I do not sit with men of falsehood,

nor do I consort with hypocrites.

⁵ I hate the assembly of evildoers,

and I will not sit with the wicked.

⁶ I wash my hands in innocence

and go around your altar, O Lord,

⁷ proclaiming thanksgiving aloud,

In the middle of Psalm 26 stands an altar, an altar that the psalmist circumambulates as he gives testimony to God’s goodness. I have been thinking a lot about altars lately. They have such significance in the Bible, yet I feel like I grew up without one. My tradition never talked about altars, never called us to the altar. We had a table and a pulpit and pews, but no altar. Where is the altar for Christians? It seems like this is an important thing to know. For the psalmist the altar is True North, it is his orientation. By its location, the psalmist is able to locate everything else, including himself. It is the antithesis of the assembly filled with liars, hypocrites, and ne’er do wells. In fact, it is the psalmist’s refuge from those dangers and influences.

I need an altar! I need a place where I can run and grab hold of its horns and find mercy and protection from those who falsely accuse me and seek to punish me for crimes I did not commit. But where is the altar? Many Christians would say that the new altar is the cross, but this is not convincing. I see nowhere in Scripture where the cross is compared to, called, or treated as an altar. Yet there must still be an altar for Hebrews 13:10 states: “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.” Is the author of Hebrews referring to the communion table? Probably. But is that all that he is referring to? There was more than one altar in the OT. Indeed, there was more than one kind of altar. There were altars for sacrifice but there were also altars for burning incense and, apparently, the patriarchs built altars where they “invoked YHWH’s name.”

Maybe that’s the key. When Abram first arrived in Canaan, YHWH appeared to him to indicate that he had reached his destination and the first thing Abram did was build an altar. From that point on, everywhere Abram went he built an altar. Jacob continued this tradition. Maybe the reason I cannot find an altar is because I have not yet built one. I am in unfamiliar territory, surrounded by people I no longer recognize. I think it’s time to build an altar in this new place and to build an altar wherever YHWH leads me. Then I will never be without an altar. Anyone know how to build an altar?

Our Father in Heaven,

I build an altar of prayer right here, right now in this new and strange place where you have led me. I do not know why I am here. I never thought I would be here. I did everything in my power to avoid coming here, but here I am in a place with no altar. So I will build an altar. Please provide the earth and unhewn stones necessary for its construction. Thank you for appearing to me as you did to Abram to assure me that this is where I am supposed to be. And please, teach me how to build an altar. Teach me what an altar is for, why it is significant, why I need one. I know that I need one but I am still not sure why. I think it’s because I need its orientation. I think it’s because altars are portals to heaven, oases of holiness in a defiled and defiling world. God, teach us to build more altars. Lord Jesus, appear to us and make the Father known to us and reconcile us to both each other and to God at these altars. Holy Spirit, light the fire on our altars that the incense of our prayers may ascend to the Father as a sweet smelling aroma. Sweet Spirit, hold me fast to the altar that I build as I writhe in the fire of your holiness because, as a living sacrifice, I fear that I am prone to crawl off before your burning has consumed me.

AMEN