Psalm 84
As you know this Monday is Labour Day, the first “long weekend” of Spring.
Labour Day commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day. New Zealand workers were among the first in the world to claim this right when, in 1840, the carpenter Samuel Parnell won an eight-hour day in Wellington. Labour Day was first celebrated in New Zealand on 28 October 1890, when several thousand trade union members and supporters attended parades in the main centres. Government employees were given the day off to be at the parades and many businesses closed for at least part of that day.
In 1899 Parliament made Labour Day a public holiday. This predates both Anzac Day and Waitangi Day and was the first public holiday in New Zealand not associated with religion, royal birthdays or the anniversaries of provincial settlement.
This Sunday we reflect on Psalm 84, often called a pilgrim psalm. The writer is joyfully looking forward to arriving in the holy place of God. The great sense of anticipation of entering the temple is obvious, and although we are asked to concentrate of the first seven verses the whole psalm is bound together with an exhilarating sense of praise.
God is praised as the one providing protection, both as a bird nesting her young, and as a shield from the glare of the sun.
God is present and involved in every aspect of life. Reaching beyond the worldly relief from oppression and extremes of weather, God reaches into eternity. This psalm acknowledges the distant reaches of God’s care, with one day in his presence more prized than a thousand.
God Bless you
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From the Vicar
