains wide open to us. Beyond each wilderness lies a spacious place. The track is accompanied by a lovely Jewish-inspired piece written by Jane Horsfall, Chai Adonai. The Lord is the Lord of Life! (‘Chai’ means ‘life’ and Adonai is ‘Lord’).

The music that accompanies this outpouring of devotion to God is an instrumental version of a truly exquisite ancient Easter hymn in the Gregorian tradition, O Sons and Daughters of the King. (O filii et filiae).

In a ‘dry and weary land’ David reflects on his own physical and emotional exhaustion. Weariness often comes in waves: the tide flows in and we feel invigorated and motivated – and then out it goes again, and with it goes our energy and our hope. This is a very poignant track, set to a moving improvisation music played by friends in Berlin in the summer of 2022, which we have called ‘ Les Brumes' ('The mists' – but the word somehow conjures up more than that!)

For so many people, the night, with its thoughts and longings, can be a time when fears and concerns bombard the mind. But the darkness is as light to the Lord, and darkness cannot remain where the Lord Himself is – and as David discovered the wakeful, ‘dread-full’ hours are precisely those we can spend with Him, and thereby avoid giving way to fears and dark thoughts. Moonlight sonata

Everything in life is changing and transitory . . . except the Lord, who is from everlasting to everlasting. He remains the same, and His years will never end. (Ps. 102:27 NIV). This beautiful and powerful song is based on verses 18 and 27 of Psalm 102, and celebrates the wonderful truth that before our world came into existence, God already was. He is the ‘Ancient of Days’ and He, like His Son Jesus, are the same yesterday, today and forever. May the Lord root this glorious truth ever deeper in our hearts – and let it be written (and sung!) in the generations to come, so that a people not yet created may praise Him. This arrangement of Huw’s song, by Justin Coldstream, is sung by Megan Topper, accompanied by Justin Coldstream (keyboard), Francis Cummings, Philippa Barton, Christiane Mueller, Jo Garcia (strings), Anthony Thompson (trumpet), Peter Richards (French horn). (Song Copyright Huw Humphreys 1990)

We have no idea how long David spent in the desert on this occasion. How many nights did he spend out in the wilderness, at risk from animals and his foes alike? Yet, David found ways to strengthen himself in the Lord, even under the onslaught of devastating betrayal and attack. In his youth it had been from King Saul, and it had been from raiders at Ziklag, when even his own people were speaking of stoning him, and then there was this dreadful time when his own son led a full-scale rebellion against him. But always, David turned to the Lord. (1 Sam. 23:14; 30:6; 2 Sam. 15:23) When pangs of despair press in hard on every side, mere knowledge about God is never going to help us; we must cry out to Him and thrust our way upwards through the darkness to come before the throne of God: “Bring me through, Lord. Open the way. Make it possible. Don’t abandon the work of your hands!” The Lord is no stranger to the desert. The ark of His presence hung suspended from poles as the Levites carried it through the wilderne

We love it when the water of life is flowing freely through us,’ when praise flows and prayer is just a sheer joy. But how do we cope when, for either a short or a long time, our ‘water levels’ seem to recede and, like David, we find ourselves in a dry and waterless place; when seeking the Lord feels dull, and our circumstances so cramping and constricting that it feels as though all the life is being squeezed out of us. At times like these, we are more aware of the Lord’s absence than His presence, and even the thought of finding our joy in the Lord, and ‘riding in triumph on the heights of the land,’ as Isaiah puts it, seems a remote prospect. (cf Is. 58:14) In this waterless wilderness, a place of inner strife as well as outward hunger, thirsty and exhausted, David reached out beyond his own plight and deliberately ‘hooked’ himself into the Lord’s goodness by meditating on Him and clinging to Him, remembering all the help He had sent from His sanctuary. When we choose praise over despair, our worship b

