Psalm 120
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
2 Save me, O Lord, from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he do to you,
and what more besides, O deceitful tongue?
4 He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom tree.
5 Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
6 Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
7 I am a man of peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.
CALL TO WORSHIP
God poses an unusual question to us in Jeremiah 12
It comes in response to what Jeremiah has been saying to God.
See if you can relate to this,
He is asking God,
Why is this life so hard?
Why could life not be a bit easier?
Look at the evil people, they seem to have all that they want and more,
However I’ve been faithful all my life and I seem to be getting nowhere.
God’s response seems harsh and hopeless
He says:
“If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
Jeremiah 12:5
God is saying,
You do realise that there is much more to life than you seem to understand?
You are trudging about in the ordinary and you are not coping very well.
Step out into the extra-ordinary and then you will have true life.
Take a step of faith and discover who I Am.
Now the first step of that journey is having our sins forgiven,
But that is not the end of the journey it is only the first step.
Do you want more from life?
Do you want to go on an adventure with God.
An adventure - Where you learn to trust Him more.
Where you reprioritise everything you do and own.
Then this morning, and over the next few weeks we are going on a journey together,
A journey that will take us step by step, higher and higher as we aim to reach God and meet Him face to face.
It will not be an easy journey,
But it is one that we can all make,
And at the end when you look back you will see things that you have never seen before.
It will require a commitment.
But if you are ready,
Then lets take the first step,
And commit our journey to God in prayer
Lets ask Him for “Journeying Mercies.”
INTRODUCTION TO BIBLE READING
Our bible reading this morning is taken from the Psalms,
From Psalm 120.
And I want to introduce you to a little self contained book of songs in the Psalter.
Psalm 120 is the first of the Psalms of Ascent.
They are a collection of 15 Psalms that were used by pilgrims on their journey to meet with God.
Remember at the beginning, we asked if there was more to life than this.
Yes there is, and this is the first step.
These Psalms were used in at least a couple of different ways.
One use was on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
The Israelites would set off on a long journey to the Holy City to Worship God at the Temple.
It was a special journey,
And as the people would set off they would lift this little Book of Psalms and sing them along the way.
And with each song they would be getting closer to Jerusalem,
And closer to the Temple,
And also closer to God.
They were songs that would draw them closer to God.
The idea is that these are the Psalms of ascent,
They are climbing up to the City,
They are climbing up to the Temple,
But they are also climbing up to God.
We all have this desire to meet God and know Him and this is what we are doing over these next few weeks.
These Psalms were also used at the end of the journey.
When the pilgrims reach Jerusalem,
There are 15 steps up to the entrance of the Temple.
And as the people gather round to enter the Temple,
The Priests would climb, one step at a time, and the people and the priests would sing a Psalm on each step,
Until they reach the Temple and enter the presence of God.
Each song is very short so it is practical enough to sing on a step before climbing another one.
So lets read the Psalm together.
Admittedly this is a strange Psalm to begin with,
But the Psalmist is expressing his dissatisfaction with the world that he is living in.
He is saying that there must be more to life.
And he is saying, I’m in!
I’m so fed up with all the lying and fighting that I’m going to look for more.
So Lets read.
INTRODUCTION
So as we start off on this journey,
Do you want to be a Pilgrim or a Tourist?
What do I mean?
Well a Tourist, gets bused into all the exciting places.
A tour guide tells them the most interesting stories, and then they get back on the bus and head off to the next destination.
After a week or so, all the places start to blend into one,
Because they have not spent any length f time in any one spot.
But the Pilgrim, travels to the destination,
They may listen to the tour guide first of all,
But then they go exploring themselves.
They read, and explore and most of all they experience what is going on around them.
They spend time in the culture,
They spend time with the people,
And it changes them.
They remember the details because it is the details that have changed them.
They take their time and then they move on.
With this journey of ascent,
You can be a Pilgrim or a Tourist.
You can just arrive each Sunday and see the sights and then be ready to move on to the next service.
Or you can be a pilgrim,
Taking your time,
Being immersed in the song and the journey.
Singing the song all week long.
