Tag: Psalms of Ascent

July 3, 2020

For the next 15 days we will be reading through the Psalms of Ascent together as a church! The Psalms of Ascent are a collection of 15 psalms (Psalms 120-134) that pilgrims would sing on their way up to Jerusalem to worship. These songs are meant to instruct and prepare the hearts of the traveler to worship the Lord! As sojourners and aliens in this world, we too need to have our hearts prepared for and instructed in the worship of our God. Let’s meditate on these psalms and allow the Spirit of the Lord to move us to true worship as we seek Him together!

This is a song of thanksgiving because of the victory the Lord has given His people, the deliverance He has shown them when there should have been none! The pilgrim journeying to worship in Jerusalem celebrates the Lord’s deliverance from what was a seemingly hopeless situation. He expresses that they would have perished if it had not been for the Lord, but the Lord was with them and for them, and the Lord made a way!

This is the story of every one of God’s children. Our situation was hopeless; separated from God, dead in our sins, following the prince of the power of the air, under God’s just wrath with no way to change our situation. But God stepped in and made a way for us through Jesus Christ! 

“At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6 NIV) Now we have been delivered and set free, just as the psalmist expresses in verses 6-7. We have been given the victory in Christ not because of anything we have done or anything good in us, but simply because God is for us, and every time we gather for worship we celebrate that victory! Let’s remember today how hopeless our situation was apart from God’s intervention and celebrate the victory and freedom which Christ has won for us today!

Family Discussion Question:

• Why is it so important to understand that, if it were not for God’s intervention, we would be utterly destroyed? How does God’s being for us in such a radical way encourage us to respond to Him?

July 2, 2020

For the next 15 days we will be reading through the Psalms of Ascent together as a church! The Psalms of Ascent are a collection of 15 psalms (Psalms 120-134) that pilgrims would sing on their way up to Jerusalem to worship. These songs are meant to instruct and prepare the hearts of the traveler to worship the Lord! As sojourners and aliens in this world, we too need to have our hearts prepared for and instructed in the worship of our God. Let’s meditate on these psalms and allow the Spirit of the Lord to move us to true worship as we seek Him together!

Psalm 123 is a psalm of waiting on the Lord, waiting on His mercy and deliverance. This song envisions a scenario in which the pilgrim worshippers are enduring the scorn and contempt of the proud, those who are at ease. Whether these references are meant towards the unfaithful in Israel itself or the unbelieving Gentiles is unclear, but throughout history God’s people have, more often than not, been objects of ridicule and scorn from those in power. 

This psalm is simultaneously a plea for God’s mercy to be demonstrated towards His people and a confident declaration of faith that it will. The psalmist writes in verse 2 “so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy on us” (emphasis mine). There is no question as to whether or not God is going to show mercy on His people; it is only a matter of time!

This is a great comfort and joy to all God’s people who feel the weight of injustice, oppression, ridicule and scorn against them. We can and should cry out to God for His mercy and vindication to be poured out on us as we face the opposition of the world, but as we do so we must do it with absolute confidence that He will indeed do it!

We may not be able to see the mercy of our Lord coming, and our circumstances may tempt us to believe that it won’t ever come, but the nature of faith is to believe that God will come through in spite of the supposed evidence to the contrary which surrounds us. We can have hope that God’s mercy will come, that in the end He will vindicate His people and deliver them from oppression and scorn forever!

Until that day, we wait with confident faith. 

Family Discussion Question:

• What does it mean to “wait for the Lord”? How can God use seasons of waiting on Him to grow and deepen our faith?

July 1, 2020

For the next 15 days we will be reading through the Psalms of Ascent together as a church! The Psalms of Ascent are a collection of 15 psalms (Psalms 120-134) that pilgrims would sing on their way up to Jerusalem to worship. These songs are meant to instruct and prepare the hearts of the traveler to worship the Lord! As sojourners and aliens in this world, we too need to have our hearts prepared for and instructed in the worship of our God. Let’s meditate on these psalms and allow the Spirit of the Lord to move us to true worship as we seek Him together!

If Psalm 120 is a song of departure, this is a song of arrival! The pilgrim recalls his gladness when his companions invited him to come to Jerusalem to worship with them, and now he celebrates that the long journey is over and they have arrived! He marvels at the beauty of the city and prays for the peace and the unity which exist there to continue and to increase.

This psalm is a reminder of the great joy, blessing, and gift that is corporate worship. The psalmist cannot contain his joy and wonder at having arrived in the city where God dwells among His people, at having arrived to worship the Lord! There is a peculiar beauty, glory, and hopefulness when God’s people gather together to worship Him.

If this was true of the nation of Israel, how much more is it true of the church! There is a very real glory which is so easy to miss when we gather together in the name of Jesus to give Him praise! The Lord is present with us in a special way when we come together to worship.

