Let's Go for a Walk

May 31, 2010
Read Psalms 122 - 134

Ps 129:1-2
From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me.
Let all Israel repeat this:
2 From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me,
but they have never defeated me.

Ps 134
1 A song of ascents.
Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD
who minister by night in the house of the LORD.
2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
and praise the LORD.
3 May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth,
bless you from Zion.


IMAGINE something really crazy. The picture is this: You get up early on Sunday morning. You dress for church. The kids are up and everyone is ready to leave about 2 hours before church starts. And you leave for church because you need all that time to get there. Why?

You are going to walk to church. But you and your family don’t walk alone. As you walk down each block of your journey to church, people come from the homes and apartments along the way. Block by block the throng of people increases, and songs spontaneously arise from the crowd.

You and your fellow Christ-followers sing because you are excited and joyful! You praise God with your music. The songs’ words remind you and tell bystanders along the way of how God has cared for you and his church in times of strife and turmoil. The songs tell of his amazing love that rescues people and makes them new. And the songs offer praise to the minister and to those who lead the church. Your songs celebrate a victorious past and anticipate a joyful future.

These psalms in today’s readings are called Psalms of Ascents or the Pilgrim Psalms. They are songs the Hebrews sang as they journeyed together, towns joining towns, on annual pilgrimages to the great Feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. They are songs the Hebrews sang as they returned from the 70-year exile in Babylon. They are songs of victory, peace and joy.

They sang these songs to remind them of and to celebrate God’s great mercy and love over them.

Imagine, my friends, the comfort and peace you would experience each Sunday if your church would join in such an attitude of celebration, praise and trust for God.

Your heart would be glad. You would “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary”. And you would feel God’s blessings on your heart and in your soul. Life’s “mountains” would be mere ant hills. “Despair” would be a foreign word. “Hopelessness” is gone. And you would truly know the meaning of Jesus words, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

Thank you, Father, for your great love, a love we can trust to deliver us into a full life with you.