The first group of three psalms in the Psalms of Ascent look at the problems faced on the journey, the help and protection God gives and the sense of joy on arrival in Jerusalem.

Ps 120 is an admission of need, almost a psalm of complaint. It starts in the place of distress (Ps 120:1), with the psalmist all too aware of the ‘lying lips and deceitful tongues’ all around him (Ps 120:2) and distressed by living among those who hate peace (Ps 120:5-7). We live in a world where it’s a constant battle to do good and we often feel like fish swimming against the tide. Being slandered and misrepresented and living in a society which condones (and often promotes) exploitation (Meshek and Kedar were cities which sold humans for profit, Ezek 27:13,21) is wearing and wearying, but it is only as we face these situations that our hearts are stirred towards God.

Ps 121 reassures that God is our help; it is a psalm of comfort and consolation. Life – whether seen as a literal or metaphorical pilgrimage – is full of pitfalls and traps (stumbling, tripping, heatstroke, perils at night), but God is beside us at all times; our help comes from Him. (Ps 121:2) In life, we are not guaranteed immunity from troubles (John 16:33), but we do have a God of protection and providence to help us.

Ps 122 is a psalm which rejoices in Jerusalem, the pilgrim’s destination, and which celebrates community. Collective joy and collective worship are crucial parts of the Christian journey and we need, like Moses, to encourage others to join with us in this experience (see Num 10:29). The pilgrimage always starts with a first step; without that collective ‘Let us go’ (Ps 122:1), we are often too prone to stay at home and worship in private. Gladness in collective worship and the importance of prayer are both highlighted in this psalm, which reminds us of the peace which God can bring (Ps 122:6-8).

The Psalms of Ascent remind us of the importance of place and song in worship. For devout Jews, Jerusalem signified the place where God dwelt, with the Temple the visible reminder of God’s presence among them (which is why the destruction of the first temple by Babylon and the second temple by the Romans was so devastating and resulted in an annual day of mourning (the Ninth of Av)). For Christians, a church building or cathedral is often the symbol of God’s presence, but we need to be reminded that nowadays God dwells in His people by His Spirit (1 Cor 6:19) rather than in any building (Paul reminded us that ‘the God who made the heavens and earth… does not live in temples built by human hands.’ Acts 17:24)

Nonetheless, places can have significant spiritual importance in our lives. Jesus talked of a place we can go to in order to pray (‘when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.’ Matt 6:6), even though we know we can pray anywhere. For many, there are places where God’s presence seems especially real (often in a beautiful outdoor place, for example) and there is (as Ps 122 makes plain) great joy in gathering with God’s people in a place set aside for worship to God. The Psalms of Ascent sing of this gathering with great gusto, but remind us also that the journey itself is important, not just the arrival.

Singing is an important part of worship, and again, we have to remember that the singing takes place on the journey as well as on our arrival. The benefits of singing are both physical (improving posture, breathing and muscle tension) and emotional (from the release of positive neurochemicals such as β-endorphin, dopamine and serotonin). Community singing is also hugely beneficial, as the upsurge in the popularity of choirs testify. Armies have long discovered the benefits of singing while marching in keeping groups together and any parent knows that singing on long journeys can be useful for distracting children from boredom! In worship, however, singing is primarily important in focussing our attention on God and allowing truth to penetrate our hearts and minds. The psalms are especially useful in fulfilling this task.

We are currently entering the holiday season in the UK and June has been unusually warm and sunny here. Holidays are generally associated with rest from work, an opportunity to visit somewhere different and time spent with families and friends. These days, travel is easy and so we can visit countries abroad with relative ease or we can explore the many beautiful parts of the UK, taking in the glorious scenery of beaches and the coast or the greenery of hills and glens. Most of us really enjoy the break from routine which holidays afford and value the time away from the daily grind.

