Three stages of the history of salvation

May 24, 2023 - Wednesday, Seventh Week of Easter

Psalm 68:29-30, 33-35a, 35bc-36ab

Psalm 68 has been accompanying us since Monday. The highlight of this psalm is God’s journey from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion and then through “the ancient heavens” (see Ps 68:34). Some commentaries see in this ‘journey’ three stages of the history of salvation. Mount Sinai is connected with the gift of God’s law, Mount Zion became God’s dwelling place, and the last stage looks into the future when all the nations will worship the God of Israel and the kings of the earth will offer him gifts (see Is 2:2-4; Micah 4-3).

Philip Jenkins’ book, “The Lost History of Christianity”, has an ancient map of Christianity on its cover. The map is in the shape of three lobes, each one representing one continent - Asia, Europe, and Africa, and they are joined together in Jerusalem. For centuries, this map represented the growth of Christianity that began in Jerusalem, the centre of the world, the place of Jesus’ death and resurrection. For one thousand years, this growth of Christianity seemed unstoppable. The nations of the earth - China, India, Persia, Armenia and Syria, North Africa, and all of Europe - acknowledged God’s power and confess the name of Jesus, the Lord. But then, as Jenkins writes, “this older world perished, destroyed so comprehensively that its memory is forgotten by all except academic specialists”.

“Awesome in his sanctuary is God, the God of Israel” (Ps 68:36). Jerusalem’s temple had to be an architectural masterpiece. We have this indication in the Gospel when the disciples are saying to Jesus: “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” (Mark 13:1). Today at the site of the temple in Jerusalem is the mosque and only the famous Western Wall remained from the former temple. But, there is another sanctuary that reveals the greatness of our God, namely the universe. In the book of Isaiah, God asks: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?” (Is 66:1). Commenting on this passage, Saint Stephen said: “Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands” (Acts 7:48). Where does God dwell then?

The psalmist’s statement that God “rides on the heights of the ancient heavens” (Ps 68:34) seen from a Christian perspective can point to a heavenly Jerusalem mentioned a few times in the New Testament (see Gal 4:26; Heb 12:22; Rev 21:10). But surprisingly, this awesome God for whom it is impossible to build a fitting place on earth dwells also in us. The Jewish tradition speaks that God dwells in those who let him into their hearts. And Saint Paul reminds us that since our baptism, we have become the living temples of God because the Holy Spirit resides within us (see 1 Cor 6:19-20). 

In Christian teaching, we also divide the history of salvation into three stages: the age of the Father, corresponding to the Old Testament, the age of the Son, corresponding to the New Testament, and the age of the Spirit, the age of the Church filled with the power of the Holy Spirit that has begun on the day of Pentecost. It is only by submitting ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit that we can fulfil our mission of bringing nations to the crucified Christ, the source of our salvation.