“How Good, Lord, to be Here,” ELW 315 and LBW 89
1 How good, Lord, to be here!
Your glory fills the night;
your face and garments, like the sun,
shine with unborrowed light.
2 How good, Lord, to be here,
your beauty to behold
where Moses and Elijah stand,
your messengers of old.
3 Fulfiller of the past
and hope of things to be,
we hail your body glorified
and our redemption see.
4 Before we taste of death,
we see your kingdom come;
we long to hold the vision bright
and make this hill our home.
5 How good, Lord, to be here!
Yet we may not remain;
but since you bid us leave the mount,
come with us to the plain.
Devotion
Our hymn of today, like the Psalms of God’s Old Testament people, sweeps our spirit into God’s presence – alongside Jesus and a few others on a glorious, light-filled mountain spot. We dwell there for only a few moments for the duration of the singing of the hymn. While there our vision of faith is strengthened; our relationship with Jesus is affirmed. There is the sense of wanting to dwell with Jesus in such a setting as we would in our own home. The hymn leaves us with this – a greater sense of Jesus with us, wherever we are in life, on “the plain” of all life’s happenings.
Prayer
Dear God, may the glorious light of your presence be with us each day, through your son, Jesus. Amen.