Psalms 120 Starting The Climb

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Don Filcek, The Songs of Accent; Psalms 120 Psalms 120 Starting The Climb

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I'm the lead pastor here and just want to start off by welcoming you here Glad that you have gathered together as God's people this morning to worship him.
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I hope that's the reason that you're here and Be sure to fill out the connection card you received when you walked in You can turn those in in the black box back there if it's your first time with us
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We want to give you a special welcome and recognize that checking out a new church for the first time You know, it can be scary or you know, it's you're gonna like not knowing what to expect
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But we do ask that you please just take a free coffee mug back They're our way of saying thanks for joining with us this morning
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And then you've also received an offering envelope when you walked in remember We don't pass an offering plate here But anybody who would choose to give and take that step of worshiping
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God through the overflow of what he's given to you Again that offering would go in the black box back there and then anything that's meant that's marked expansion fund
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Goes towards our goal of eventually building a building on the property out on East McGillin So I know
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I say that every week some of you could probably some of you could probably say that for me right because it but I it's
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It's just I want to I want to welcome you and explain especially for those of you that this is your first time here how that all works, so As most of you know, our name recast church recast is an acronym for our core values
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We want to be a church that is focused on replicating the R and the E and recast and for Replicating our goal is to actually eventually plant another church
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We were the extension of a church that was thinking outside of themselves and sent a group out here into Madawan to start a new church and we want to eventually do the same
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Constantly keeping our eyes and ears open For who God might be leading to us to be that next church planner and the location for that We want to be a the
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C stands for community We want to be a church that blesses our community that is actually a tangible benefit to the area
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Where God has planted us that is obviously here in Madawan. We recognize that not everybody here lives in Madawan so you say what about me our goal is that you'd be a blessing in the community that you live in in your neighborhood and In the civic life of your community where you where you live and exist.
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So But a blessing to our community the a stands for authenticity and relationships
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We want to be a place where people don't have to just put on a mask and put on a smiley face when they come
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In on Sunday morning but if you're down you can share that with somebody and and they will pray with you and talk with you and and Sit in that with you for a period but also
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We want to be a place where when you're rejoicing when things are going well You have people to come alongside of you and rejoice with you.
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And so that's the authenticity Component s is for simplicity. We want simplicity in our programming.
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So many of you have been here for a while notice We don't have a Sunday evening service. We don't have a Wednesday night service and that has not been on accident
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It's not like we haven't grown large enough to have a Sunday night service and once we get big enough we will But it's an intentional
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Simplicity in our programming that you might actually have an opportunity to reach out to the world around you We find that in many churches in America It's very easy to get so busy at church day in and day out that you aren't able to connect with Others out in society and even your next -door neighbors
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And so we want to be simple in our programming for that reason And then lastly the
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T and recast is Centered on the truth of God's Word and you'll notice that that as I get up and I speak every
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Sunday morning We are talking about God's Word we're taking and reading a section of scripture and then walking through that and talking about what that has to do with us where we live and Then what we ought to do.
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I am as a result of coming in contact with God's Word So as we enter into a series on Specific section of the
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Psalms they're called the Psalms of ascent The word ascent there means going up like I know it's an actual word in the word in Hebrew that would be used for step
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So a step up is an ascent And so the Psalms of ascent are
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Psalms 120 through 134 15 Psalms that all come with that heading in The most ancient manuscripts that we have of the
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Psalms they're obviously a designated set that was used with intention and as we enter into a series on the
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Psalms and struck by the authenticity piece of our core values and thinking through that the
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Psalms often do not fit well into our box of permissible worship
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I Believe that what I mean by that is I believe we all have some kind of an unwritten
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Set of rules about what you can and cannot say to God Now, yeah, like I said, it's unwritten in you
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I mean if you were to just really think about it, you might say well I can say anything to God God's big enough to handle it but deep down in your psyche
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Do you say anything that's got on your mind to God or do you do you scrub your language when you come into?
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God's presence and talk to him in prayer and things like that We often want to put on masks and act like everything is okay
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We want to clean up our act before we get together with God's people And like I said, we especially often will scrub our language in prayer to make sure it's nice and formal and acceptable to God But the
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Psalms have none of that. I Mean, I'm super excited about this series as we start this morning in Psalm 120 and then go on to Psalm Taking steps every
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Psalm like another step on the ascent towards God Because the Psalms will lead us through a journey of human emotion in relationship to God I've intentionally chosen this this text and to go through Psalms because we've just gone through an epistle we've just gone through first Peter which can tend to be very
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Structured in logical and its flow in dense and very pithy and then not beyond that It's also it was a little bit like talking about persecution suffering.