The psalm makes it clear that we are to pray for the peace of God’s dwelling place, both for the sake of God’s presence and glory and for the sake of our fellow believers (v.8-9). During this season of not being able to gather together, let us not neglect to pray for our church. Let us earnestly desire to meet together face-to-face again, and let us seek each other’s good for the sake of the Lord!

Family Discussion Question:

• What are some ways you can be praying for the church in general or for specific people within the church right now? How can you be someone who seeks the good of your brothers and sisters in Christ during this time?

June 30, 2020

For the next 15 days we will be reading through the Psalms of Ascent together as a church! The Psalms of Ascent are a collection of 15 psalms (Psalms 120-134) that pilgrims would sing on their way up to Jerusalem to worship. These songs are meant to instruct and prepare the hearts of the traveler to worship the Lord! As sojourners and aliens in this world, we too need to have our hearts prepared for and instructed in the worship of our God. Let’s meditate on these psalms and allow the Spirit of the Lord to move us to true worship as we seek Him together!

This psalm is a song of confidence in the provision and protection of the Lord as the pilgrim makes his way to Jerusalem to worship. The traveler was discontent with the brokenness, deceit, and hostility which surrounded him in Psalm 120, and yearned to go and be in the presence of God; now he expresses his confidence in the Lord to protect him from the dangers of the road as he journeys to Jerusalem!

He begins with looking up to the hills. The hilltops were the so-called “high places” where idols were worshipped in the land of Canaan. As the pilgrim looks around at these places of idolatry, he remembers that his help does not come from a mere statue made of wood or metal, but from the Lord who made heaven and earth!

The pilgrim’s confidence in God’s protection and provision as he makes his way to Jerusalem is based in God’s character and faithfulness. God’s providence for His faithful ones is absolute because His authority and power are absolute. The Lord’s watchfulness over His people never failing and His care extends to even the smallest details; the pilgrim expresses confidence that the Lord would not even let him so much as lose his footing on his way to worship Him (v.3)!

As we travel through this life to our final destination, where we will be with God and worship Him forever, we can have this same confidence. The dangers and hardships that we face along the way are very real, but, because of what Jesus has done for us, we have been made sons and daughters of the living God, and we can entrust ourselves and every area of our lives over to His perfect, wise, and loving care!

Family Discussion Question:

• The psalmist expresses his confidence in God over the idols that the people worshipped on the hilltops (v.1-2). What are some things that we tend to place our confidence over and above God? How can we act to place our confidence, trust, and hope where they should rest, in the Lord?

June 29, 2020

For the next 15 days we will be reading through the Psalms of Ascent together as a church! The Psalms of Ascent are a collection of 15 psalms (Psalms 120-134) that pilgrims would sing on their way up to Jerusalem to worship. These songs are meant to instruct and prepare the hearts of the traveler to worship the Lord! As sojourners and aliens in this world, we too need to have our hearts prepared for and instructed in the worship of our God. Let’s meditate on these psalms and allow the Spirit of the Lord to move us to true worship as we seek Him together!

As the first psalm in this collection, this psalm is a sort of “leaving song”, representing the beginning of the pilgrim’s journey to Jerusalem! The psalmist recalls the past faithfulness of the Lord as an encouragement to cry out to Him once more, and then launches into a lament of his present circumstances. He mourns that he is surrounded by a culture filled with lies and deceit, that he is living among people who love war and violence rather than among the people of God!

As a beginning to our journey through the Psalms of Ascent, this psalm represents for us a discontentment with the brokenness of the world we see around us. We see death and disease, loneliness and heartache, corruption and injustice, and we long for something greater, something better, an environment of peace and wholeness!

What we long for, just like the psalmist, is to worship the Lord, to be in His presence and among His people. The psalmist longs to remove himself from among the wicked and to join the congregation of the righteous worshippers in Jerusalem; we long to remove ourselves from the world and culture which surround us and join with the body of Christ to worship Him together! 

We feel this perhaps more keenly than ever before right now in our present circumstances. Injustice, evil, and brokenness are so evident all around us, and yet, because we are experiencing a pandemic, we are unable to gather together with our brothers and sisters to worship the Lord and to receive mutual upbuilding and encouragement. This should cause us to lament! 

As we endure with patience and hope everything that life is throwing at us right now, let’s remember that, one day, the yearnings of our hearts to exit this broken world and be in a place where peace and justice reign will be finally and fully satisfied, and let’s do everything in our power to see that become a reality in the here and now, to see God’s kingdom advance in the world!

Family Discussion Question:

• How does the brokenness of the world around us move us to seek God and His kingdom? What are some ways we can do that this week?