It is night. David is sitting in the doorway of the improvised tent he has pitched in the Judean wilderness, looking out at what lies in front of him. The moon and the stars are illuminating a sweeping expanse of bare sand and rock, a drear, dry and waterless place, as different as can be from the green pastures and still waters of the sheepfolds of his youth. David was a poet at heart, and he sees in the landscape a mirror to the highly challenging circumstances he found himself in, and the barren condition of his inmost heart and mind. His resilience is at an all-time low, his faith and courage stretched almost to breaking point. Is this where it will all end for him? He recalls all the wonderful times he used to enjoy in the sanctuary of the Lord: the brightly coloured robes and fragrant incense, the words and music flowing together; a place where the only overshadow came from the cherubim of God, not from any dark power trying to snuff out his life. He craves again that all-encompassing sense of the Lo

We are used to thinking of God as the All-mighty King. What a precious theme that is to ponder on! I have been reflecting recently on that word ‘all’, and the ‘allness’ – the completeness and totality – of God. John has such rich things to say about the all-encompassing intimacy and perfect love that exists between the Father, Son and Spirit, and the completeness of their plan in bringing Creation to birth. No wonder the word ‘all’ occurs so often in Scripture, including in well over three hundred verses in the psalms! Sally, Colin, Harmony and I in this selection of some of these, accompanied by lovely music that we recorded last year at House of the Open Door. Music: Torelli, Sinfonia in C, 3rd movement Musicians: Anthony Thompson on trumpet (all 4 of them!), Peter Richards on the organ, Francis Cummings and Shirley Richards on violin, Christiane Mueller on viola and Corinne Frost on cello.

Music: Mystery Improvisation Musicians: Christiane von Albrecht on piano and Shirley Richards on violin Vivaldi, Cum Sancto Spiritu, from his Gloria in D Musicians: Nicola, Megan, Mike, Peter, Anthony, Francis, Philippa, Christiane M, Jo.

Featuring uplifting music for harp by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, that is wonderfully played for us by Fontane Liang, the title of the piece, La Vida Breve, reminds us that life is short – and that we are to respond to the Lord’s invitation to come and take the free gift of the water of life. Music Manuel de Falla: Vida Breve Performed by Fontane Liang Father, at this time, when many people are feeling the lack of things, and the pressures of life are increasing, we want to respond to Your invitation to come to the waters of life and drink freely. The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” . . . To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life . . . Yes, let the one who is thirsty come and take the free gift of the water of life. (Rev. 21:6, 22:17) Do you remember the cry of Isaiah, Israel’s great prophet to the nations, announcing, “Ho everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters!”? We don’t say ‘Ho’ anymore, but it’s a really strong word in Hebrew - rather like G

The theme of the Lord’s invitation to us continues, this time accompanied by the lapping waters of the River Vltava, (which means ‘Wild Water,’ and is widely known by its German name, the Moldau) as depicted by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. Exquisitely performed for us by Fontane Liang, the music beautifully captures the sound of the river as it gathers strength and momentum from its source in the Bohemian mountains, wending its way through a landscape of forests and meadows. It tumbles through the St John’s Rapids before widening out again to pass through Prague on its way to the mighty River Elbe. It is music that is iridescent with Smetana’s love for his homeland, just as we are illumined by the joy of our eternal home as the Holy Spirit flows through our lives. How we need His water of life sparkling within us! At the scent of water, even that which is drooping and failing springs back to life. Why spend our money and direct all our labour to that which cannot satisfy, when He invites us to receive

Water, and rivers, play a vital part in the history of humankind and it is good to celebrate them, but it is even more important to respond to the Lord’s invitation to come to Him and drink of the eternal water of life. In this second part of Smetana’s depiction of the Moldau river, you will love the rippling effects of the water that Fontane captures so beautifully. May you be refreshed in the depths of your spirit as you receive the sparkling water of life from the Lord’s own hands. Music Moldau from Má Vlast (My Fatherland) by Bedřich Smetana continued. Performed by Fontane Liang. It is no coincidence that two thirds of the earth’s surface is given over to the oceans, nor that a similar percentage of our bodies consists of water, a figure that rises to 85% when it comes to our brains. Rivers have long been the hub of communities, both as a source of pleasure and of commerce. A river flowing safely within its banks is a beauty to behold, and a powerful force for good, bringing fertility and blessing. Bu