Experiencing Life in The Psalms: You Can't Stand Still

Psalm 122  (NRSV)

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

I was glad when they said to me,

    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Our feet are standing

    within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem—built as a city

    that is bound firmly together.

To it the tribes go up,

    the tribes of the Lord,

as was decreed for Israel,

    to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

For there the thrones for judgment were set up,

    the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

    “May they prosper who love you.

Peace be within your walls,

    and security within your towers.”

For the sake of my relatives and friends

    I will say, “Peace be within you.”

For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

    I will seek your good.

Most of us are familiar with the Psalms,

we may have maybe even memorized some, like the 23rd or 100^th

But very few of us tend to read the Psalms.

And that is pretty surprising since the Psalms are the most quoted literature of the Hebrew Bible in our New Testament.

          The early Christians saw in Jesus the fulfillment of the Psalms

          Today as Christians we tend to see the Psalms through the lens of Jesus

Even though many don't read the Psalms, they are at the center of Christian worship

We hear them read, we sing them, we even use them in our prayers --- often in fragmentary form.

But the Psalms as whole texts often seem to our modern ears to be strange if not even foreign.

And though the Psalms were created in an ancient culture --- the language that they use --- the amazing poetry ---- seem to wrestle with the question of what it means to be fully human.

The themes that are found in the Psalms include:

·         our longing for justice

·         the poverty of riches

·         caring for the poor

·         wonder of creation

·         the search for happiness

·         the quest for integrity

·         the need for silence and solitude

·         the struggle with grief, loneliness and mental illness

·         and the realization of our mortality

And at the center of it all --- is God.

You cannot open the Psalms without encountering God

Patrick Woodhouse, in the quote at the top of the bulletin said:

Could it be that, . . . the Psalms are in fact pointing to the greatest malaise of our times: the erosion of belief in a transcendent reality which all our lives can be measured and shaped, and given hope and meaning?

The Psalms are full of God

Woodhouse continues:

The one thing you cannot escape if you read the Psalms, is God.  They are shot through and through with the divine presence, the divine grace and the divine call.  This is why, despite the difficulties of their cultural context, they need to be valued and loved and known, not just as odd fragments but as whole texts, which, when deeply pondered can kindle faith afresh and reorient a person's entire perspective.

It is my hope that over this season of lent that the Psalms will help you to learn to live differently in the world.

We are hoping to help you do this though the daily devotions we are sending you, our sermons on Sunday mornings, and the workshops that Matt has put together to help us learn to pray the Psalms.

The Psalms invite us in and offer to help us to discover life.

          The abundant life that Jesus talks about (John 10:10)

Over the six Sundays of Lent we will seek to open the Psalms to you. 

All the great religions include the practice of pilgrimage

Certainly, the foundational story not just in the Christian tradition, but also Judaism and Islam is the story of Abraham.

Abraham was called on a journey --- just like you and me.

Every human --- even though sometimes we are deaf to it --- has been called to travel beyond what we know.

To be a pilgrim is to travel in search of God.

Have you ever gone some place that you just knew you belonged?

The year was 1992

Nancy and I were given the opportunity to go to Israel for the first time.

When you landed at Lod (Tel Aviv) the airplane didn't pull up to a gate, instead they brought out stairs and you walked out onto the tarmac.

As soon as my feet hit the ground --- I knew I was home.

          I don't even know how to explain the feeling I had

                   It was like I was where I always belonged.

A little over a week later, when we boarded the plane to come home --- all I could think about was how I could get back. 

And since then I have returned almost every two years. 

          It has been 5 years ---- and I am itching to get back.

But when Nancy and I boarded the plane to go to Israel I was going as a tourist. 

I was anxious to see the sites that I had read about and take in all the history.

          When I left, to go home, I understood that I was had become a pilgrim.

The difference is significant.

One of the things that the Psalms has done is help me to understand why being a pilgrim is so important

Psalms 120 - 135 are all songs of pilgrimage.

          In your bible they are often given the label --- "Songs of Ascent"

The reason why they were called that is because pilgrims would sing these songs as they literally made their way up to Jerusalem

Of all of these Psalms --- in my mind --- Psalm 122 is the greatest of the songs of ascent

The Psalmist begins: (The Message)

When they said, “Let’s go to the house of God,”
    my heart leaped for joy.
And now we’re here, O Jerusalem,
    inside Jerusalem’s walls!