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Was that is that like just your favorite? you love that and so it was a little bit dark and a little bit hard to grasp and to and to Bring to our time and where we live.
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I Hope that we did and I hope that you grew and gained from that But at the same time to come into the
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Psalms and and sense some of the human emotion in this is beneficial The Psalms of ascent are again a specific set of Psalms that were used as songs as like a songbook on the road to Jerusalem Three times a year the faithful Jew in this ancient setting would take a pilgrimage to Jerusalem they would take
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Sacrifices to be offered there in the only place of acceptable worship to God Which was the temple?
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during that era in that time the place where your sins could be atoned for and you could get a fresh start with God and So they would take this trip to Jerusalem and they would sing these songs
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Most scholars believe that they would sing these very songs at Legs along the journey at different points along the way to the holy city
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When a pilgrim started out on their journey of ascent to the central city in the highland the upper area of Israel You by the way, wherever you go in Israel to Jerusalem, you're going up It's one of the highest points in the entire country.
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And so you're going up to Jerusalem if you're on a pilgrimage you are ascending and The pilgrim would sing these songs
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They represent the then the traveling songs on the way to the city of God And as we dig in we're going to begin to see the richness of this metaphor for our journey to God's place
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How many of you are on a journey to God's place? You're on a journey that culminates in the presence of the
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Almighty You recognize that your feet have been planted on a journey and you are walking
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Together with God's people Towards a destination. That is the city of peace the holy place the very presence of God Almighty The entire
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Christian life is in essence a journey and that's how that's the metaphor We're gonna pull out of this and we're gonna work through in these 15 sermons going through these psalms
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Together on this pilgrimage towards God's presence and let me be clear that the presence of God is with us
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By his indwelling Holy Spirit is God with you right now is God with you wherever you go.
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Absolutely but even the Apostle Paul identified that the spirit the the Holy Spirit is a first fruit of the manifestation of the presence of God with us
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When we will eventually reach our destination and it will all be clear and the way that it's meant to be
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So we have just kind of a first first fruits. We have a down payment now How many of you when you put a down payment on your house you celebrate because you own the house and you've already moved in No, no, you haven't moved in yet, right you put a down payment on it, but it's not completely yours yet And that's the reality of this journey where we are on a journey and we've got the down payment
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And we're already have the Holy Spirit with us But how many of you are longing for that day when everything is finished when it is good and it is right and you are right
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When your spirit is right when sin is no more I look forward to that day and these
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Psalms ought to Are intended to give us a little bit of fuel for the journey a little bit of energy and a longing for that Life that is to come
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But we all know that along the way there are many obstacles and barriers in life, right? how many of you encountered some obstacles and barriers in your life towards getting to where God is and Like any epic tale of journey like the
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Lord of the Rings or whatever there are obstacles twists turns battles to be fought on the way to the destination the
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Jewish pilgrim in his day traveling and singing along the way would be reminded of God on his way to the city of peace and We must have these reminders on our way to the place of peace each one of these songs serving to remind us
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Jerusalem by the way, Jerusalem is a word that simply means a the city of Peace and that's where the pilgrim is heading the place of Shalom the city of Shalom The temple of God's presence was there the place of sacrifice was there and Our trip is no less a trip to the final city of Shalom The new
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Jerusalem that God promises to his people Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you and That place is the new
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Jerusalem that John in the book of Revelation sees coming down from heaven to be on this earth with God's people and Those in Christ are on the road leading to the very presence of God But in our city in that city in that new
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Jerusalem there will be no more altar We do not go carrying with us a sacrifice to make but we go to meet the once -and -for -all sacrifice the one who sacrificed himself for us
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But our specific Psalm this morning Psalm 120 serves as a stark reminder that every journey to God begins with an unsettled feeling
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Everybody's journey to God begins with an unsettledness At first glance when we read this it may be hard to connect this psalm to the start of a journey
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As you read it, you're gonna kind of look at it and go. What does this have to do? Why would they sing this song at the start of their their their exodus or their pilgrimage to?
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Jerusalem But I believe that by the end of our time this morning. We will see the connection between Dissatisfaction that the psalm projects and the journey that we are all on because any journey requires a leaving something a leaving somewhere to Somewhere but it entails leaving something behind And I'm excited about embarking on this journey together as a church recast
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I believe that this section of Psalms is a portion of Scripture that has the potential to take us on a pathway to great joy
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This is a song. This is a series on the Psalms of ascent a journey to joy together
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So let's open our Bibles to Psalm 120 if you're not already there and we're gonna read the start of our journey together if you don't have a
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Bible you can raise your hand and one of these guys will will provide one for you and Not to call you out, but we do want everybody to have a copy of the
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Word of God on their lap It's just beneficial and helpful for you to be able to see this as I read And as I read this
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I want you to remember two things. This is the very Word of God This isn't just somebody who's venting Sounds like venting but this is
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God's Word. This is God ordained speech that is written here and I want you to feel this
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I Don't ask you to do that very often, but I want you to feel this text as I read it
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Really try to get the emotion of the author. What was he going through in his life?
