Songs for the Road
Have you ever gone on a long road trip? We all know that when we’re getting ready for such a trip there’s a number of things we have to do, especially with our cars. We make sure we check the oil. We check the tires. We check the window washer fluid. We fill the gas tank. We get a map and snack food and bottles of cold water. But there’s always one other thing that I make sure we have when we travel: music. While it has nothing to do with making the car run, I always make sure that we also have enough decent CDs for the entire trip (Of course, Alisha often complains that I usually choose music I like rather than music we like!).
How many of you still use these (hold up a blank cassette tape)? Well, I used to use these quite a lot, but not so much anymore. I would make mixed tapes of favourite songs. Have you ever done that? I think mixed tapes are perfect for road trips. You have all of your favourites with you along the way. And I don’t know if this is the case for you, but music often follows me through life. Certain CDs and albums and songs can bring back memories of past experiences. Songs can be friends. You might be the kind of person who listens to sad songs when you’re down. Or maybe you like to play fast music full blast with the car windows rolled down on a warm summer’s day. Whatever your musical preferences, songs can express those things we lack the words and imaginations to say at different stages along the journey.
And the Christian life is like a journey too. And it’s true, isn’t it, that living a life of faith is like the ultimate road trip? You have your ups, downs, detours, sidetracks, bumps, sharp corners, curvy, bendy roads and smooth open highways. Even though you know your destination, you don’t always know how you’re going to get there or what will happen along the way. It’s just like Bruce Cockburn sings in his song “Pacing the Cage”: “Sometimes the best map will not guide you, and you can’t see around the bend.”
In the Bible there is as collection of travelling songs. Psalms 120 – 134 are called the “Psalms of Ascent.” They were likely used by pilgrims journeying to Jerusalem to celebrate the three yearly festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. They are called “Psalms of Ascent” because geographically Jerusalem was the highest city in Palestine and those who travelled there spent much of their time ascending.
There is a metaphorical truth to the title “Psalms of Ascent” as well, for “the trip to Jerusalem acted out a life lived upward toward God,” what Paul calls in Phil. 3: 14 “the upward [heavenly] call of God in Jesus Christ.” These psalms cover topics important for the journey to mature discipleship. The metaphor of journey works well spiritually because discipleship is a lifelong process (just like erosion!) and, like any road, has its share of detours, sidetracks, bumps, and turns. We can never say in this life that we have arrived – but we know we’re on our way! For the people of Israel, these were “songs for the road,” prayers and hymns that they would sing while on the highway of faith. They can be that for us too. These Psalms can be our “songs for the road,” our mixed tape of tunes to help us along the way.
So that’s what we’ll be looking at over much of the summer: these “Psalms of Ascent” or as I like to call them, “Songs for the Road.” This will be an occasional series. I don’t intend to preach for 15 weeks (there are 15 of these psalms). I will spend much of the summer on them and over time we’ll get to them all. The inspiration for this series, I should mention too, is a book by Eugene Peterson called A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society.
The World’s Lies
Now our first song for the road doesn’t begin in a very happy or upbeat way. It begins with the author in “distress” and ends with “war.” The psalm includes lying lips, sharp arrows, glowing coals; and the author even cries out in verse 5, “Woe is me!” What a way to begin! Is this a trip you want to go on?
But at the same time, I think this is a good, even important, way to begin. Starting on the road of discipleship doesn’t have to wait until we feel good, until life is going well, until circumstances are fine, and until all is right with the world. In fact, it usually doesn’t. The journey of faith often begins with times of distress that lead us to cry out to the Lord: “Deliver me, O Lord!” This is especially true since the Christian walk is about realizing that we can’t deliver ourselves; only God can deliver us.
But why begin with crying out in distress? What is the author distressed about? Psalm 120 begins with a cry for deliverance from “lying lips” and a “deceitful tongue.” Perhaps the author felt others were slandering him. But there’s another way to see it too. You see, this world tells us all kinds of lies. From the beginning of life we are told that we can be self-sufficient, that we can handle things on our own. We are told that all people are basically good. We are told that things get better. We are told that the world is an essentially nice place and all we have to do is exert a little more effort through science, education, good government and politics and we can make it a better place. There are all kinds of lies. The government tells us lies. The news tells us lies. The media tells us lies. Hollywood, television, and the entertainment industry all tell us lies. Yet we sometimes, even as Christians, find ourselves buying into the lies we’re told.
I should say that there is truth to these lies. It’s not that everything the government tells is factually false. And believe it or not, sometimes we can catch glimpses of truth even from Hollywood. The point is not that education and science can’t improve life and our world and make things better. The reason I say these things are lies is because underneath all the little lies there is the big lie that the world tries to get us to believe: that we can make our way in this world and improve ourselves without God. The lie is that we can leave God out of the picture and still do alright. The lie is that God is irrelevant. The lie is that we can make it on our own. We just need to try a little harder, believe in ourselves, and work together, and the world will be a better place. The lie is that we are able to do this without God and on our own strength. There’s a U2 song called “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.” When it comes to God, we can never make it on our own.