Religious festivals provided Jews with an opportunity to rest from work and to spend time with families and friends, but there was also a pronounced emphasis on gathering to worship God and to remember all He has done for us. As the historical psalms have shown us, there is a constant need to remember God and His wonderful deeds (see Ps 78:7, 35), and the festivals provided this planned opportunity to take time out of our everyday routines:

• to focus attention on God
• to recall God’s work in history
• to rest/ refrain from work (since even God rested on the seventh day, rest is a definite requirement for successful, obedient living)
• to keep historical tradition alive
• to foster a sense of community and belonging
• to ensure regular reflection and celebration

Just as we look forward to an annual summer holiday, we need to take time out of our busy schedules to rest and to worship God. The weekly provision of this was the Sabbath (Ex 20:10); the festivals were the opportunity to take a week long break to gather with God’s people to worship and celebrate. Pilgrimages still feature in many Christian traditions (with journeys to special places such as Lourdes or Walsingham or the Holy Island, often places associated with the miraculous intervention of God in the past) and many Christian festivals (Spring Harvest, the One Event, the Keswick Convention, Greenbelt, the Big Church Day Out) also provide the opportunity to combine holidays with holy days. Wherever we go this summer or wherever we are, even if we have no opportunity to go away, we can still join with God’s people in worship and celebration.

Pilgrimages featured heavily on the R.S. GCSE papers this year and the Psalms of Ascent (Ps 120-134) were the Jewish songbook for the three annual pilgrimages they took to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) and the Feast of Tabernacles (harvest) (see Ex 23:14-17). It’s rather wonderful to think that these holidays (holy days) were commanded by God and were an opportunity for communities to travel together to worship God in the temple at Jerusalem. Festivals were opportunities for the people to remember all God had done for them, as the historical psalms have reminded us. These festivals celebrated the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai and the ingathering of the harvest as well as God’s provision during the wilderness wanderings when the Israelites lived in booths or tents. Eugene Peterson says, ‘the Hebrews were a people whose salvation had been accomplished by the exodus, whose identity had been defined at Sinai and whose preservation had been assured in the forty years of wilderness wandering.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Journey’ P 6) These occasions were joyful celebrations with much feasting and celebration, but they were first of all defined by the journey to Jerusalem (a journey Jesus himself took, as Luke 2:41-52 recounts.)

It’s generally thought that the Psalms of Ascent were sung during this journey to Jerusalem (a city situated on seven hills, so there was a physical ascent as well as a spiritual one in this journey.) Eugene Peterson remarks that ‘the trip to Jerusalem acted out a life lived upward toward God, an existence that advanced from one level to another in developing maturity.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Journey’, P 6) It’s also thought that these psalms (known as the ‘songs of steps’) were sung by the priests as they ascended the fifteen steps to minister at the Temple in Jerusalem.

These psalms cover a wide range of topics and are grouped together in five groups of three. Within those groups, the first psalm usually focuses on trouble, distress or difficulty; the second on God’s ability to keep and help His people in those situations and the third looks at the security that comes with arrival.

The psalms are relatively short and contain repetition, always helpful on a journey when our attention needs to be focussed. They are the only group of psalms linked so closely together by their titles, although only five of them are ascribed to authors (4 to David and 1 to Solomon.) These psalms are huge encouragement to us on our Christian journey, when all life can be likened to a pilgrimage towards God (see Ps 84:5-6)

Every journey begins with a first step. We watch our children learn to smile, sit up, turn over, crawl and stand up, and then comes that first step. Tottering, often needing the ‘prop’ of a hand or the furniture to steady those wobbly legs, we clap in encouragement as the baby becomes a toddler. Before we know it, that faltering child is running confidently, excitedly discovering the world around them.

Martin Luther King said, ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.’

God calls us to a life of faith, to a life of first steps. It’s not easy to learn to walk: there is much physical and mental development which has to take place before the baby can become a toddler. Similarly, we have to grow in faith if we are to do the things God calls us to do. In Will Smith’s words,‘The first step is you have to say you can.’ If we don’t believe we can walk, we never will. If we want to know our final destination and have life’s journey all mapped out before we begin, we will probably never get very far in God. He’s interested in faith steps, not setting out with all the answers before us. Faith will always involve uncertainty and doubt before confidence and arrival.

