ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Falaite ‘Epeleli 7, 2023

O Lord, Smell My Prayer  קטרת 

‘E ‘OTUA, TUKU MAI HO FOFONGAA KI HE ‘EKU LOTU

EXODUS 30:1, 6-7

"YOU SHALL MAKE AN ALTAR ON WHICH TO BURN INCENSE; YOU SHALL MAKE IT OF ACACIA WOOD AND YOU SHALL PUT IT IN FRONT OF THE VEIL THAT IS ABOVE THE ARK OF THE TESTIMONY, IN FRONT OF THE MERCY SEAT THAT IS ABOVE THE TESTIMONY, WHERE I WILL MEET WITH YOU. AND AARON SHALL BURN FRAGRANT INCENSE ON IT."

‘EKISOTO 30:1, 6-7

6 Pea te ke tuku ia ‘i he ‘ao ‘o e Tatau, ‘a ia ‘oku tu‘u ki he ‘A‘ake Fakamo‘oni‘anga, ‘i he tuha mo e Hōifua‘anga, ‘a ia ‘oku ‘i he funga Fakamo‘oni‘anga, ‘a e potu te u fe‘iloaki ai mo koe. 7 Pea ‘e tutu ai ‘e ‘Ēlone ‘a e ‘inisēnisi namu kakala: ‘i he pongipongi kotoa pē ‘i he‘ene teuteu ‘a e ngaahi maama, te ne toki tutu ai ia.

A few days ago, we talked about how Hebrew worship was full-bodied. It was also fully sensory: worship was felt, tasted, heard, seen, and smelled. Incense, q'toret, involved those last two-sight and smell. Every morning and evening, a priest would burn q'toret on the altar directly in front of the veil that screened off the seat of atonement. "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you," the psalmist prayed (141:2), for incense was prayer made visible. Its odor wafted into God's nostrils, so that incense was also prayer made olfactory.

The petitions of Israel, fired by the Spirit, wafted in a cloud of incense in and around his throne of grace. So too in Revelation's heavenly worship there are "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (5:8). Our mouths, like censers, breathe out the incense of prayer, which Christ our high priest mingled with his own before the Father's throne.

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!" (Ps. 141:2).