Looking high and low for inspiration

.
The inspiration for illustrating Psalm 55 for our Sunday PsalmChallenge was just not coming last week.
Then yesterday the right photo appeared in the Jerusalem sky: this lone man climbing slowly to his solitary crane operator's cabin.
Please enlarge the picture to appreciate his situation.

He was working above the bottomless pit that will someday become our underground train station.

Psalm 55

1. For the leader; with instrumental music. A maskil. Of David.

2. Give ear, O God, to my prayer; hide not Yourself from my plea;

3. attend to me and answer me. I am agitated as I complain, I am in turmoil

4. at the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked; for they bring down trouble upon me and furiously harass me.

5. My heart writhes within me; deathly terrors fall upon me.

6. Fear and trembling invade me; horror overwhelms me.

7. I said, “Would that I had wings, like a dove! I would fly away and [there] dwell;

8. behold, I would flee far away; I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah

9. I would make haste to my refuge from the sweeping, tempestuous wind.

10. O LORD, confound and confuse their speech! For I see Violence and Strife in the city;

11. day and night they make rounds on its walls; Trouble and Mischief are within it.

12. Ruin is within it. Fraud and Deceit never depart from its square.

13. In fact, it is not an enemy who taunts me—I could bear that; it is not my adversary who deals insolently with me—I could hide from him;

14. but it is you, a man who is my peer, my companion, my friend;

15. he, who together with me shared sweet fellowship; we walked amidst the assembly in God’s house.

16. May He incite death against them; may they descend alive into Sheol! For wherever they reside, evils are within them.

17. But I call to God; the LORD will save me.

18. Evening and morning and noon, I complain and am in turmoil, and He hears my voice.

19. He redeems my life, unharmed, from the battle against me; indeed, many were against me.

20. May the Deity, who is enthroned from of old, hear and humble them—Selah—for they never change; they have no fear of God.

21. He stretched out his hand against his ally, he violated his covenant;

22. his mouth was smoother than butter, but battle was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, but they were drawn swords.

23. Cast your burden on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous man fall down.

24. As for You, O God, You will make them descend to the lowest Pit; those murderous, deceitful men shall not live out half their days. As for me, I place my trust in You.

This translation is by Rabbi Benjamin Segal. His commentary and the original Hebrew text can also be found at his blog. Recommended!
.

Unexpected underground stream uncovered

.
I first posted about this dramatically deep hole a year ago (here and here).
Since then this new tunnel has been started on the southern side of the shaft.
.
Here's the northern side.
Someday a high speed train will run between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and it will enter Jerusalem through these tunnels.
The big underground central train station will double as a bomb shelter.
It is between the busy Central Bus Station and Binyanei HaUma convention center.
.
Meanwhile, a few days ago (and just in time for ABC Wednesday U-Day), a great discovery hit the news:
An unexpected underground stream was uncovered at a depth of 75 meters, five meters from the planned bottom of the shaft!
"The largest and most impressive underground water sources ever discovered in Israel," scholars say.
.
The karstic cave developed as water seeped in from the surface and dissolved the limestone.
It is between a half a meter to a few meters wide, and is a few dozen meters high and at least 200 meters long.
.
Prof. Amos Frumkin, Head of the Cave Research Unit at Hebrew University, said the cave also has hydrological significance because it is part of the mountain aquifer, an underground reservoir into which rainwater flows from the surface and that extends all along Israel's central mountain range. "The study of the cave can help us understand the precise mechanism by which water flows through the aquifer in the Jerusalem area."
.
TV news showed him and a few lucky colleagues squeezing through nooks and crannies and crawling in mud. Brave explorers they are.
And I imagine the first humans to enter this cave!
.
Frumkin says the cave must be protected as a valuable natural phenomenon and that this can be accomplished without impeding construction of the railway station.
That is good news!
.
Read more details in the Haaretz article.
.
UPDATE: A newer and better article has become available at JPost.
.

Action above and below-ground

.
A battle in the skies of Jerusalem?!
Who will win, the mast of Calatrava's Bridge of Strings or the giant cranes?
.
The cranes are working in a deep pit that we saw in a previous post.
.
The crane's shadow, for Shadow Shot Sunday, suddenly curves as it hits the side wall of the 80-meter-deep pit.
There is a big machine near the air hose. I think they are starting to bore a tunnel for the future high speed Tel Aviv-Jerusalem train.
This hole will someday be the train station, and it will double as a bomb shelter.
.
The bridge, or at least the top part of it, is for Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridges.

In a deep hole

.
Well well, that's a big hole in the ground!
.
Someday it will be Jerusalem's main train station, if the high speed train railway from Tel Aviv is ever completed.

The Central Bus Station is across the street, on the right (unseen in the photo).
Behind the big cranes is the big pylon of the Bridge of Strings/Chord Bride/Calatrava Bridge that we have been seeing on the two previous posts.
.
These photos were taken through a plastic window which the builders were nice enough to leave in the barrier around the construction site.
.
That's My World--we could make a tour just of cranes working in Jerusalem.
.