Psalm 120 Series

Good morning. Today, we are starting a series that is going to take us at least three or four weeks into September. It is called The Psalms of Ascents. If you are not familiar with The Psalms of Ascents, they can be found in the book of Psalms, and they are comprised of 15 Psalms, those from about 120 to about 134. These Psalms were sometimes called songs and were believed to be recited or sung by the Jewish people as they made their pilgrimages toward Jerusalem to celebrate three great festivals: the Festival of Passover, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Tabernacles. The reason they are called The Psalms of Ascents is because Jerusalem is at a higher elevation. That is why when you read your Bible it says they went up to Jerusalem and down from Jerusalem because really Jerusalem was at a higher elevation. So the pilgrims making the journey to Jerusalem would gradually ascend in elevation until they reached the temple of God. So we know these psalms were sung by pilgrim people on their way to Jerusalem. Down through history, people began to see these Psalms of Ascents as not just songs but really a metaphor for the spiritual life. Someone ascends up to God. As people that are trying to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we talked about ordinary people trying to live everyday life like Jesus, we too can embrace them as really songs we can sing on our journey towards Christ likeness. They are very helpful. They are good guides. We need some sort of comfort. We need some sort of encouragement as we travel along the road of discipleship. Just as it was difficult for the Jewish people to make that long trek up towards Jerusalem, the physical trek, it is difficult for disciples, for Christians, to stay steadfast and to keep moving forward. In spite of discouragement and depression and the desire to sometimes throw in the towel. We all experience that sometimes when we are going through that journey of faith and the journey of discipleship. The Psalms not only provide comfort for the Jewish people, but they also provide comfort and encouragement for us and help us to press on towards that prize, as Paul would speak of the prize.

These Psalms of Ascents really comprise about 15 Psalms. They go from 120 to 134, but for the sake of time, we are going to limit it to probably five or six of those Psalms, and we are going to go into a deeper study in the fall by the end of September. As a side note, during these sermons, I am going to be relying heavily on the wisdom of a man named Eugene Peterson. He wrote the paraphrase of the Bible that we use a lot called The Message. He also wrote a book called The Long Obedience in the Same Direction. It is a book about discipleship, but it is based on these Psalms of Ascent. If you are looking for any more summer reading and you are looking for a devotional, I recommend it. It is a pretty good devotional especially if you want to get deeper into all the Psalms of Ascent. I also would recommend that if you go through these Psalms you might consider actually memorizing a Psalm or a portion of the Psalm. They are really pretty short. A good one to start on would actually be Psalm 121 that we will be looking at next week. It is a nice short Psalm, but it provides a lot of comfort. It is good to have in your arsenal of scripture that you can pull out when you are feeling frustration and discouraged. Next week, we will be looking at Psalm 121.

But today, we want to look at Psalm 120. If you want to follow along in the Bible or I also have it on the screen. Follow it. Read along. Close your eyes and listen. Whatever you decide, but I am going to read through it. (Scripture read here). Now if you are like me and you read a Psalm, you say this is kind of a depressing Psalm. It is bookended by distress and war. In between you have talk of lying lips and deceitful tongue. You would think that if these are songs that were sung on the way to a festival, they would be very uplifting and exciting. I don’t know about you, but when we go on vacation like Ocean City or Myrtle Beach, sometimes we sing travel songs. I tend to sing the songs and everybody else closes their ears. I like listening to the Beach Boys or the Beatles and I just like singing along. You would expect that if these songs would be something that was sung on the way to a festival that it would be festive, but instead it kind of starts off with a bit of a downer. He says “I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me. Save me, LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.” We don’t know a lot about this author, but we can tell by the Psalm that he was kind of down. He was feeling awful. He was in a bad place. He was surrounded by people’s lying lips and deceitful tongues. That is a sad place to be, and we really can only speculate as far as who or what he is talking about when he talks about these people. Some suggest maybe he has a problem with some relationships. Friends or relatives that were once very close and now they have turned on him. Maybe they are spreading gossip or something like that. Others suspect that maybe he is involved in some sort of a court case where people are bringing false witnesses against him. I am going to suggest that he is just fed up with the culture that he is living in. Living in a culture that embraces idols and promotes a false philosophy that if you live a certain way that will lead you to the good life. He is tired of the lies of culture. Whatever the case, he cries out. If you have ever read through the Psalms, you know that calling out to God or crying out to God is a very common theme through the Psalms. It is okay. It is nice to read that. It gives us permission to complain a little bit. Psalm 142:1-2 says it best. He says “I cry to the Lord; I lift my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.” It is nice because you feel like if David or whoever wrote some of these Psalms can cry out and complain to God then maybe it is okay to for me to complain to God.