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What kind of struggles are going on and what is what is he what what words and emotions is he using to convey this?
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Psalms are poetry they are meant to be felt and I have to say this carefully, but a dissected poem is like a dissected frog
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You can learn a lot, but something has to die in the process Right, and so my goal this morning is to try to let the poem stay alive
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To in the process of explaining to you and the parts and the moving pieces and what works I don't want to kill the frog.
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I don't want to kill the poem I want to let the poem stay alive and I think so often in the Western world
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We read the Psalms and it's like we take it apart and we just take a little sliver here or there and we don't let
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It we don't let it impact our hearts. We don't let it impact where we live in our emotions. So listen to this
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Listen to the heart of the songwriter as I read these Seven very short verses
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Psalm 120 a song of a sense
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In my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me Deliver me
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O Lord from lying lips from a deceitful tongue What shall be given to you?
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And what more shall be done to you? Oh deceitful tongue a warrior sharp arrows with glowing coals of the broom tree
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Woe to me that I sojourn in Meshach that I dwell among the tents of Qadar Too long.
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Have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I Am for peace, but when
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I speak they are for war Let's pray father
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I pray that you would Guide us into truth this morning Fathers we read an ancient poem that seems far removed mentioning geographical locations that we don't even know where they are and father
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I pray that you would make this come alive to us in the reality of a Dissatisfaction with the world around us father
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I confess that we live in a culture and I think that many of us in the room would confess to having a
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Friendliness with our culture a friendliness with our society in it a sense of assimilation into this world around us that makes death and the presence of heaven and and being with you seems so distant and so far away because we quite frankly
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Kind of enjoy the pleasures of this life and the things that we have here Father I pray that you would open our eyes to the reality of the glory that you have
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Awaiting for us on this journey and father as we have an opportunity to lift up our voices and praise to you
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I thank you that you are the God who hears you are the God who answers You are the God who has made a way for us to take this pilgrimage
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Towards you through your son Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us father. I pray that we would worship you now
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Not just as an exercise of our vocal cords, but an exercise of our hearts before you you are awesome
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You are glorious. You are majestic. You are holy and you are worth all worthy of all of our worship this morning
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It's in Jesus name that we pray Amen Thanks a lot to the band for leading us this morning and always grateful
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Very thankful for Rob to fill in and Josh's absence this morning And so grateful to have people who are talented in ways that I am
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NOT that's for sure. So You are grateful. Maybe you're not thinking it through right now, but you're grateful that I didn't lead the worship
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That would have been really rough for you. So I'm grateful for skilled people keep your
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Bibles open to Psalm chapter 120 and so you can kind of see that poem and that song as we dig in and and and Work through it together again attempting to not kill the thing in the process, but trying to Explain what it means sometimes like I mentioned in my introduction, you know when it comes to Dissecting poetry it's like dissecting a frog and I want to keep the thing alive
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And what I mean by that is to keep in our minds the focus and not heart behind it We can learn a lot from observing a frog jump around And in this case, we can learn a lot from the maintaining the emotion of this psalm as we go through So what is the feeling of this particular psalm?
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The psalmist cries out in his distress. Do you see the distressed sense within this psalm right away?
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He actually uses the word distress. He is calling out for deliverance We also see a sense of his anger.
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He is angry enough to call for judgment on his enemies He is prayerful.
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He is talking to God But he is angry He is desperate as shown by his exclamation of woe to me woe to himself in verse 5 and he expresses a longing for peace amongst a people of war
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Showing that he has little peace in his life as he writes this song. Here's a longing for peace
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But it's not his reality. It's not where he lives right now So everything as we walk through these seven verses has to be filtered through a heart of desperation and distress
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Remembering all along that this is the first this is the opening song This is the first song in a stair step to Jerusalem in the the ascent to The abode of God to his dwelling place to his temple
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Well in his distress, he's crying out and where do people turn in the midst of their distress?
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Where do you turn when you are in distress some some turn to the refrigerator, right?
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Some turn to Kohl's for another new pair of shoes some turn to friends
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And not all not that that's altogether bad, but they weigh them down with the problem or just Enjoy a bit of gossip in the process some unwisely turn nowhere and Just stoke the fires of rage inside their heart ready to explode it
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Anybody and anyone and then they don't even know why they're exploding, right? this writer this author
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This psalmist this person going through distress here called to the Lord They went to the
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Lord in my distress. I called to the Lord He went with his problems to Yahweh or Jehovah depends on how you pronounce it.
