Ps. 80.11 (impregnating unity)

Its branches / stretched to the Sea
and its tendrils / to the River. 

This verse concludes the geographic expanse of the Vine. That statement, though, is lacking. This is not a mere geographic expanse. It embodies a theological geography as the Vine consummates the promise made in Deuteronomy that Israel would fill the land from the desserts to the cedars, and from the river to the sea. As we explored yesterday, the astonishing growth of the Vine is one that finds both its impetus and its goal in the founding promise of God to Israel. In its completion, the Vine itself is what unifies the Land. Until then, it was a land inhabited by weeds (nations) that needed to be removed. It likewise had the grandeur of the mountains and cedars, Sea and River, but without the Vine it lacked the impregnating force of unity. The Vine is what brought these disparate elements together into formal unity, making of it a thing of proportion and beauty. Without her the Land is either contaminated or disorganized. Wither her, it is cleansed and fashioned. She participates God fashioning mastery over the Land. She became the Adam-power in the Land. And under her unifying power, the Land expressed Edenic power. It shimmered under her weight and became a clear emblem (or, sacrament) of God’s presence in the world.