Psalms of Ascents - Program 2
Psalm 121
Psalm 121 continues by declaring that the Lord is always showing his care and concern for the pilgrim. Neither the sun’s scorching heat, nor will even the moonlight at night harm his pilgrims. Now let us read the second of the Songs of Ascents, Psalm 121:
“I lift up my eyes to the hills — where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot to slip — he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you — the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, not the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm — he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and for ever more.”
Looking at hills and mountains can be very inspiring. I go quite often to see my friends in Slovakia and usually go by train from Prague in the Czech Republic. It’s a long nine hour journey, mainly through flat or rolling countryside until the Tatra Mountains come into view. Then the familiar peaks appear, rugged, high, mighty and always the same. The scenery may change a bit in the lowlands from year to year, but those Tatra Mountains have always been the same over the fifty years I have been going to them. God is like that, unchanging, dependable, sure and trustworthy.
The Psalmist looks up at the hills of the Holy Land as he and his companions journey to Jerusalem from the lowlands. Can he get help from those hills? No, they are just symbols of God’s strength, but his real help does come from the “Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (verse 2), from the One who made those very hills.
The key word in this Psalm is “watch” (verse 4), “he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (verse 5), “The Lord watches over you”, (verse 7) “he will watch over your life”, (verse 8) “the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and for ever more.” You may ask, but can these promises given to Jews on pilgrimage long ago apply to me, to us, today? They can, because the term “Israel” applies to those who trust the God who revealed himself in the Law and Covenant of the Old Testament. Jesus, is the fulfilment of that law and is the One who, as both God and man brings us to God. Christian believers are one with all those in the days of the Old Testament who truly believed in God, the Lord of hosts.
In the 18th Century a group of Christians were being persecuted in Central Europe; they fled westwards and came into the region of Saxony in Germany. There a Christian nobleman called Nicholas von Zinzendorf gave them land to settle on. They built houses and a chapel and became self-supporting. They called their village, Herrnhut, which means “the Lord watches”. Because they had come from Moravia (part of the Czech Republic today) they were known as the Moravians and became very influential in missionary work world-wide. You see, they didn’t escape persecution and trouble, but they did know the care and guidance of God, that he was watching over their lives. And so it can be with us.
The Lord God has watched over his people over many hundreds of years of history. They often had it hard and unpleasant, but God preserved them in their faith.
If you have started on the journey to God by accepting Jesus as your Saviour and Lord, then you will be watched over right to the end. Take heart, my friend, if you are finding following Jesus hard, he is watching over you. The apostle Peter, who had many trials himself, wrote to his fellow Christians: “You can now hope for a perfect inheritance beyond the reach of change and decay, “reserved” in heaven for you. And in the meantime you are guarded by the power of God operating through your faith.” (1 Peter chapter 1 verses 4 and 5 Phillips)
Psalm 122
Psalm 122 is the third in the fifteen Songs of Ascents which we are looking at, songs of pilgrimage as we journey to God.
“I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’. Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel. There the thrones of judgement stand, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your citadels. For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you’. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity.”
Despite its hardships and problems this pilgrimage is a joyful experience, its goal is the joyful praising of God in heaven, pictured for us here as the city of Jerusalem. To journey to the one we love and who loves us gives us great joy. The Psalmist says he was glad when friends came along one day and invited him to join their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In a Christian newspaper I get each week there are often stories told by people whose lives were desperately unhappy because of the way they were living and thinking, then someone invited them to join the pilgrimage to God and they became transformed people.
Now your life may not be in a mess, but perhaps you have no point, no goal in life and you were meant to be travelling to God, your Maker. In this Psalm Jerusalem is seen as a strong and compact city, totally in harmony with itself; a place of righteousness and justice and security. The Psalm-writer knew that all around him there was chaos and instability, his world was like that and so is ours. There is no true security and peace except in God’s presence. And this place of security is for all kinds of people; note verse 4 “the tribes of the Lord”. Old Israel was composed of 12 tribes, all different and varied and you and I are called by God to join a people of God wider even than old Israel, composed of all nations and tribes and peoples and languages, but all travelling in the same direction. The Christian faith is not just for Westerners, or people of the East only or the South, not just for one race or ethnic group, but for all peoples.
The good news of the Christian gospel, while it started in Jerusalem, is for the whole world. From its very beginning the gospel broke down racial and social and gender barriers in its day, because the first Christians knew that Jesus was Lord of all, King of the universe, and Saviour of the world. One of their earliest messages was “For God so loved the world that he gave his One and Only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”.
God calls you today to start on this pilgrimage by coming to Jesus his Son, and by walking with his people together towards His heavenly kingdom.