Taking the same step over and over again, until it has changed you and transformed you.
I have been living with these songs for several months now.
We have been reading them in the prayer meeting each week,
And there is still so much to learn.
So as we study this Psalm, how do we start the journey?
I’m Distressed About Life
We start off this journey, the same way that anyone starts off on the Christian life.
We need to get to the point that we are distressed about the way that we are living.
And we need to realise that we cannot possibly carry on the way that we have been living.
We need to realise that we are sinful,
And that there is nothing we can do about it ourselves.
Our sin needs to worry us, so much, that we realise there is no way we can carry on the way we have been going.
We need to look at the world and realise that it is broken,
And new governments and campaign letters, and giving to charities, will never be enough on their own to put it right
And therefore, as the Psalmist says,
So we say this morning,
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
Psalm 120:1
It is as simple as that to start on this journey.
Call out to God and He will answer.
Get to the point where there is nowhere else to go and cry out to God.
Eugene Peterson says:
“A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace.”
Eugene Peterson
Do we have such an appetite for the world of Grace?
Because if we do this is the journey that we should embark on.
I’m Fed Up With Lies
The second step on this journey is to say that we are fed up with the lies.
This Psalm is the song of someone who is sick of the lies
To sing this song we need to realise how many lies we hear on a daily basis.
Very few people seem capable of living in healthy relationships.
Things are not alright as they are.
We have been fed a very convincing lie,
That human beings are good and it is only a few who cause the problems.
But the Psalmist cries out to God in distress,
Save me, O Lord, from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he do to you,
and what more besides, O deceitful tongue.
Psalm 120:2-3
The truth is, we are living in a broken world.
We are not good with a few rough edges that need smoothed off,
We are sinful and broken.
We cannot save ourselves.
We need to admit this,
And reject the lies of the world.
We need to start living again in the truth of God’s word.
I’m Frightened Of Punishment
In verse four we say,
I’m frightened of punishment.
We realise the truth, of our sin,
We realise the consequences of our sin.
If we keep living this way,
Then punishment is coming and punishment is not something to be ignored or laughed off,
It is to be feared.
We say of God:
He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom tree.
Psalm 120:4
This is not pleasant,
This journey will lead us on the way to avoid this punishment.
This step of the journey, will set us on the right way.
I’m Going To Get Out
So we are distressed,
We realise the lies
and we know that punishment is coming our way.
We need to say, I’m Going To Get Out.
We need to make that choice to leave the old ways behind.
And start afresh.
The Psalmist looks at his own life,
And realises the way that he has been living.
The people that he has been associating with.
And it is now time to stop.
Meshech and Kedar are two areas renowned as places where evil people live.
They are full of liars and cheats.
Robbers and delinquents.
And the Psalmist has quite happily lived among them
Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech,
that I live among the tents of Kedar.
Psalm 120:5
It would be like us looking at all our business associates, and suddenly realising that they are all cheats, and engaged in shady deals.
Or listening to the conversations of our friends and suddenly realising that they are full of gossip, and malicious gossip at that.
And we say, I’ve got to get out.
I can’t live like this anymore.
Because others just assume that I am from Meshech,
They think I was born and bred in Kedar. I’m Ready For Peace
So what is the alternative?
The alternative is peace.
We need to stand up and say I am ready for peace.
Peace comes in many different guises.
There is national peace, where we have no war.
But there is also inner peace,
Peace that comes from repentance.
From leaving the old life behind and setting off new.
Starting a new journey,
In a new direction,
And telling everyone why you are doing it.
Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
7 I am a man of peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 120:6,7
Repentance is realising that what God wants from your life, will never be achieved by doing the same old things in the same old way.
Repentance is making a decision to follow Jesus and become a pilgrim with Him.
To confess the sins of the old life and receive His forgiveness.
CONCLUSION
So Pilgrim or Tourist?
What is it to be?
Will we just get excited by the sights this morning and then forget about the Lord’s table tonight.
Or are we ready to set out on a journey,
Unsure of where we might end up,
But realising that it is to a better place.
This is the first step of Ascent.
Climbing to reach God
Going up to the King of Kings.
