Psalm 120

Introduction

I wonder what your routine is when you are about to set off on long journey. Deciding what choice of music, audiobook or radio station to have on. Or maybe yours playlist is ‘are we there yet?’ on repeat by the backing singers. It was much simpler when all you had in the car was the cassette tape because we had limited options; looks like it’s Bruce Springsteen or The Archers!  Now it’s “Alexa, play…” and let the argument or the indecisiveness begin.  Getting started is sometimes the hardest part of any journey and not just the choice of music.

We are starting our series on the Psalms (or Songs) of Ascent; these Psalms were sung by pilgrims travelling over the nation of Israel for three of the major festivals throughout the year; Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of tabernacles.  You could say this was the Pilgrims’ mixtape.

The meaning of these Psalms has been interpreted in a few different ways.  Jerusalem was, topographically, the highest point in Israel so wherever you were travelling from you would be going up. But it could also be seen as a metaphor for moving towards God; as Eugene Peterson puts it the trip to Jerusalem acted out a life lived upwards towards God from one level to another developing maturity.  As we move through these Psalms over the Summer, we will see in these Psalms a journey from distress to power and to security in God.

The Journey Begins

Track one in the playlist is one of distress; the Psalmist is asking to be rescued from lying lips and deceitful tongues.  The psalm starts with distress and ends with war; it is not a happy psalm. But it is the start of the journey. The psalmist is looking around and does not like what they see and where they dwell and basically saying “get me out of here, I do not belong in this place!”.

When I first became a Christian and my journey began, I recall greatly how painful the start of that journey was.  At 15 years of age, I had encountered God, felt his presence and for the first-time unconditional love with a desire to live, love and serve Him.  That was easier amongst those who also believed but not so with those who do not.

Turning away from old behaviours and attitudes at school which made me an alien and target; shunned even more in what was a particularly challenging and difficult homelife. The start of the journey was hard, but I remember praying most nights, blessed me your name and, like the Psalmist, Lord get me out of here.  And you know what, He did just that. A year later I was living with caring and nurturing foster parents that still to this day walk with me.

Our walk as disciples as followers of Christ can and will make us aliens in the land that we live but we walk these dangerous and challenging roads in the confidence of who God is and what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross and because of that we live differently and as John rightly pointed out last week that our lives should point to Jesus and that people will see Jesus in us; some will be attracted and some will be repelled.  Our journey is one that is counter-cultural in an ever-increasing hostile culture.  The great thing for us here and now is that we can turn to God on that journey and that by his Spirit we can be guided through the difficult parts of the journey and to also be excited about how God may use us on our journey for his Glory.

Turning to God on the Journey

The psalmist shows us at the very beginning and throughout the journey we too can turn to God, cry out and asked for deliverance.  Our walk with Jesus was never going to be carefree because we live in a world where there is danger, injustice, and temptation. A world that the psalmist in v5 likens to Meshech and Kedar.  It was unlikely the psalmist was in these places physically but rather they were metaphors for one being a remote place and another being hostile.

We may find ourselves working and living in places that sometimes seem so distant and detached from God; where we dwell among those who hate peace.  The journey can and will be messy, it can take different turns and people from all over will join on the upward climb. We become more like who God wants us to be as we continue this upward walking with Him.

When I find myself in conversations with people about God’s grace and that all who honestly believe and repent can be forgiven this can cause offence because it His grace is remarkable!  You only need to look at the media to see how well received forgiveness of people’s mistakes is; to forgive and move on is incredibly counter-cultural yet it is at the heart of God’s saving works.

Working in the prison education I am constantly in discussion with people about why we do what we do and battle with people (some that work in prisons) about whether people can change or not.  What grieves me, what distresses me is that I see and work with so many people that did not have a good start to their journey in life and as a result end up on the wrong side of the law.

