Excerpts from: "A Climbing Song"
8/13/06
Psalm 125

So, where or what have you been climbing this summer? Mountains? Hills? Park Paths?

As we read Psalm 125 we see that it is a 'climbing song'. It's a song of ascent, sang by making your way up the pilgrim path, up the side of the mountain. (Remember that children's song, Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain?) The Songs of Ascent is a mini-psalm book of fifteen pilgrim songs, found starting with Psalm 119-and each one very short and focused on one specific theme.

These songs were sung by the men and women of Israel when they went up to the city of Jerusalem or Zion, the city of God, three times a year for feast days. And the trek was literally up, as Jerusalem is nestled on a mountain, surrounded by mountainous terrain.

In the spring they would go up for Passover, in which they remembered and celebrated their deliverance from Egypt by God.

1. In the early summer they would celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, in which they would renew their commitment to this covenant God. Passover was focused on God's initiation of salvation toward them; Pentecost was focused on their response of faith and obedience.
   
2. In the early fall they would come to Jerusalem again for the Feast of Tabernacles or Rosh Hashanah, and they would thank God for his provision of material blessings, his care for them, and all the ways he met their needs.
   
3. Each one of these fifteen songs confesses the Israelites' deep yearning and hunger for the Lord. The songs speak of their sense of alienation in the world; of being pilgrims, strangers, exiles, or sojourners. Each song also affirms that God steps into whatever their problem is and more than adequately meets all their needs.
   

The psalmist gives us this picture of a rock solid, God who surrounds, secures and protects his people-now and forever.

• Those who trust in the Lord, need not fear. Can you, without question say that you trust in the Lord?
  
• Those who trust in the Lord will overcome. Those who are good-righteous.
  
• Those who trust in the Lord are blessed. Hearts are upright-not bent, crooked-but whole. The word for 'crooked ways' appears only one other time in the Bible, in Judges 5:6, where it seems to mean 'back roads,' perhaps 'detours' in the sense of 'devious paths.' A cognate word in Isaiah 27:1 describes a snake.
  
• Those who trust in the Lord are accepted. With open arms, God accepts us, just as we are.
  

We are a people who need to trust. Who do you trust in?