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
2 Save me, O Lord, from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he do to you,
and what more besides, O deceitful tongue?
4 He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom tree.
5 Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
6 Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
7 I am a man of peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.
CALL TO WORSHIP
God poses an unusual question to us in Jeremiah 12
It comes in response to what Jeremiah has been saying to God.
See if you can relate to this,
He is asking God,
Why is this life so hard?
Why could life not be a bit easier?
Look at the evil people, they seem to have all that they want and more,
However I’ve been faithful all my life and I seem to be getting nowhere.
God’s response seems harsh and hopeless
He says:
“If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
Jeremiah 12:5
God is saying,
You do realise that there is much more to life than you seem to understand?
You are trudging about in the ordinary and you are not coping very well.
Step out into the extra-ordinary and then you will have true life.
Take a step of faith and discover who I Am.
Now the first step of that journey is having our sins forgiven,
But that is not the end of the journey it is only the first step.
Do you want more from life?
Do you want to go on an adventure with God.
An adventure - Where you learn to trust Him more.
Where you reprioritise everything you do and own.
Then this morning, and over the next few weeks we are going on a journey together,
A journey that will take us step by step, higher and higher as we aim to reach God and meet Him face to face.
It will not be an easy journey,
But it is one that we can all make,
And at the end when you look back you will see things that you have never seen before.
It will require a commitment.
But if you are ready,
Then lets take the first step,
And commit our journey to God in prayer
Lets ask Him for “Journeying Mercies.”
INTRODUCTION TO BIBLE READING
Our bible reading this morning is taken from the Psalms,
From Psalm 120.
And I want to introduce you to a little self contained book of songs in the Psalter.
Psalm 120 is the first of the Psalms of Ascent.
They are a collection of 15 Psalms that were used by pilgrims on their journey to meet with God.
Remember at the beginning, we asked if there was more to life than this.
Yes there is, and this is the first step.
These Psalms were used in at least a couple of different ways.
One use was on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
The Israelites would set off on a long journey to the Holy City to Worship God at the Temple.
It was a special journey,
And as the people would set off they would lift this little Book of Psalms and sing them along the way.
And with each song they would be getting closer to Jerusalem,
And closer to the Temple,
And also closer to God.
They were songs that would draw them closer to God.
The idea is that these are the Psalms of ascent,
They are climbing up to the City,
They are climbing up to the Temple,
But they are also climbing up to God.
We all have this desire to meet God and know Him and this is what we are doing over these next few weeks.
These Psalms were also used at the end of the journey.
When the pilgrims reach Jerusalem,
There are 15 steps up to the entrance of the Temple.
And as the people gather round to enter the Temple,
The Priests would climb, one step at a time, and the people and the priests would sing a Psalm on each step,
Until they reach the Temple and enter the presence of God.
Each song is very short so it is practical enough to sing on a step before climbing another one.
So lets read the Psalm together.
Admittedly this is a strange Psalm to begin with,
But the Psalmist is expressing his dissatisfaction with the world that he is living in.
He is saying that there must be more to life.
And he is saying, I’m in!
I’m so fed up with all the lying and fighting that I’m going to look for more.
So Lets read.
INTRODUCTION
So as we start off on this journey,
Do you want to be a Pilgrim or a Tourist?
What do I mean?
Well a Tourist, gets bused into all the exciting places.
A tour guide tells them the most interesting stories, and then they get back on the bus and head off to the next destination.
After a week or so, all the places start to blend into one,
Because they have not spent any length f time in any one spot.
But the Pilgrim, travels to the destination,
They may listen to the tour guide first of all,
But then they go exploring themselves.
They read, and explore and most of all they experience what is going on around them.
They spend time in the culture,
They spend time with the people,
And it changes them.
They remember the details because it is the details that have changed them.
They take their time and then they move on.
With this journey of ascent,
You can be a Pilgrim or a Tourist.
You can just arrive each Sunday and see the sights and then be ready to move on to the next service.
Or you can be a pilgrim,
Taking your time,
Being immersed in the song and the journey.
Singing the song all week long.
