The fine rain of the Lord overshadowed me in quietness, and it caused a cloud of peace to rise over my head;
That it might guard me at all times; and it became salvation to me.
Everybody was shaken and affrighted, and there came forth from them smoke and judgement.
But I was keeping quiet in the ranks of the Lord; more than shade was he to me, and more than foundation.
And I was carried like a child by its mother, and he gave me milk, the dew of the Lord.
And I grew strong in his gift, and I rested in his perfection.
And I spread out my hands in the ascent of my soul, and I directed myself towards the Most High, and I was redeemed with him. Alleluia.
The fine rain of the Lord overshadowed me in quietness, and it caused a cloud of peace to rise over my head; that it might guard me at all times; and it became salvation to me.
In the Bible rain is often symbol of the blessing and presence of God. “His favor is as a cloud of the latter [malqoshe: spring] rain” (Proverbs 16:15). “He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth” (Psalms 72:6). “He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth” (Hosea 6:3).
The presence of God is as fine rain, refreshing and gentle, not flood rain. It is still, yet it moves in the sense of bringing about transformation. Peace and rest are its hallmarks. It is also the beginning of life as in the spring. It protects until the goal is reached and then it is revealed as salvation (moksha: liberation)
Everybody was shaken and affrighted, and there came forth from them smoke and judgement.
“Everybody” designates all the alien elements, the barnacles of ignorance accumulated through lifetimes. They are are dislodged, and though they try to avoid the Light and Power that is the “face” of God, the fire of the Holy Spirit reduces them to smoke, not just ashes, and reveals them for the mirages they really are.
But I was keeping quiet in the ranks of the Lord; more than shade was he to me, and more than foundation.
All the while this is going on, the blessed soul is in quietness, at rest among the angels and saints of Christ who have become its constant companions. The spiritual quest begins in peace, proceeds in peace, and ends in Peace. This is an important point for us to keep in mind, because there are supposed spiritual paths that lead into nothing but struggle, conflict and eventual defeat. But the path to God is blessed from the very beginning. God is not just a protector, fosterer and strengthener; he is revealed to us as the very basis of our existence, the Soul of our soul, the Spirit of our spirit, inseparable from us as the Life of our life.
And I was carried like a child by its mother, and he gave me milk the dew of the Lord.
The aspirant comes to realize that he lives and moves in God, in the Holy Spirit, who like a mother feeds him the living water of Divinity, for he himself is essentially divine.
And I grew strong in his gift, and I rested in his perfection. And I spread out my hands in the ascent of my soul, and I directed myself towards the Most High, and I was redeemed with him.
Although all is done by the power of God given freely to us, it is we who bring about our salvation. Our perfection is his, but we assimilate it and become ourselves perfect. Looking only upward and aspiring upward we ascend in consciousness, intent on God Alone. Finally, uniting with God we are free, redeemed from the bondage of birth and death and ignorance. The spiritual path is itself the self-ransom by which we are liberated into Infinite Spirit.
Read the next article in The Odes of Solomon for Awakening: The Odes of Solomon: 36