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He went to the Almighty Father with his problems The the word distress in this text indicates a narrow space
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That's it's a word picture in the Hebrew language the a lot of those ancient languages in particular
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Middle Middle Eastern languages even Arabic today or Hebrew today has is a lot more of a picturesque kind of language
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So it draws a picture for you when it's when it's using an adjective or and and this is it This is a a narrow space
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The idea is that this songwriter feels Cornered there's not a lot of margin.
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He's in a tight spot in life Have you ever been there? Have you been in a place in life where it felt like there's not enough wiggle room
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I don't know how to get out of this any of you a little bit claustrophobic. I'm not claustrophobic.
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I just don't like tight spaces You kind of get like I'm not I'm not I don't have a fear of heights.
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I'm just afraid of falling, right? But the whole idea of claustrophobia, you know It doesn't really bother me until I picture or think about like going through a cave spelunking, you know
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That's the cave though. They're the fun word for cave exploring. Have any of you ever been spelunking? I've seen you know
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This I've heard it said that there's a time when when you're going through a cave and it gets tight enough that you don't go backwards
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Because your clothes bunch up and you get lodged in now Does anybody are already I've lost some of you're like stop talking
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It's not talking about like that does that freaks me out I don't like the thought and then not only that you just got to keep going forward you keep going forward like I mean
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What if it gets tighter you're in trouble? Ah So it's kind of I don't want to be the first guy to explore any given cave system
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But that's the narrow space The I don't know where to go from here the I don't have margin in my life
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I don't have any wiggle room and that's the distress, right? there's a sense that I think all of us have experienced the tight spaces in life and Notice that in turning to the
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Lord the psalmist the songwriter indicates That the
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Lord has answered him He has received an answer He has brought his anxiety to the
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Lord like first Peter told us to a few weeks ago Cast your anxieties on the
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Lord for he cares for you We see that here.
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Maybe Peter had some of these psalms in mind as he Said that he had the indication that it is that God is big enough to bring your problems to when you're in a tight space cry out to him and This songwriter testifies to the faithfulness of God to answer us in our moment of need
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But before we think too generally about this Distress like we can just think all any any old problem that I have in life is what the songwriter is writing about He's just got some generic frustrations some generic stresses in his life that he's talking with us about You know the the general stresses of time management or balancing family and work or financial concerns
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And so we could just we can I mean, you know, there's a whole host of tight spaces in your life But he has one specific thing in mind that he's gonna spell out to us
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He really verse one is just setting the stage In my distress I called to the
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Lord and he answered me and now the rest of this time is going to be dedicated to looking at the specific problem that he faced and Walking us through that The thing that brought this songwriter into a narrow space is something that I think all of us can relate to at some level broken relationships
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Specifically it is broken relationships that have brought this man to his knees that have brought this songwriter to the narrow place in his life messed up jacked up relationships
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Where verse one explains the prayer and the resolution the rest of the psalm explains the actual prayer
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Itself and the issue this psalmist is working through is a cry for deliverance He says and I quote from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.
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Ooh Scary those lying lips terrifying seriously
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The songwriters distress is caused by lying Simple sins on the part of others in our lives have an impact on us, right?
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Have you experienced that? And in reality the the the little sins that we commit we deceive ourselves into thinking
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Well, that's just that it's only gonna impact me But do they affect community do they affect relationships?
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All sin has a movement toward death Towards destruction towards breaking things that we cherish and love all sin.
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I love the real -life aspects of the Psalms He doesn't candy coat this. He doesn't sugarcoat this He's gonna tackle something the head -on here in the text the deceit of others
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Can and often does get in the way of our peace and a more general sense of psalmist is frustrated with a culture of sin
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Specifically here. He's talking about deceitful lying lips in a deceitful tongue But in verses 5 through 7
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We're gonna actually see him broaden that out to culture in general and say he's frustrated with sin in General in his culture and I want to point this out to you.
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This is really key. This is important for us to grasp a frustration with sin That can be sin in our culture
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Primarily it ought to be seen in ourselves, right? I Mean, where do you identify sin?
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Is it pretty easy to see it in other people? Is it pretty easy to call out other people's lying lips other people's deceitful tongues?
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but sin a Frustration with sin is indeed the start of a journey from opposition to God to the worship of God a
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Dissatisfaction a frustration with sin With a culture of sin with the sin that we see in our own heart.