This is then reinforced by remaining stigma; one learner of mine said to me “Danny, once a prisoner always a prisoner in the eyes of society”. It breaks my heart because I believe and trust in a God that can and does change hearts and minds; that turns people’s lives around.  Yet, I find that I dwell amongst people who reject this. The world does not dictate our journey and as we are reminded in the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, those who are lost can be found. And I get so frustrated because I just don’t understand why people do not want to champion people’s recovery in order that they don’t reoffend and get stuck in a vicious circle; it pains me.

I know that many of us right now feel distressed, are tired and are restless as a result of the last 15 months of going through a journey in our society we are still yet to finish.  The journey has been a challenging and frustrating one whereby people have felt much pain, loneliness, and detachment from loved ones.

It has been a painful journey on top of all the other things in life that concerns us individually and corporately, our past, our struggles with others; our issues at work; financial concerns; health concerns; and the issues of injustice in the world and we think ah! how can we make this journey?  We do this one step at a time with God who is faithful and will walk with us; He is our living hope.  Day by day, step by step, let us continue to walk with Him and together; this journey is to be walked as a community.
What has been encouraging is how people have journeyed together online, onsite, homegroups and so on.  As well of those who have joined the journey during this time.

Conclusion

I wonder what your Meshech and Kedar is right now; whether be work, family difficulties strained relationships, I encourage you bring these places before God and be assured that God can make his presence known.

What we can take from this psalm is that it teaches us that is it okay to express our frustration, our weariness, our anger at the injustice we see in the world around us and look to God the who gives us hope and strength for the journey.  This journey both physically and spiritually is about journeying towards God.

Unlike the psalmist, we do not need to travel physically to be where God is but by his Spirit he can and will make his presence known.  And that we can take his light into the World and others will see Him and join his journey.

There’s a stereotype that Christian ethics is just about “how great it would be to be nice to people for a change”. But as we consider our statement about what we are about as a church, focusing on the line “Growing together as the family of God”, I think it would be helpful to look at Colossians 3:12-17, one of the classic “be nice to people” passages, and see why it isn’t just about being nice to each other.

1. It is rooted in what God has done for us. It begins with “therefore” – looking back to chapters 1 and 2. Specifically, that we are God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved – therefore we don’t need to try to impress others or bolster our own sense of identity, and we can look at each other as chosen, holy and dearly loved too – hence all the qualities that follow are about our attitudes to other people.

We see the same in v14, 15, 16 and 17 – it’s all about responding to what God has done for us. Paul’s argument is “this is who God is; this is what he has done for us; this is who he has called us to be. Therefore this is how we should live.” So if we want to grow in those qualities, we do so by coming back to what God has done for us and for others.

2. It recognises that it is hard. v12-13 shows it as a deliberate process, with lots of elements to pay attention to – like getting dressed up really smartly for church. In v13, we see that it is often difficult and we need to “bear with each other” and show grace to each other, just as God does to us.

That doesn’t mean for a second that we just ignore sin or fail to speak out to protect others; it means that even when we correct and discipline people, it is done in a genuine spirit of love and grace, just as God does with us.

3. It’s all about Jesus. It’s about present relationship with him. So in v12-14, our character comes to reflect Jesus’ character more and more. In v15 we let peace rule – that’s not the peace of sweeping things under the carpet, it’s the peace of submitting it all to Christ who loves us. It’s the word of Christ too in v16, that we’re called to let dwell in us and transform us, leading us to be able to teach and admonish one another.

How do you feel about sharing God’s word with other Christians? Maybe it’s saying something that helped us in the last week, or something we were struck by as we read the Bible. Maybe it’s asking questions about something we don’t understand, or helping other people understand when they ask us. That’s partly why homegroups are really important – it’s hard to do the horizontal dimension of church well with current restrictions.

That’s especially true when it comes to singing. Our songs are meant to be so saturated with the Bible that singing them is sharing God’s word with people (v16). It’s meant to be a corporate activity of together offering our thanks and praise to God, so that the word of God dwells among us as well as with us, and we can’t do it together at the moment.

