I stretched out my hands to the Lord, and to the Most High I lifted my voice.
And I spoke with the lips of my heart, and he heard me when my voice reached him.
His Word came to me, that which gave me the fruits of my labors;
And gave me rest by the grace of the Lord. Alleluia.
I stretched out my hands to the Lord, and to the Most High I lifted my voice.
There are two positions that may be referred to here. One is simply lifting the hands on high with the palms facing the supplicant, signifying that he is empty-handed and totally dependent upon the Lord. The other is the thymus gesture already described earlier. Both emphasize their emptiness and their hope of receiving from the hand of God that which is desired. Again, total dependency is being indicated as well as humility. It is also a gesture of waiting upon the pleasure and will of God. “I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope” (Psalms 130:5). “Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me” (Micah 7:7).
And I spoke with the lips of my heart, and he heard me when my voice reached him.
Many years ago I heard a minister tell of a spiritual experience she had read about. Someone sitting in church was “caught up,” as Saint Paul put it, during the singing of a hymn. She seemed to be in a realm of pure Light, but she could hear the hymn being sung down below. However, she only heard the voices of children and of two or three adults. The voices of the others did not reach the high world in which she found herself. Then suddenly she was back down on earth hearing many people singing. But she knew from then on that in the heaven world only a few voices were reaching there and being heard.
When the odist spoke to God with the lips of his heart, his spirit-soul, then his voice reached God. Since the lips of our heart are inside us, not outside, it was an inward speaking and an inward hearing, because God is within us. To communicate with the Divine we must live in the spirit as Saint Paul also said. Spiritual life certainly manifests in our entire life, including our external life, but it is essentially an interior life.
His Word came to me, that which gave me the fruits of my labors.
Communion with God is the ultimate fruit of all spiritual endeavor. If we do not seek and attain this, we are missing the point and the goal altogether.
And gave me rest by the grace of the Lord.
Speaking of spiritual attainment, Saint Paul wrote: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest,” (Hebrews 4:9-11). This is the transcendental state outside all lesser conditions.
As mentioned before, the word translated rest is sabbatismos, Sabbath, which means literally: “the seventh day.” This is a symbol of the seventh level of consciousness, of mystical union with God. It is the cessation of all duality, of all subject-object consciousness, and the state of pure Being beyond all relativity and conditioning. Therefore Saint John wrote: “When he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven” (Revelation 8:1).
Read the next article in The Odes of Solomon for Awakening: The Odes of Solomon: 38