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That is the beginning of a journey towards God when we become frustrated and And angry and disappointed with sin
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The phrase by the way in I mentioned that Hebrew and as we go through this series, I'm going to mention this a lot it's a very picturesque language the
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Unfortunately, sometimes we try to translate in a way we take a little bit of the flourish off of the translation and so deceitful tongue is actually a sniping tongue
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It's a shooting tongue It's got the idea of a guy with arrows firing arrows at people
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The the picture of this is a tongue that puts someone in its sights and unleashes a barrage of deception with an attempt to destroy
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This is a malicious tongue. This is a tongue set to harm others
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Intentionally and looking for opportunities to harm people It is destructive and malicious
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But you might ask why such a strong reaction to lying, okay I raise your hand if you've had someone told someone tell a lie about you that impacted your reputation or cost you something
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And probably most all of us have It's pretty much Everybody has had somebody tell a lie and some of you didn't raise your hand because you can't think of a specific
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Illustration or you just don't ever on principle raise your hand And I understand that but I do
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I believe that most of us have had this very experience where you have You've had somebody lie about you and it cost you something and you survived right?
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You're here. You survived that So why is lying such a big deal? Why cry out in distress to God against these wicked liars?
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Why the drug why the drama songwriter dude? Like why why is all of this like why so much like frustration over this?
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Well, let me suggest to you that first We need to correct our thinking a little bit regarding lying lying is indeed a big deal
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Worth making God's top ten list, right? Did it have made a top ten list of no -nos?
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Okay lying makes that list I would suggest this to you though I would say something fundamental about lying that deception is like the raw material that other sins are made out of deception is core to Many lies people murder at a bedrock level because they believe a lie
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People are proud because they believe a lie People have adultery because they believe a lie
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Deception is at the heart of the original fall of mankind into sin.
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Did God really say that? You're not supposed to touch this fruit.
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Did he really say that? Are you sure? See how deception is a component is one of the building blocks of other sins and The very fall of Satan himself into pride begin with a lie that he could become more powerful than God a lie
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At the very core at the very origin of sin verses 3 through 4 show that the songwriter is emotionally engaged and he's not backing down from the hurt and the pain and the
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Frustration this is where many good Christians want to scrub the text Okay, we have a tendency to clean it up for God to make it say, you know, it doesn't sound so it doesn't sound so Harsh.
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I mean we spin this PR for God, you know, you don't want it to really say this Do you so I could I could alter it or edit it or tell you what?
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It doesn't really mean this the guy who's writing. This isn't really vindictive. He's just aloof and pointing out that sin deserves judgment
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But that's not exactly I can't say that fairly because the author is
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Vindictive the author wants retribution for Against this person who has lied
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What does the deceitful tongue deserve he says What should they reap?
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For the deception that they have sown What should happen to them those who have sniped others deserve themselves a pierced tongue he says and what this songwriter isn't hoping for it is hoping for is not just a pierced tongue with a nice metal stud to play with when
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They're trying to talk to you What the songwriter is hoping for?
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Is a sharp fiery arrow through the tongue An appropriate gift for a malicious deceptive tongue is a fiery arrow to the mind and the mouth he says the songwriter says
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What do you get for lying about me? How about I punch you in the tongue? That's what he says. Oh, he's
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He's not happy Interestingly just a just a side note here again
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It's a little bit of a diversion from the emotion of the text, but the roots of the broom tree What's he talking about here?
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Like what's that got to do with anything and sometimes we come across these Old Testament things that are like I think
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I might know what's going on there, but I'm not sure The broom tree is a really tough dense wood that was used to make charcoals
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It was often used to cook on and once it was lit it would burn for a long long time
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And it was hard to extinguish so smoldering embers of the broom tree were often used in warfare during this time with a sharp arrow piercing a
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Flaming bit of broom tree and then fired at enemy encampments to light things on fire
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And so this was have you ever wondered like sometimes how they would use in it what they would use in ancient times Sometimes I did rapid and pitch they'd do different things
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But here they would actually take burning coals and pierce them and fire them and they were hard to extinguish
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And so he's saying what is it what is what is the liar deserve burning arrows
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We cannot scrub this author's hunger for vindication for judgment
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We can't scrub it from the text, but what needs to be pointed out immediately to clarify for us Is that this is a prayer?
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This is a prayer He is saying these things in the context of praying to God Almighty He he doesn't go out and get an arrow
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He doesn't go out and light some broom tree embers the psalmist instead
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Who's crying out to God? The author is calling to God for vengeance, but he is not taking revenge
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This is significant and Very important for us on our journey in a broken world full of broken broken relationships the sojourner on the path to God Cannot take the time to get sidetracked into the cycle of revenge
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But to turn to God in prayer and ask for vindication to turn to God and ask for judgment
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To turn to God and ask for justice is not a bad thing It's not a bad thing
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So far in the first four verses of this text It sounds like a dude has been lied about and he's been out of shape about it we might even hear what he's saying is a bit whiny like Songwriter dude get over it liars gonna lie
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Right. I mean, what's the deal? But verse 5 begins to tie in this first half about deception
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With a second half that leads us back To remembering that this is a song sung at the start of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem I'm singing about deception.