It’s also about doing everything in Jesus’ name – doing them as his representatives in this world. Everything we do, whether it is picking up litter on a Saturday morning or getting a vaccination to protect other members of society, or trying to shop more ethically, we do it as representatives of Jesus, as people who show the world what he is like.

We’re doing a short series of sermons where we let the Bible shed light on our church’s identity statement. Today we’re focusing on “Worshipping God and listening to his Word”, and I thought it would be good to go back to Isaiah’s vision of God in chapter 6, especially at three emotions that Isaiah experiences.

First, awe. The whole vision is awe-inspiring. A throne that is far above anything else – the train of his robe filling the temple; firey creatures flying and calling to one another in voices that makes the whole room shake and fill with smoke. This truly is an amazing vision, but the heart of it is Isaiah seeing the one who sits on the throne – the awesome Trinitarian God himself. But Isaiah never tells us what the Lord looked like; all we see are people’s responses to him.

Even the terrifying seraphs cover their faces and cry out “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.” “Holy Holy” means “the very holiest” And God is far holier than that. Do you ever get the feeling we’ve lost something of a vision for how amazing God is? Isaiah sees him, and is filled with awe.

But there’s more than that – it’s fear too. God’s holiness is “not a quiet, anemic thing to be received with stained-glass voices and simpers. The holiness of the sovereign Lord is tremendous, vivid, and dazzling.”
Isaiah knew that all too well. You see, King Uzziah in 2 Chron 26 had thought that because he was a strong king he could go into the (1x) holy place to burn incense to God. But God struck him with a skin disease which meant he had to live as a recluse for the rest of his life and couldn’t go near the temple again. So how is Isaiah going to cope with being in the very presence of God who is holy, holy, holy? And as the young prophet realises where he is, he realises what must happen. And that’s what we get in v5 – it’s a funeral lament for himself, because he expects to die.

In Rejoice and Tremble, theologian Mike Reeves, points out that fear, in the sense of feeling so overwhelmed that we shake, is the right human response to God. But there is a right fear of God and a wrong fear of God. The right fear of God finds him overwhelming but attractive, and falls down on our faces towards him, and leads to joy. The wrong fear of God flees from him in terror. But either is a better response than just apathy.

And what makes the difference between these two types of fear? It is the third emotion we see from Isaiah – the emotion of being welcomed! (v5-7)
He is welcomed through sacrifice – the coal from the altar touches his lips. And in the same way, we’re told that Jesus, the perfect and eternal Son of God, died and took our punishment so that we can be clean instead of unclean, so that our guilt can be taken away and so that we can stand in the presence of God. And that does not decrease the fear we should feel of God – it does not lessen the trembling; it does not make the unbearable brightness of the vision dimmer. If anything, it makes it brighter still, but it also makes it beautiful instead of terrifying.

So what does this mean for us?
Isn’t it obvious by now that we need to worship God and listen to his Word? After all, what is worship but enjoying how amazing God is, and telling him, ourselves, and others, how much we see and love and adore and tremble before him!

And surely, given who God is and how awesome he is, and at what cost he welcomes and accepts us, we should long to listen to his word and seek to obey it, just like Isaiah does at the end of the passage we heard?

Sunday services (whether onsite or online) are a major part of that. They are an opportunity to remember who God is and who we are, and to reset ourselves so that we see the rest of the week in the right perspective – we don’t need to spend the week searching for other people’s validation and approval, because we already have the acceptance of the one who makes the whole earth tremble.

But as well as driving us to fall on our faces in awe, this kind of holiness affects our whole lives. Christian leadership thinker John C Maxwell says this: You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

And over this last 15 months, we’ve all changed our routines quite a bit and several times.  I’d like us to take this opportunity to evaluate the habits that we have, maybe ones that have changed over the past year or so, and to take control of them – to say “What is helpful for me in following this awesome God? What isn’t?” and then seek to modify them accordingly. There’s a helpful sheet to help us do that, with some suggestions of good and bad habits.