I don’t know if there is Dutch ancestry from the Korah family, but if there is, I’m pretty sure I share it. The Psalms written for or by the Sons of Korah, these temple singers and door keepers, really resonate with me. For one thing, these Psalms talk about places.
Places have a special meaning to me. It may seem like a strange thing, or even a wrong thing to value, but I have always loved places.
From the way I viewed a certain grove of trees in the sunlight on my family farm when I was a child, to the elementary school with its large green park-like grounds where I taught for 24 years, to my present dining room with its warm honey tones, I love places. I might add that some spots even seem holy to me. God has met me there. Some are so dear that I reserve the memories to my own secret thoughts. I couldn’t begin to describe the beauty of these spaces anyway.
In Psalm 48, the Sons of Korah describe the place of worship—the city of our God, his holy mountain. See how they describe it: beautiful, lofty, the joy of the whole earth. In another of their psalms, Psalm 84, these servants of God yearn and faint for the courts of the Lord. They describe those who dwell there like birds who have found a home, a place near to God Himself. No wonder they proclaim, Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.
It seems to me that many Christians have never stopped long enough to ponder the beauty of places. Maybe God has just given these people a different value system. As for me though, I find visual beauty a very important aspect of worship. If God took care to even assign “designers” to help with the original place of corporate worship, the tabernacle (really a large portable tent), how much more must HE too appreciate all we can do to adorn the place where we gather to exalt Him.
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