Taking the same step over and over again, until it has changed you and transformed you.
I have been living with these songs for several months now.
We have been reading them in the prayer meeting each week,
And there is still so much to learn.
So as we study this Psalm, how do we start the journey?
I’m Distressed About Life
We start off this journey, the same way that anyone starts off on the Christian life.
We need to get to the point that we are distressed about the way that we are living.
And we need to realise that we cannot possibly carry on the way that we have been living.
We need to realise that we are sinful,
And that there is nothing we can do about it ourselves.
Our sin needs to worry us, so much, that we realise there is no way we can carry on the way we have been going.
We need to look at the world and realise that it is broken,
And new governments and campaign letters, and giving to charities, will never be enough on their own to put it right
And therefore, as the Psalmist says,
So we say this morning,
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
Psalm 120:1
It is as simple as that to start on this journey.
Call out to God and He will answer.
Get to the point where there is nowhere else to go and cry out to God.
Eugene Peterson says:
“A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace.”
Eugene Peterson
Do we have such an appetite for the world of Grace?
Because if we do this is the journey that we should embark on.
I’m Fed Up With Lies
The second step on this journey is to say that we are fed up with the lies.
This Psalm is the song of someone who is sick of the lies
To sing this song we need to realise how many lies we hear on a daily basis.
Very few people seem capable of living in healthy relationships.
Things are not alright as they are.
We have been fed a very convincing lie,
That human beings are good and it is only a few who cause the problems.
But the Psalmist cries out to God in distress,
Save me, O Lord, from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he do to you,
and what more besides, O deceitful tongue.
Psalm 120:2-3
The truth is, we are living in a broken world.
We are not good with a few rough edges that need smoothed off,
We are sinful and broken.
We cannot save ourselves.
We need to admit this,
And reject the lies of the world.
We need to start living again in the truth of God’s word.
I’m Frightened Of Punishment
In verse four we say,
I’m frightened of punishment.
We realise the truth, of our sin,
We realise the consequences of our sin.
If we keep living this way,
Then punishment is coming and punishment is not something to be ignored or laughed off,
It is to be feared.
We say of God:
He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom tree.
Psalm 120:4
This is not pleasant,
This journey will lead us on the way to avoid this punishment.
This step of the journey, will set us on the right way.
I’m Going To Get Out
So we are distressed,
We realise the lies
and we know that punishment is coming our way.
We need to say, I’m Going To Get Out.
We need to make that choice to leave the old ways behind.
And start afresh.
The Psalmist looks at his own life,
And realises the way that he has been living.
The people that he has been associating with.
And it is now time to stop.
Meshech and Kedar are two areas renowned as places where evil people live.
They are full of liars and cheats.
Robbers and delinquents.
And the Psalmist has quite happily lived among them
Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech,
that I live among the tents of Kedar.
Psalm 120:5
It would be like us looking at all our business associates, and suddenly realising that they are all cheats, and engaged in shady deals.
Or listening to the conversations of our friends and suddenly realising that they are full of gossip, and malicious gossip at that.
And we say, I’ve got to get out.
I can’t live like this anymore.
Because others just assume that I am from Meshech,
They think I was born and bred in Kedar. I’m Ready For Peace
So what is the alternative?
The alternative is peace.
We need to stand up and say I am ready for peace.
Peace comes in many different guises.
There is national peace, where we have no war.
But there is also inner peace,
Peace that comes from repentance.
From leaving the old life behind and setting off new.
Starting a new journey,
In a new direction,
And telling everyone why you are doing it.
Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
7 I am a man of peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 120:6,7
Repentance is realising that what God wants from your life, will never be achieved by doing the same old things in the same old way.
Repentance is making a decision to follow Jesus and become a pilgrim with Him.
To confess the sins of the old life and receive His forgiveness.
CONCLUSION
So Pilgrim or Tourist?
What is it to be?
Will we just get excited by the sights this morning and then forget about the Lord’s table tonight.
Or are we ready to set out on a journey,
Unsure of where we might end up,
But realising that it is to a better place.
This is the first step of Ascent.
Climbing to reach God
Going up to the King of Kings.
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