Peterson says these are lies “because they claim to tell us who we are and omit everything about our origin in God and our destiny in God. They talk about the world without telling us that God made it. They tell us about our bodies without telling us that they are temples of the Holy Spirit. They instruct us in love without telling us about the God who loves us and gave himself for us.” Paraphrasing the Psalmist’s cry for deliverance, Peterson says “Rescue me from the person who tells me of life and omits Christ, who is wise in the ways of the world and ignores the movement of the Spirit.” That we can make it on our own and that life will be fine without God is the biggest lie of all.
But then something happens. Someone loses a job. Cancer invades a loved one’s body. We find ourselves anxious about how we’re going to pay the bills. We worry over the littlest things. We find ourselves lonely and depressed. We find ourselves hurting like we never thought possible. Conflict arises. People fight, argue, backbite, gossip, and sometimes do all of this while smiling. Suddenly life doesn’t make sense and people don’t seem nice anymore. You want peace, but when you try to encourage reconciliation you find, like the writer of our psalm, that “they are for war.” People don’t treat each other right. Where is the justice? Where is the peace? Where is the love? Why is life so unfair? Suddenly all the lies we’ve been told about the niceness of the world and the goodness of people lie shattered at our feet. This is how the lies get exposed. We find ourselves vulnerable, helpless. Life throws us a curve ball and we get knocked to the ground. Like the psalmist in verse 5 we find ourselves in strange and hostile territory, in Meschech and Kedar. Suddenly we realize, “Maybe I can’t do this myself.”
Saying “No!” to the Lies
It is when this happens that we are ready to say “no” to the lies. That’s why I said earlier that it’s actually a good thing for this little collection of psalms to begin this way. It’s a way of clearing house and getting things started. It’s meant to prod us into beginning the walk of faith, the journey of discipleship. It sets the tone. It reminds of what the world is really like. This is how we start to follow Jesus. It can also be how we start to follow Jesus again if we’ve wandered off the path.
It is when we realize that we’ve been lied to and we become thoroughly fed up with the way of the world that we are ready to set out on a different path. Psalm 120 is the prayer of someone who is sick of the lies and wants the truth instead. Psalm 120 is the decision to take one road rather than another. Psalm 1:1 says, “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread.” We’re those who take a different path. Sometimes the first step toward God is a step away from the lies of the world. The ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius said that “before a man can do things there must be things he will not do.” The first step is a resolute and determined, “No!” It is first a turning away from the world and then and only then a turning toward God. Once God fills the horizon, the lies are exposed for what they are. We are ready for the truth. We are ready to make that 180 degree turn.
The biblical word for making this 180 degree turn, for turning from the lies of the world to the truth of God, is repentance. Repentance. What is repentance? In the Greek it’s the word metanoia, and it means turning around. It means changing your mind. Repentance is the first word we come to when it comes to following Jesus. John the Baptist, in Matt. 3: 2 says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” In Matt. 4: 17 Jesus says exactly the same thing as he begins his preaching. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Mark 1: 15 says almost the same thing: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” When Peter finishes his first sermon in Acts 2: 38 he tells his audience to “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.” In Revelation, the message to the seventh church is this: “Be earnest, therefore, and repent.”
For a good description of what repentance is and isn’t, Eugene Peterson is worth quoting at length here: “Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god; it is deciding that you were wrong in thinking that you had, or could get, the strength, education, and training to make it on your own; it is deciding that you have been told a pack of lies about yourself and your neighbors and your world. And it is deciding that God in Jesus Christ is telling you the truth. Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.” Well, I might be the preacher in the room this morning, but there is no way I can say it any better than that.
Saying “Yes!” to God
So it begins by saying “no” to the lies of the world. But it doesn’t end there. It continues by saying “yes” to God. It continues by making the decision to turn toward something after we’ve turned away from the deception of the world. This isn’t always easy. Sometimes repentance might be more painful than the event that led us to question the lies. Psalm 120 speaks about sharp arrows and glowing coals. “Any hurt is worth it that puts us on the path of peace, setting us free for that pursuit, in Christ, of eternal life.”
What do you have to turn away from? In what ways do you have to change your mind and the way that you live? What lies do you believe right now? What lies do I believe for that matter? No doubt we’ve all fallen prey to one kind of deception or another. Take that image of the traveller – often described as a stubborn man! – who refuses to ask for directions: do you want to be that person? Or would you rather be on the right path even if it means swallowing your pride and letting God show you the way?
Repentance is not just for those who’ve never accepted Christ as the one who reveals the truth about God; repentance is for all those who might have begun on this journey of faith but have taken a wrong turn or chosen an attractive side-road only to discover that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Repentance is the first word, the first step on this journey. Even if it’s not easy, given the destination offered, don’t you want to come on this trip too?