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Why singing about lies? Why singing about all this stuff and verse 5 is is gonna gonna bring that together
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Explaining to us. Why would a pilgrim sing this song as he embarks on a journey to God's place?
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We found out in verse 5 that this pilgrim has been living in a desperate environment The exclamation woe is me sounds kind of dramatic and extreme and doesn't get used very often.
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When's the last time you used the word? Whoa? Like in that way not like whoa, dude, but like whoa
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It's it's sounds kind of dramatic and extreme and it doesn't use get used often because it's dramatic and extreme
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If someone came to me and said woe is me I invested in Facebook or woe is me my classes are tough this semester
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I'd be like chill with the woe word dude. Okay, just maybe Dial that back just a bit like whoa is not maybe what you mean by that So why this extreme dramatic response?
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Why the distress over the lies? Why cry for deliverance from deceptive tongues?
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Why is there woe here in verse 5 over his geographical residence?
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Or the geography is now going to tie into the pilgrimage Because now we are finding out where is the starting point of this pilgrims journey?
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Where is he beginning? This is going to be very significant for us as we think about our culture and where does our journey start?
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the starting point of this journey is a hostile foreign land a Place where this guy is not at home a
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Place that is different than what he is intended for The text tells us he's been sojourning in Meshach his dwelt among the tents of Kadar and so now you get it, right?
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You're like, oh, yeah Meshach Kadar now. I understand what he's I get it now, right? I probably don't even need to explain that to you guys.
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I Had to study it myself Meshach was like the furthest known Regions north during this era like think as far north as they could conceive like we may go
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Siberia or we go to the north, you know North Pole or whatever, but this is in the area of Ukraine and Russia on like the northeast side of the
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Black Sea there were warring tribes of Pagans Gentile pagans that lived there during that time hostile warring
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Furthest reaches of known civilization at the time. That's Meshach Hostile violent far away from the city of God Kadar is basically the exact opposite direction
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It's being one of the furthest south that they could conceive of at that time of the known world
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It was way down south at the edges of the the Arabian Peninsula These were descendants of Ishmael they were known enemies of the
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Israelites They were in opposition and regularly at war with God's people. That's Kadar Certainly the songwriter isn't saying that he lived
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Simultaneously in the northernmost regions of the world and the southernmost regions of the world
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But he's using these people as a way of saying he's on the way to the dwelling place of God From the midst of violence from the midst of violent warring barbaric peoples if a person living in a tough section of Detroit Likened their neighborhood to Iran or North Korea.
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They might be a good word picture for us, right? We might get a sense or some feel for what they're saying and that's what this guy's saying where I'm coming from is like Meshach where I'm coming from is like Kadar and The people that were reading this during his era in this time those pilgrims would have something they could relate to they would tie
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That in with this understanding of these warring tribal factions in the north and south
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He goes on to explain though that his dissatisfaction with his culture in verses six and seven
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He explains that by declaring that he has spent too much time dwelling among those who hate peace
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His problem is not just an issue of the culture around him But it's also an issue of chronology.
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I've been here too long I've spent too much time among those who do not have the same values that do not have the same set of Desire even the same desire for the presence of God Been there too long
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This is a voice of a person who is eager and ready to go You hear that in the text?
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Person's ready like I want I want something different He's dissatisfied with his culture he has been broken by the interactions of deception and Disordered violence around him and he wants out
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He wants no more of That he wants more of God what he wants.
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The text tells us clearly in a word He wants Shalom. He wants peace
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This word is key that we we might come back to this multiple times and I might I might wear you out a little bit
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In defining Shalom, but here's the first shot at it It's very very key
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Throughout the Psalms of ascent throughout the entire Old Testament and really carried on to the New Testament is this idea of Shalom?
