Psalm 120
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We’ve had our fair share of long journeys as a family. With parents in Cornwall and Mid-Wales long journeys have been unavoidable! Long time for little ones! We know there’s joy at the end of the journey, but the journey itself can be filled with pain.
Fighting on the backseat; constant questioning (are we there yet!?); frequent demands (snacks, toilet stops). Not to mention any unexpected delays you may encounter! Thankfully there is help for these arduous journeys.
Singing! Our kids loved singing in the car, so we’ve got CDs and mp3s of their favourite songs to help us get through the journey.
Psalms 120-134 were written for pilgrims who would make the arduous journey ‘up’ to Jerusalem from all over Israel to keep the feasts of the Lord. They are known as Songs of Ascents.
These Songs of Ascents appear to be grouped in threes:
· The first Psalm in each group describes a situation of distress – the messiness of life. HASSLE
· The second focuses on the Lord’s power to save, deliver, build and strengthen, and to keep hope alive – the help the Lord gives. HELP
· The third in each group brings us home: we have arrived at last! Zion’s citizens safe in Zion – come home to heaven. HEAVEN
These Psalms take us from the messiness of life to the presence of God, with his help along on the way – a great picture of our lives now as Christian disciples: in a hostile world, looking forward to heaven, receiving Christ’s help as we go.
In fact, these psalms are particularly comforting when you think that Jesus himself would have sung them during his life on earth. He endured the hassle of life for us, he received help from his heavenly father, and after suffering death he is now alive and reigning in heaven.
And because he did it for us, it means we are his people. And we can therefore sing these songs with him, as those journeying through this life for him
In Psalm 120 we’re a long way from our home in heaven! We’re in the reality of a messy world and the messiness of life. As believers we need a reality check. Life as followers of Jesus isn’t all cushdy and nice. In fact, Jesus said as much…
Remember what I told you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
And Paul echoed the same…
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
So life for those who love Jesus and live for him will never be as pleasant as heaven, because we continue to live in a world that is hostile to him.
In this hostile world…
Believers will be attacked
Believers will be attacked
As we live and speak for Jesus we should anticipate opposition from the world that hates him.
As one who loves the Lord the Psalmist is experiencing the messiness of life
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
He’s a long way from Jerusalem…
Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
Meschech and Kedar were actually in different countries very far apart on opposite sides of Israel. The psalmist is saying that even though he in his hometown in Israel he feels isolated and lonely; he feels like an exile in his own home.
The life that he’s trying to live in faithful obedience to the Lord makes him incompatible with the world around him. While the Psalmist takes a stand for the truth about God, those around him reject that truth and are hostile to anyone trying to live by it. Seen in v7:
I am for peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.
Today we may well get the same feeling when we say ‘Jesus is Lord.’ Whether we’re saying it with our lips or with our lives, saying that Jesus is our Lord and King is 100% bonkers in the eyes of the world. And quite often we will be attacked because of it.
“You don’t believe in all that rubbish do you? Hasn’t science disproved that Christianity is nonsense? Don’t let Jesus stop you from having fun and living life to the max.” These are the lies of v2.
Some of us will have faced this kind of attack from the moment we professed faith in Christ. When you told your family that you had become a follower of Jesus they might have poured scorn on you because you’ve chosen to believe in all that crazy religious stuff.
They couldn’t understand why you would want to read the Bible, or go to Church, or spend time with Christians.
Or when the reality of your faith began to radically alter your lifestyle your friends might have taken notice and mocked you.
And it goes on throughout life, whenever we strike up new relationships with neighbours, work colleagues, school mates, flat mates. We have to explain that we’re Christians, and so we don’t gamble, gossip or lie. In other words we live very different lives from what is considered normal.
My lifestyle before choosing to follow Christ was very different to the one I have now! Friends knew me as one of them. So when I announced that I had become a Christian they couldn’t understand. When we met I had a coke not a beer. I didn’t swear. I wasn’t gawping at girls. They asked me question after question about all the changes I’d gone through. It was very uncomfortable, and I knew then that in choosing Christ I’d effectively become an outsider to my friends.
Quite often when we take a stand for Christ and wear our heart for Him on our sleeves it backfires – there is opposition and derision. Relationships get broken; people don’t want to associate with us because they know, like we know, that really we’re incompatible.
We live for Christ. They live against Christ. As the Lord said, they treat us this way because they don’t know Him. We are like aliens in our own world.