I said that when I went to Israel for the first time I went as a tourist --- but left as a pilgrim --- what is the difference?

First, for tourists --- when they go on a trip (on a journey) they are taking time off from their busy hectic life and will return to the same busy, hectic life ---- hopefully --- refreshed but basically unchanged.

But when you travel as a pilgrim --- what you are seeking is an entirely new life --- a new way to look at the world --- a new beginning.

          Not just more of the same

Second, you build a different kind of relationship with people when go through life as a tourist verses going through life as a pilgrim.

When you are on a tour, the goal is to make the tour as pleasant as possible. 

In other words, you will engage your fellow tourists with safe conversation, never allowing yourself to go too deep that might result in making the trip unpleasant.

Unfortunately, that is how we often treat church.

          We do our best to avoid subjects that might be uncomfortable, or controversial

                   Immigration, poverty, gun violence --- need I go on?

                             (I pray we not stifle the young people of Parkland Fl)

But pilgrimage is different.

When we journey not for our own sake, but because we want to be transformed, we are willing to wrestling the hard, difficult, and sometimes uncomfortable subjects.

Third, one of the great things about being on a tour is somebody else takes care of your luggage.  You pay to have them do that for you.

When you are being a Christian as a tourist what the tourist puts in the offering plate is a fee for a service.

          the sermon

          the beautiful music

it is a brief vacation from the cares of life.

But a pilgrim sees things differently.

To be a pilgrim means that you joyfully consolidate your resources with other pilgrims.

Sharing the responsibility and the load.

Pilgrims offer their tithe (10% or more of their income) to God not as a tip or a tax.

          Not as a response to great music or sermons.

They offer their gifts because they understand that all of it already belongs to God.

Sure, the pilgrim is still the steward over the money --- but what has changed is our understanding of it.

Our understanding of money expands and not contracts.

If we give our money without participating in the ministries that spend the money --- then we are only tourists, and not truly pilgrims.

Fourth, tourists want to have a clear understanding of exactly where they are going and what they are getting.  Pilgrims trust that God will lead them.

Let me try to explain

When I get ready to take a tour, I do a great deal of research and shopping before I go.

I want the most value for my dollar.

So I pick a tour company that will give me, what I think is the best value.

I want to know, exactly what the itinerary is,

what we are going to see,

where we are going to stay.

And if something doesn't go just right --- I expect the tour company to make it right.

I bet you are all the same way . . .

But when you are a pilgrim, you put your trust in God.

Remember the Abraham story?

In the book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter, the author talks about having faith in things that we cannot see.

He uses the story of Abraham to illustrate his point and he says in verse 8: (NRSV)

Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.

Please don't misunderstand me

I am not suggesting that when one is a pilgrim that they don't care about where they are going. 

That they should not create a budget or a plan

I am not saying that at all.

What I am saying is that when you are a pilgrim --- you are willing to adapt to whatever God throws at you.

A pilgrim plans for the journey, but a pilgrim is un-anxious about the future

The reason a pilgrim can be un-anxious is that a pilgrim knows that God will provide.

Remember how our understanding of our financial resources changes as we become a pilgrim?

Well, one of the ways that God provides is through the shared resources of the other pilgrims who are on the journey with you.

Finally, Tourists are more interested in taking pictures of the sights ---- Pilgrims are more interested in transformation.

For many Christians there are three primary photo ops in their life

          When they get their child baptized

          When they get their child confirmed

          When their child gets married

And you could throw in the photo ops of Christmas and Easter

I know that is kind of uncomfortable for me to say . . .

Christian tourists can even go to church regularly, and attend bible study --- but if they aren’t willing to become a disciple --- if they aren't willing to be transformed --- they have missed the point of the journey.

The point of the journey is to meet Jesus --- and to fall in love with him.

During this season of lent, I invite you to become a pilgrim.

          I invite you to seek God's face

To fall in love with Jesus, and to allow that love to change you.

I love this Psalm

I was glad when they said to me,
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

I was excited because, the Psalmist says, I was excited that I was invited to pilgrim to God.

But more than that --- this pilgrimage represents all that is good about God.

A place of shalom

          peace

          justice

          home

I long to go back to Jerusalem --- to set my feet there again.

          Not to see the sights --- which the history geek in me enjoys . . .

          But to allow me to grow closer to Jesus