#MusicMonday: Shekinah Glory

This song was in the camp list, but not in the night's set. But I'd dropped one song because it wasn't familiar enough, and then we discovered that we didn't have the chords for another, although Daniel was very sure he had printed it. There were a bunch of other good songs to use, but I'd been thinking of this one since the morning, for some odd reason, so in it went.

And God showed up.

"Shekinah is derived from the Hebrew verb שכן. The Semitic root means literally to settle, inhabit, or dwell. The abstract noun is unattested in the Tanakh, and is first encountered in rabbinical writings.

"... in classic Jewish thought, the Shekinah refers to a dwelling or settling in a special sense, a dwelling or settling of Divine Presence,^[2] to the effect that, while in proximity to the Shekinah, the connection to God is more readily perceivable.

The concept is similar to that in the Gospel of Matthew 18:20:

Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in their midst.^[1]

Some Christian theologians have connected the concept of Shekinah to the Greek term "Parousia", "presence" or "arrival," which is used in the New Testament in a similar way for "Divine Presence".^[3]"

And because I'd been reading Exodus, this came to mind:

18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”
19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”
20 But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”
21 Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock;
22 and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.
23 Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”
Exodus 33:18-23

And though this is much more commentary than needed for a song with very few lyrics, it's important to remember that when the glory of God comes, it's not just a pretty thing. It's not just looking for "gold dust" or laughter or tears or being "slain". And yet it's precisely those outward things that we often end up looking for.

I don't think we truly understand what we mean when we sing this song. I don't know if they really understood what it means when they wrote this song. We don't fully comprehend what we are asking for. We see through a mirror, darkly, and sometimes we recognise Him, but sometimes we don't. And that's okay.

Yet it is important that we ask; that we seek - because God desires that we pursue Him.