Shiray Hammaloth—Songs of Ascent


Psalm 120
1In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.
2Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.
3What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?
4A warrior’s sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!
5Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.
7I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!

One of the warmest memories of my childhood are times spent on the road with my parents. My father doesn’t just sit around easily, so we rarely just sat at home looking for something to do. If the house was clean and the cars were washed, we would head out to see the world. And those journeys were almost always accompanied by singing. Yup – we would all sing songs together as we drove down the road. And all of those songs were songs of faith. Going Home, I Love to Tell the Story, Holy Holy Holy, Oh How I Love Jesus. Those are just a few of the songs we would sing. It would take up the time and we just enjoyed the process. Those were our “traveling songs.” Little did I know then (and I doubt if my parents knew it either) we were part of a long tradition of singing while you travel that began in the Old Testament. Beginning with Psalm 120 and going through 134, we have 15 songs that would be sung by the Hebrews as they engaged in a tri-annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem in obedience to the command of God.

Exodus 34:24
For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.

There is much to be said for the discipline of reciting these psalms, one after another from memory, as you walk along the road. And that very idea might even be an anathema to our minds today as we walk down the sidewalk with our noses glued to our smartphones. Focus on God’s Word while walking, running, or just sitting is an increasingly lost art. Perhaps over the next few weeks we can challenge ourselves to memorize a few of these psalms so that we have them in our pocket whenever there are a few quiet moments to dedicate to the Lord. Our cell phones don’t necessarily have to demand every moment of our unclaimed time.

These fifteen psalms were likely sung, possibly in sequence, by Hebrew pilgrims as they went up to Jerusalem to the great worship festivals. Topographically Jerusalem was the highest city in Palestine, and so all who traveled there spent much of their time ascending. But the ascent was not only literal, it was also a metaphor: the trip to Jerusalem acted out a life lived upward toward God, an existence that advanced from one level to another in developing maturity—what Paul described as “the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus”.
Peterson, Eugene H.. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society. InterVarsity Press.

We begin with Psalm 120 which is not a happy song, but instead an honest one. It prods us forward and gets us going in the right direction. The writer acknowledge that all is not right with the world. All is not right with him! He is trapped in enemy territory (Meshech, Kedar) both externally and internally. He is a sinner, surrounded by sinners. That’s why he’s headed into Jerusalem in the first place!

I have to be in pretty desperate straights to pray this psalm for myself. I don’t often feel surrounded by lying lips and deceitful tongues. But I certainly know how to lie to myself on occasion. And while part of me wants peace at all costs, I am often willing to be unkind and war against my neighbor with hatred rather than peace. This call to repentance is a good start!

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