Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. (Psalm 120:6, NIV)
What do you think about on your way to the golf course?
If you play often enough, you may not think of anything special. Your mind stays with family or work or the program on the radio right up to the time you unpack your clubs.
If you work at the course, your thoughts are certainly different—on agronomy or weather delays or that member you can never seem to satisfy.
But if you’re the typical player, with a tee time and a dream of finally playing that round you’ve been waiting for, it’s likely you’re engaging in some rather sophisticated mental gymnastics: swing thoughts, course management, even what to say if that boorish playing partner of yours gets overly moody and stands in the way of what you’re trying to accomplish out there.
Thinking ahead is both the currency of the successful and the curse of the nervous. We all do it.
Whether these were personal attacks on the psalmist or they formed the voice of the culture around him, their words and actions had worn him down. Now he cried out to God.Fifteen short psalms are given over to such advance work. They are called the songs of ascents, and they were sung by those making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, with its literal uphill climb from the valleys around to the temple mount. In the weeks ahead, we’ll consider each one, beginning today with Psalm 120.
What would you have been thinking, saying, singing as a Jewish God-fearer headed to the sacred site of your people, the place where man met with God? If you were a male, you would have done this three times a year: Passover, Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks), and Sukkot (the Festival of Booths). Women and children often joined the trip.
Depending on the length of your journey, you would have had much time for mental, verbal, and musical preparation. Which is why it may not surprise us to find in Psalm 120 words of lament. When we have plentiful time to think, our thoughts—and the expressions of those thoughts—will run the gamut.
The psalmist’s complaints are centered around a theme that may be familiar to you also: the failings of those with whom you spend your days. The people surrounding this songwriter oozed lies and deceit. Whether these were personal attacks on the psalmist or they formed the voice of the culture around him, their words and actions had worn him down. Now he cried out to God: “I call on the LORD in my distress and he answers me” (Psalm 120:1).
We are not to be complainers in our everyday living (Philippians 2:14), but we can be honest with God. We can let him know that we are being beaten down by the world around us and that we must have his help to endure. Complaining “out and about” accomplishes little of value, but taking our woes to the one who can intervene calls him to our defense and acknowledges his power to act.
Where are you going today? What do you need from the Lord as you are going and when you arrive? Think it, pray it, say it, sing it. Ascend to his presence and draw from him.
—
Jeff Hopper
June 25, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
OTHER DEVOTIONS IN THIS SERIES
Ascending: In God’s Care (Psalm 121)
Ascending: Joy and Peace in Fellowship (Psalm 122)
Ascending: The Mercy We Need (Psalm 123)
Ascending: How Great An Escape (Psalm 124)
Ascending: Stark Lines (Psalm 125)
Ascending: Sorrow and Joy (Psalm 126)
Ascending: Work and Home (Psalm 127)
Ascending: ‘Blessed’ (Psalm 128)
Ascending: Set Free (Psalm 129)
Ascending: Finding Forgiveness (Psalm 130)
Ascending: Our Waiting, Impatient Soul (Psalm 131)
Ascending: Despite Our Sin (Psalm 132)
Ascending: Together in Christ (Psalm 133)
Ascending: Earth to Heaven, Heaven to Earth (Psalm 134)