Ps 84.7 (not a thing, but a Face)

They will go / from strength to strength
till each appears / before God in Zion. 

We have indicated in previous reflections that the heart of the psalm lies in the ‘state of the pilgrim’, that state between the ‘state of exile’ from Temple (where he is moving from) and the ‘state of dwelling’ (where he is moving toward). Importantly, that journey toward the Temple involves the pilgrim, in a very real and concrete fashion, within the Temple and the Festival/Liturgy. The pilgrim state is, in other words, a sacramental state. It both blesses those who are engaged in the pilgrimage and it transforms the places through which they travel into areas of blessing (in a way, their pilgrimage makes the world itself into a Temple). In this verse we come to a deeper insight into this pilgrim state—it is the state of ‘strength’. In order to appreciate this we need to recall that when the psalmist first mentions the pilgrim he describes him as “those whose strength is in you”. He then goes into a description of their ‘pass through’ the cosmos and to the Temple. Here, as the Temple itself is coming into sight he says the pilgrim will “go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.” We are at the edge of arrival. There are several important aspects of this. First, the ‘strength’ of the pilgrim seems to be that ‘gravitational pull’ of the Temple itself. In verse 5 ‘strength’ is matched and made parallel to “pilgrim-ways in their hearts”. These two descriptions need to be incorporated into the overall aesthetic impulse of the psalm—the perception of the Temple’s entirely unique, authoritative and consuming beauty. We could say that the ‘gravitational pull’ is the perception of the Temple’s overwhelming “beauty” (as in verse 1), a beauty that forcefully draws the pilgrim’s into its sphere of authority and makes the pilgrim seek, more than anything, to engage in the ‘beauty of liturgy’ to God. It is key to see how ‘beauty’ and ‘strength’ then rely on each other—it is the pilgrim’s desire to worship the object of his affection that is the strength that both supports him and transforms the world around him into a place of beauty (an ‘oasis’ and ‘clothed with blessing’: both clearly images of beauty-blessing). Second, this pilgrim strength is one that gathers momentum. As the pilgrim gets closer to the Temple—the ‘center of gravity’—the strength needed to finish the journey becomes stronger and stronger. This is to be expected so long as we keep in mind the objective, sacred nature of the Temple. The cosmos is, in a sense, ordered in concentric circles around the Temple itself. It is, in this way, both center and source of the cosmos’ life. Blessing flows from the Temple and, as such, the closer one gets to it the closer and more deeply one moves into the sphere of the Temple’s presence and power (its ‘strength’). Third, this ‘strength’ is one that is to find consummation in the “appearance before God in the Temple.” The presence of the small word “till” is important—it indicates that the pilgrim-strength is one that, when the pilgrim arrives before God, will no longer be needed. It will have played its part in ushering the pilgrim into God’s presence. It is, in a way, like faith—for then we will see as we are seen. The aesthetic desire to see God in the Temple will be fulfilled. The object of his affection (liturgy before God) will be had. The longing-for-beauty (the ‘pilgrim strength’) is the sustenance—the ‘way bread’ or ‘daily bread’—of the pilgrim as he journeys toward God. The Appearance. 

One final thing to point out—this verse displays the characteristic visual element we have noted throughout the psalm. There are many ways the psalmist could have described the arrival in Zion. He chooses however to couch it in terms of ‘appearance’ before God. It is fascinating that he does not choose say, ‘see the face of God’ but rather sees the consummation of his journey as one of ‘being seen’ by God. Whereas the entire psalm has focused on the Temple as the object of beauty (of what is ‘to be seen’) now, when the arrival is made, the one thing ‘being seen’ is the pilgrim. There are many things that could be said about this but to limit the observations we can say this: that this ‘object of beauty’ (God in Zion) is one that, in its presence, displays a complete authority over those who see him. In other words, in the presence of God one is intimately aware more of ‘being seen’ than ‘of seeing’. In this way we need to perhaps modify our language—the pilgrim has not been moving toward the ‘object of beauty’ but the ‘person of beauty’. He is not moving toward a thing, but a Face. Arguably, it is only the Face of Beauty that could accomplish this reversal so completely—turning the viewer into the one viewed.