Lent Readings 1.7
Current mood: On a journey…
I found this an approproiate supplement to this week’s Lent reading…
Psalm 125 (NLT)
1 Those who trust in the Lord are as secure as Mount Zion;
they will not be defeated but will endure forever.
2 Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people, both now and forever.
3 The wicked will not rule the land of the godly,
for then the godly might be tempted to do wrong.
4 O Lord, do good to those who are good,
whose hearts are in tune with you.
5 But banish those who turn to crooked ways, O Lord.
Take them away with those who do evil.
May Israel have peace!
The reason that I selected this passage is simple: this is a “song of ascension.”
“A song of what?”
A song of ascension, as in ascent.
A big part of Judaism, and likewise Christianity, is the idea of pilgrimage. There are numerous feasts celebrated by the Jews and a big part of these feasts is traveling from your hometown to Jerusalem.
They would often say, “Come, let us go UP to the House of the Lord.”
All along the journey to Jerusalem parents would tell their children the stories of their ancestors. “Do you see that well? Our father Jacob dug that well when…” And after a few days of stories and “Are we there yet?” they would arrive at Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is a city that you literally have to go ‘up’ to. It was built on a hill, and the Temple of God was up there, on this hill. The people quite literally would travel with the anticipation of going ‘up’ to the House of God. In fact, you find all throughout the Jewish tradition, stories of the great men of God going up on the mountain to pray (Abraham, Moses, Elijah, just to name a few). Going up, it’s sort of a metaphor for going to a place above the world and its problems to be with God.
“Matthew’s rambling again…”
You have to figure that as you were traveling, remembering the great stories of your ancestors, seeing all of the sites that you have heard the rabbis talk about in synagogue, you would begin to get very excited about arriving in Jerusalem. After all, God is there.
And that’s why this song/psalm was written. It is a song that would be sung by the people as they arrived in Jerusalem. This song would comemorate the experience of meeting with God.
There is something to note here though: God was only in the Temple in Jerusalem. Thus the need for these regualr pilgrimages.
Fast forward a bit.
A child is born in Bethlehem. They call Him Jesus, but He has this God-given nickname, Imanuel, God with us. The idea is simple: you no longer have to trek up to Jerusalem to be with God, in Jesus you can live in this place that is above the world and its ways.
And that’s our new pilgrimage.
We don’t necessarily make a pilgrimage to a great Temple, but rather, we live our lives like pilgrims. We are to live with the same sort of steadfast anticipation. We walk through life telling the stories of what our God has done and we anticipate eagerly the day when He returns, the day that Job spoke of with a greater desire than the desire for life itself (”…Yet with my eyes, I will see God.”).
This ancient song is our song. Let it settle in our hearts. Let it over run our thoughts. Let our desires be shifted from the paradigms of this world to the “upward” paradigm, the one that anticipates the restoration and resurrection of all things.
As we anticipate the day that we celebrate the resurrection, let’s remember that we are just pilgrims on a journey. Grace and peace to you,
-m
