The Great Assembly.
In continuing my Easter-season slow-walk through Psalm 22 in an arc of comparison between “David’s Messiah” and “Handel’s Messiah” (written and first presented during Easter of 1741).
Along the way, I’ve been using verse 25 as a ‘survey point’:
“From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.”
As I envision David writing his song, I imagine him pausing the prophetic scenes of ‘Jesus— The Messiah’ dying on the cross, to bracket the message, packaging it as a kind of ‘anthem’ that is to be shared among those who accept The Messiah as their King, Lord, Savior and Christ— a group of believers which he refers to as “the great assembly”.
Verse 25 is a “pause point” not unlike our own “National Anthem”, where all true Americans stop what they are doing… remove their hats… turn toward the flag… cover their hearts … and join together in song.
For me, that’s one of my favorite moments at community sporting events. This past fall I was standing at a food truck paying for my apple cider donuts when ‘The National Anthem’ began to play over the loud speakers. There the donuts sat, steaming in the cold night air— my debit card remained inactive and unattended in the reader… nothing transacted until the last note signed off with the words “… and the home of the brave!”— then life began again, donuts and all.
Why I bring this up is, that Easter has that “pause everything” feel to it. When I was a kid, I remember how Good Friday included life’s most holy moments for me, when from noon until three pm, our tight Catholic community stopped everything we were doing and simply sat quietly.
It wasn’t a formal ceremony.
One year I went outside into the Spring air and sat quietly by myself and spent the entire three hours thinking about Jesus dying on the cross. I knew the rest of my otherwise busy neighborhood was doing the same.
The word ‘holy’ primarily means ‘set apart’— sanctioned off from the common or sinful things.
To me— verse 25 is that kind of call to us as believers: A call to holiness.
Along with David, there is resident in Easter a ‘holy urging’ to break off from the common commotion of distracted thoughts and activities— to sanction off our souls; to lift our hearts and minds into the transcendent auspices of the ‘Redeeming Sacrifice of The Messiah’— and to do so, not just as individuals but as “a great assembly”; a spiritual nation existing within the nations, spread out across the world and throughout time— to remove all distractions… to stop all transactions… to renew and fulfill the vows of our hearts— to love and live for our King.
Five times in Psalms David uses the same phrase— “the great assembly”— to distill God’s people in terms of a redeemed community, aligned and pledging allegiance to their Messiah.
One of my favorite participations in a community event happened during the Christmas season about 15 years ago. My wife and I joined with our daughter and some others from our church at an all-sing “Handel’s Messiah” concert held in one of Milwaukee’s great historic cavernous churches… where the acoustics made the symphony orchestra and assembled choir seem like an incursion into Heaven itself.
During the concert the conductor invited the congregation to rise to our feet and join in many of the production’s greatest choruses.
The setting was such that I didn’t mind ‘belting it out’ the best I could, even though I knew if I had been isolated in those moments, Handel himself would have rued the day he let his masterpiece out into the common public square.
My lack of personal musical prowess notwithstanding— I believe that was the loudest, most unhindered vocalization that ever came from my untalented off-key frame.
But it didn’t matter— the reverb and acoustic dynamics— and the power of the master musicians— and the thunder of the conjoined communal harmony lifted me out of my ‘individual’ status— and in those moments I was absorbed into “The Great Assembly”.
To think of that experience still brings a smile to my heart.
Anyway— that sense is embedded and alive in David’s Messiah in Psalm 22:25. More than that, it is alive in the Easter season for those who are tuned to it in their heart.
A hundred Psalms later David says it well— how I feel about Easter and the occasion of gathering at church with my brothers and sisters in Christ for our annual ‘sunrise service’:
Psa 122:1 (A Song of degrees of David.) I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
Heavenly Father, thank you for joining me to “the great assembly’ of those who have Messiah’s Song living in their hearts. Please let this holy season do its work of renewal in my heart. Recover my vows and fill them again with First-Love for my Savior, King, Lord and Christ.
Refresh the Bride of Christ. Clothe us with Your Radiance and reestablish us in Your Victory.
Set us apart for Your Glory… again and always.
Amen.