God calls us to first steps. Our journey will not always be easy. Like the toddler, we will doubtless stumble and fall many times on this journey; the toddler’s ability to ‘face plank’ results in many tears and scary moments, and life is similarly heart-breaking and terrifying at times. When we’re flat on our faces in bewilderment, it’s easy to think we’ll never get the hang of this ‘walking by faith’ lark. But God wants us to get up again and start again. The toddler is the perfect example in the merits of perseverance. No child gets up and walks confidently and steadily first time. It can take months before they can walk confidently. But it’s rare to find three year olds with no phsyical or neurological complications who can’t walk!

Prov 1:7 in the Message version says, ‘Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.’ All first steps ultimately begin as we hear God and obey Him. The pilgrims’ annual journeys to Jerusalem all began with a first step. Every journey begins as we hear God and say ‘let us go…’ (see Ps 122:1) Be encouraged to take those first steps of faith and learn to walk tall in God.

Garry spoke tonight on the subject of reverence. On 17 June 2018, tourists in the Kruger National Park in South Africa almost lost their lives when one of them wound down the window of the Jeep they were travelling in in order to stroke a lion who had come to lie in the shade of the vehicle. The lion was roused by this and its fearsome roar terrified the tourist who managed to escape unharmed. The lion may have looked cute and cuddly, but wasn’t. The tourist needed to show due respect for the wild animal… and we need to show due respect for God.

In 1 Pet 3:15 we are urged to ‘revere’ or ‘set apart’ Christ as Lord. That word implies a caution, even a fear or dread. We need to understand that we are dealing with the King of Kings and worship God with reverence and awe. (Heb 12:28) Godly fear is not about a crippling terror, but about a healthy respect, based on a knowledge of who God is. Jacob experienced this when he realised he had encountered God in a dream (Gen 28:16-17). A right fear of God protects us and helps us.

Reverence is not about ‘sounding’ the part or ‘looking’ the part. Jesus told us that prayer is not about using special words or voices or repetition (Matt 6:5-9); it is about talking to God as our heavenly Father. It is not about being sombre or wearing dark clothes. David was reprimanded by Michal for wearing a linen ephod and dancing extravagantly before the Lord on the ark’s return to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:12-16, 20-22); she thought his behaviour was vulgar and demeaning. He, however, knew he had worshipped God from the heart, even if it looked undiginified to others. When we start worrying more about what other people think than about what God thinks, we are in trouble, for God does not look at the outward appearance, but looks at the heart. Reverence can never just be about the externals.

Reverence is understanding that God is not tame. We cannot control Him; He does whatever pleases Him. Reverence means not treating Him as ordinary (which David had previously done when bringing the ark back to Jerusalem, resulting in Uzzah’s death because he touched the ark of the covenant, treating it as an ordinary wooden box instead of as the symbol of God’s holy presence. 2 Sam 6:1-9) Paul reminds us in 1 Cor 11:27-32 that we need to approach God in the right way, treating Communion seriously and reverently. Ultimately, we need to do things God’s way.

Reverence is wanting to be like God (2 Cor 7:1), perfecting holiness because God is holy. Our hero is Christ and therefore we want to be like Him. We value who Christ is and He grows the fruit of the Spirit in our lives so that we become more like Him.

Reverence, ultimately, is closely linked to obedience. We show reverence by doing what Christ tells us to. That is easy if what God tells us to do is what we want to do, but much harder when He says no to the things we long for or asks us to do things we’d rather not. We have to pray as Jesus did: ‘not my will, but Yours be done.’ Nonetheless, a healthy fear, arising from a melted heart rather than a terrified one, is what we need to approach God with due respect and reverence.