Rejoicing in God, a Reflection on Isaiah 62:3-5

Excerpts from December 2008: Jerusalem needs saving, and not only for its own sake. The salvation of Jerusalem will be a lesson for all who see it. .... The world we live in is not quite perfect even yet. We still need to sing of salvation and to look forward to it, as well.

New thoughts:

Like Abram and Sarai, Jerusalem will have a name change (and, with it, a life change) from Forsaken to My Delight Is in Her, from Desolate to Married.

God is going to marry Jerusalem and be as joyful as a bridegroom.

How easy--or how hard--is it to imagine that God is joyful?

Quote from Walter Brueggemann's commentary on Isaiah 40-66:

It is worth noting that the term rendered "married" is from the same root as Baal, the god of fertility, and the land that is "married" is a land "baaled," or literally in the Hebrew, Be'ulah, that is, "Buelah land." The imagery of divorce or widowhood (see 54:4-6) is transposed into an agricultural term for a land barren and unproductive. Now this people is revived and the city is restored; the land is recovered for fruitfulness and productivity.....The language is especially freighted, because marriage metaphors in that ancient world include fruifulness and generativity.

Lectio Divina: Psalm 36:8