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we have a very weak and technically narrow Definition of the word peace in the
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English language It doesn't do anywhere near the justice of Translating the word
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Shalom and yet we don't really have another word that we can we can't really do it well without using multiple words or phrases to try to convey the
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Hebrew notion of Shalom When the songwriter declares that he lives among those who hate
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Shalom, but goes on to say he himself is for Shalom He is speaking so much more about a societal way of order
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It's not like this guy spends time at the coffee shop debating pacifism and he's like I just I don't want us to go to War, but everybody else is saying we should go to war against Isis or whatever
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And so you might have it in your mind because of the strict narrow definition of peace you immediately our mind says well if this
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Guy's for this guy's for peace and others are for war then he's a pacifist trying to get everybody to stop going on military adventures right
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But that's not The extent of the word Shalom when he says he's for peace and they are for war
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It also entails his being for a life centered around God and God's way of living
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God's laws He wants a society with properly ordered family and properly ordered civic life
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He longs for things in society to promote human flourishing he longs for a place where God and Man are in right relationship and mankind to mankind is in right relationship
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Certainly, this would indeed be a society that he's longing for without murder without violence
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It'd be a place Without wars But more than peace being just strictly more than Shalom just strictly being the absence of war
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Peace in the Old Testament sense involves the way that kids respond to the authority of their parents
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The way shop owners use fair scales and measuring out grain Where lying lips and deceptive tongues are no more?
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that's the kind of place that this songwriter is longing for a place of True peace a place of true
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Shalom and that's the end So the song ends
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Abruptly like a cliffhanger without a next episode The first of the
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Psalms of ascent ends with dissatisfaction. I Live among the people that don't love peace that don't love
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God's way that don't love Order that don't love civic life and flourishing but they want to constantly be but backbiting and lying and piercing one another with arrows and and Violent towards one another and I'm for peace what
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I what I long for what I really wanted my heart is Shalom Look, that's where I'm at ends with a deep heart longing for something more
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Why does a song writer leave us with an unresolved conflict? I mean, come on He's like it's like he's like writing for the
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TV show lost or something, right Certainly he this would not this guy could not write for the Brady Bunch Some of you know what
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I'm talking about. Thank any of you and if you ever watch the Brady Bunch handful of you You guys admitted it.
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That's awesome. Um, I mean the Brady Bunch I turn back to the Brady Bunch I know it's really dated and some of you younger people are just gonna have to bear with me for just a split second but the
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Brady Bunch was always to me the Quintessential everything is sewn up by the end and everybody's hugging and everybody's happy by the end of half an hour episode, right?
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It was a half an hour. Yeah, Linda's fine. She's the expert but uh
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You know, I just picture an episode picture an episode those of you know, the Brady Bunch or you know, you know,
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Greg shouts I Hate you Marcia. You always get your way you a little liar
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All I ever want is peace, but you just keep arguing and fighting and arguing and fighting cut fade to black and the credits roll
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How would that go over for an episode of the Brady Bunch? Right that does that's not the way it ends, you know, everybody gets back together and Greg says, oh,
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I love you Marcia And Marcia's like I love you, too And then then Alice makes dinner and it's all good, right you guys know what
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I'm talking about And then it's like the bed and the credits roll and the little boxes with the faces looking at each other and everybody's smiling and happy There's an intentional tension in This first psalm of ascent this first psalm is intended to set your feet on a journey
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It's intended to make you want to go someplace To move from where you currently reside
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Frodo never leaves his hobbit hole Barring conflict without conflict.
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He doesn't he doesn't get up and take that journey. He doesn't take the ring anywhere It just is happy to stay there
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But it's only as he becomes aware of the conflict that he moves out What does it take to move us out from our culture and society toward the
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City of God? The author begins our psalm with distress over broken relationships and interpersonal messes
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He broadens that brokenness to the society that he lives in Dissatisfaction creeps in as he looks at his society in his culture and he begins to long for something more
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His journey toward God begins the moment he desires true shalom
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When he begins to long for properly ordered relationships in a properly ordered society he is longing for something that this world can never truly offer and This sets his feet on a spiritual journey towards the
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City of God The opening song for the pilgrim the opening song of ascent is a song of discontent with their life as it is
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It begins with a song reflecting on a hunger for more than what this life has to offer. So ask yourself
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Are you for shalom? To be for shalom is to be against the deceit of this world
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It is to be tired of Meshach and Kadar. Have you come to the end of your delight in this culture?
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Are you ready to make the journey to the presence of God? Are you on that journey?
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And I think it's a journey that entails on a routine basis taking on this extra motivation this this understanding of Frustration with the sin we see in ourselves as well as the sin we see in our culture at large
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Have you come to the place where you can say? Woe to me. I Sojourn in Meshach Woe to me that I dwell among the tents of Kadar.
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I Have been too long in a place that hates Shalom I've been too long in a place that glorifies pornography
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I have been too long in a place of deception where I'm told the more that I have the more joy
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I will have I've been too long among those who despise the love of God Woe is me
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Woe to me. I have been among a people of violence. I have been among a people of adultery
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I've been among a people of lying lips I've been among the people who espouse a value system that elevates personal autonomy and Individual freedom over the good of community the good of love and the good
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God -given design of unity in a word
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What this psalmist is Encouraging us to consider is are you tired of sin?