But all of this can throw us off course, can’t it? Make us doubt that we’re doing the right thing. That is exactly what the enemy of our souls wants – the real attacker. Paul reminds us that our battle isn’t against flesh and blood but against the dark spiritual powers at work in the world. And Satan’s top goals are to keep people from becoming Christians, and prevent Christians having joy in living for Christ. Number one tool for this is the world.
So as we live and speak for Jesus we should anticipate opposition from the world that hates him. We should expect to be attacked for standing for the truth about Christ and proclaiming the gospel in his name. But how does the Psalmist cope with these attacks? Do they just wash over him? Do the lies just bounce off him as his enemies attempt to hurt him? No!
In this hostile world…
Believers will be attacked
Attacks will cause pain
Attacks will cause pain
Attacks can cause serious wounds in believers that don’t heal quickly if at all.
v1 speaks of distress – not a light word. Thesaurus:
anguish, agony, affliction, torment, heartache, grief, desolation, anxiety.
We’re not in Jerusalem yet! These lies are causing immense pain, and so he cries out:
Save me, O Lord (Ps 120:2). Woe to me (Ps 120:5).
Paul faced opposition that caused him pain. Saw this in Philippians, a letter he wrote from a prison cell. Not only that…
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Paul was deeply wounded by his enemies, who were really enemies of Christ. Suffering was very real and painful. Just like us, I’m sure Paul found opposition and lies hard. It was emotionally hard.
We will not cope on the journey we’re on unless we realize that we will be attacked along the way, and that those attacks will be painful.
But Paul knew that it was worth it. You see in that letter to the Philippians one isn’t left with a sense of how much pain Paul is going through, but of how much joy Paul is experiencing. Why?
But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
It is worth enduring the attacks and the pain they bring because through it Christ is proclaimed, the gospel is made known, and by his grace sinners are saved.
Yet Psalm 120 is here to wake us up to the reality of the attacks we face, and the reality of the pain they cause. We need to know what we’re facing. We need to be alert to what is coming. Because anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. This is normal life on the road.
I’ve often travelled down a busy M6 and seen the signs for the M6 toll road. The signs always promise clear roads and hassle free journeys. Tempting! But I know that if I take the M6 toll it will take me off the route I’m on and there will still be heavy traffic on the other side. I can’t avoid the reality of busy roads!
Same in the Christian pilgrimage. Temptation is to avoid the hassle. Keep quiet about faith in Christ. Steer clear of awkward conversations. Compromise a little here so as not to draw attention.
Trouble is, however long we choose to avoid the painful attacks, sooner or later, if we want to live a godly life, we will have to face up to reality.
So how are we to cope on this perilous journey?
In this hostile world…
Believers will be attacked
Attacks will cause pain
Pain will prompt prayer
Pain will prompt prayer
The pain we experience as we live and speak for Jesus in this alien world will cause us to cry out to him for help.
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
In deep despair the Psalmist drops to his knees and cries out, “Lord how am I going to cope with this?” And there on his knees he realises that he will not cope without God.
That’s what these attacks do; they remind us that we are too weak to cope with the journey, and that without God we will never arrive home.
The answer to attack is not avoidance, it’s prayer. Why pray? The answers are here in Ps 120.
Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
What will he do to you,
and what more besides,
you deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom bush.
The lies of our enemies, whether those we live among or Satan, will come to an end. God the judge will put an end to the lies, and all that will be left is truth. The glorious truth that has been revealed to us, the truth that we cling to, the truth that gives us eternal hope.
The truth about Jesus Christ who himself endured the lies and the attacks, more so than we will ever have to. Yet what did he do? He prayed!! And he received the strength he needed to endure the cross so that he might pay for our sin and set us free. His death and resurrection guarantee that the lies and the attacks we face will come to an end, and we will live in the truth forever!
And he spoke of a time when his followers would pray. He described it as a time of grief and pain, like a woman in labour. He said…
In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.’
It’s as we pray in the midst of despair and distress that we lift our eyes up from our circumstances and we instead fix our gaze on Christ our King, the one by whom we live and the one for whom we live, and we can rest confidently in his saving care that will guard us on our journey and bring us home. It’s as we pray in a hostile world that we remind ourselves and each other of the peace that Jesus brings…
‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’
This is a song that reminds us about the reality of life as believers. As we live for him we will be attacked, the attacks will hurt. We need that reminder.
But this song also takes us to the place we need to be – on our knees before our King, leaning on him for comfort, drawing on him for strength, looking to him for peace.
Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
How we can sympathise! So we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
