Psalm 120



Bible Reading - Psalm 120

For the next weeks we will be reading through the Psalms of Ascent. 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!

ON THE COUCH WITH GOD

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?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Danger

Image
If you’re reading this right now then be warned. This devotional to spiritual warfare is a bit dangerous, not to you, but to your way of life. If ignorance is bliss, it aims to destroy that bliss forever. Imagine living in a house infested with termites. For years you never noticed them. Just beyond reach, just out of sight, they lived, they ate, they spawned, they festered. For all those years you blindly ate, played, and slept, unaware of the lurking presence right beneath your head at night. If you live in a house full of termites is it better to know or is it simpler to live in ignorance? If you prefer ignorance, then stop reading right now. If you don’t want to know about the spiritual forces that have been eating away at the foundation of your life and family like termites, then there’s no need to go any farther. Ignorance is in fact bliss, at least for the short term. This book’s aim is nothing short of ripping up the base boards, pulling out the sheetrock and exposing the d...
Read more

Worship

Image
Text: Psalm 104.24-35 Psalm 104 starts and ends with the words, “Praise the Lord, my soul”. The beginning and the end are a proclamation of praise to the Almighty God. In fact, the whole psalm is a review of the greatness of God in creation and, therefore, a meditation on God’s providence. To consider such things, helps us to draw closer to God and worship Him. If we are sincere with ourselves, our daily situations (children, work, news, stress, etc.) can take our attention away from God. It is not easy to just plug-in and worship the Lord. I find myself missing so much of God’s creation, because my mind wanders off to my daily concerns. My wife calls me to really see the beauty around us, otherwise I would miss it. How easy it is for us to be carried away and not once lift our eyes to the Lord, and worship Him that created the earth. Let us open our spiritual eyes, God has revealed through the authors of the Psalms that all of creation is called to worship. It is not just appreciation...
Read more

Fight Together

Image
Stand . . . Take . . . Pray. Ephesians 6:10, 14, 18 The final step in successful spiritual warfare is one that is as critical as the others but it is far too easily missed. The last step isn’t a specific verse or a piece of armor mentioned, but rather a verb tense. When most Americans read the armor of God passage in Ephesians 6, we read it through the lens of our individualistic, self-focused mindset. We worry about ourselves first and foremost. As harsh as it sounds, everyone else can fend for themselves. But that’s not the intention at all behind Paul’s instructions on spiritual warfare. When Paul tells us to stand firm, to take the pieces of armor, to pray, the verb is not in the singular form, it’s in the plural. To use Southern language, it’s as if he’s saying, “Y’all stand, y’all take, y’all pray.” Why is this important? Because too often our defeat in spiritual warfare comes from the fact that we try and engage in it on our own. And please understand this: if the enemy ha...
Read more