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Are you tired of sin? Here's the main point of Psalm 120
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Your pilgrimage towards God your pilgrimage toward that ultimate place of Shalom and towards genuine joy
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Doesn't effectively begin until you are discontent with a life of sin and a life of brokenness
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This is such a needed message for us in a society that is full of deception full of those who hate peace and we see it in ourselves, but we need to make a careful assessment of ourselves before we just With bravado side with the psalmist against those who hate peace
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We can just go. Yeah. Well, of course, I love peace. I want peace Do you love
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Shalom? To love peace is to long for a properly ordered life of love and service toward others
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Some of us have assimilated well in Kadar feels like home some of us are really at home in Meshach and The only thing
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I can suggest to you Is to encourage you Don't settle for Meshach Don't settle for Kadar The best this world has to offer us our trinkets that rust break down and fade
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Fleeting moments of fame for everybody's 15 seconds of fame and then it's gone
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My hope is that this message leaves you in a place of discontentedness over the things of this life of the things of this world the longing for true
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Shalom true plea true peace and That this discontent drives you to consider
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Christ in the way that you roll in this material world and the things that are Around you by the way, the things themselves are not evil the things themselves never once have caused you to sin
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The things in and of themselves TV is not evil Movies are not evil evil is what we do with them, right?
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It's the way that we use the tools around us But Jesus came in part to show us a human life lived in the shalom of God His life was properly ordered
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Think about this. He came to Meshach. He pitched his tent in Kadar he came to a deceptive people with lying lips and deceptive tongues and all night long trial after trial he was lied about and falsely accused and The next morning he was crucified on the basis of lies and trumped up charges by deceitful tongues.
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I Think about Jesus and I think like those firefighters running into a fire where everybody else is trying to get out
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The pilgrimage of Jesus goes the opposite direction Where we're walking the spiritual journey towards the glory and presence of God Jesus left the glory and presence of God to come to Meshach with us to come to our place of mess
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And he gave his life That our feet could be placed on that upward path on that stairway to the city of God As we come to communion this morning.
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I Want us all to consider with joy the cross of Jesus that promises that we are not stuck in Meshach We are not stuck in Kadar our ultimate destiny is a place of Shalom for those who are his a place where things will be restored to the way they are supposed to be
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And it's all because Jesus was crushed in his body For our sins his blood was shed to cover us so come to the table if you've asked
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Jesus to be your king and if you've asked Jesus to save you from your sins and As you head into a new week consider where you are in your journey to God's place.
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Where are you right now? Have you settled in? Satisfied with less than what
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God's won't God wants for you I'm convinced that every one of us during communion could think of one thing that is currently holding us back from moving one step one ascent closer to God this morning
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Let's give these things over to him this morning as we as the band comes to lead us in this song and we get an
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Opportunity to take communion. Let's take just a moment of reflection this morning and Give these things over to him ask him.
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What's holding me back in this journey? Where have I? Fallen in love with Meshach where have
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I fallen in love with Kadar? Where am I? It's so assimilated and caught up in the culture around me
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You may find that it's not sin You may find that there are things that God would ask you to give up this morning
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That he wouldn't ask anybody else in the room to give up that his word doesn't even say is evil or bad
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But you know that it's not helping You know that it's in your way of being able to run the race that God has set for you
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And so ask him say God, is there anything this morning? That is in my way of this journey to joy
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That is in my way of sojourning from Meshach and Kadar to the place of your presence to your glory
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Let's pray father I Thank you for your word. I thank you for the start of a journey
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Begins kind of rocky with a sense of discontentedness and dissatisfaction with our culture around us and even as this songwriter writes and I Wrapping my mind around this.
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I I want so much to internalize this and talk about our sin, but the Psalmist is frustrated with everybody's sin
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She frustrated with a culture of sin father
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We recognize that it's in our heart and in our tendency to really easily identify everybody else's sin out there everything else that's going on around us and become really frustrated with that and I think you want to use that in our lives a father
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I pray that even as we have an opportunity to come to communion and and Lift up this one request to you that you would show us.
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What is hindering us? What is holding us back as we begin this process of taking steps towards you?
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Father I pray that you would guide us on the journey and allow these psalms to be an encouragement to our souls as we
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Contemplate and consider an obedience of life a long life lived out for you step by step and day by day
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Thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to thank you for his body that was broken for us his blood that was shed for Us and thank you that we get an opportunity as your children who recognize
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Jesus Christ as our King our Lord and our Savior We get an opportunity to reflect with joy on his sacrifice for us that has set us