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Pray Without Ceasing, Week 4, Day 26

by David Joynt on June 27, 2019


PSALM 84:6-7 | As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.

Pilgrims with “heart highways” can go through the Valley of Baca and make it a place of springs. This language hides a promise. The Baca Valley is a Hebrew way of saying vale of tears, the sound of the name Baca is close to the word for weeping. If we have internal spiritual resources we can endure trying times and can discover, or better dig, refreshing wells.
Furthermore such travelers will be showered with blessing, like the early September rains that make harvest possible.
Sometimes we must work for the water that sustains us, sometimes we just get soaked in a storm of joy or forgiveness or insight.

Are you digging or just getting wet?
Read John 4:7-14 in light of our psalm.

Tags: pilgrims, zion, weeping, baca

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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