Songs for Going Up to Worship
“Songs for Going Up to Worship” – August 4th, 2024 (Psalms 120-134)
Today we are starting on a new adventure, an ancient pilgrimage begun by the people of God a long time ago, a journey we continue today! For the next several months, we will be looking at Psalms 120-134, collectively known by a variety of names: the Pilgrimage Psalms, Pilgrim Songs, Gradual Psalms, the Songs of Ascent, Songs of Degrees, Songs of Steps, or Songs for Going Up to Worship. This group of Psalms belongs to a larger group known as the Songs of Zion, which celebrate the city of Jerusalem and the Temple as the epicenter of cosmic reality.
Let’s look for a moment at the literary nature of the Pilgrimage Psalms. Each Pilgrimage Psalm is poetic in form, varying in length, with most of them being quite short. The original Hebrew text is characterized by several literary devices, including anaphora, which utilizes repetition of a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis. For example, listen to the repetition in these phrases from Psalm 124:
“lū-lê Yah-weh še-hā-yāh lā-nū; yō-mar- nā yiś-rā-’êl.
lū-lê Yah-weh še-hā-yāh lā-nū; bə-qūm ‘ā-lê-nū ’ā-ḏām.”
Another literary device characteristic of these Psalms is that they are epigrammatic, in which brief, interesting, memorable, or sometimes surprising or satirical statements are made. For example, listen to these epigrams from Psalm 132:
“’im- ’ā·ḇō bə·’ō·hel bê·ṯî;
’im- ’e·‘ĕ·leh, ‘al- ‘e·reś yə·ṣū·‘āy.
’im- ’et·tên šə·naṯ lə·‘ê·nāy”
What these literary devices serve to do is to emphasize the overarching theme of the Pilgrimage Psalms: the very presence of God.
If we stepped back into Jewish culture more than 2000 years ago, let’s consider when this group of Psalms would have been heard. These Pilgrimage Psalms were likely sung by able-bodied Jewish worshipers as they approached Jerusalem for the three festivals that Jewish men were expected to attend annually at the Temple in Jerusalem: Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. Since Jerusalem is situated on an elevated plateau in the Judaean Mountains, surrounded by valleys on every side, any approach to Jerusalem necessarily requires ascending steps along a pathway, a gradual walk by degrees up a steeply inclined gradient as pilgrims went up to worship God. We also see that in the Mishnah, the first major collection of the Jewish oral traditions, Levite singers sang these 15 Pilgrimage Psalms as they ascended the 15 steps to minister to the Temple in Jerusalem, one song per step. Because of the importance of the Pilgrimage Psalms, it is very likely that Jesus himself would have memorized and sung these Songs for Going Up to Worship.
What we call the “Old Testament” in Christianity is a significant part of our inheritance from Judaism known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, and twenty more books. The original hearers of the Old Testament canon of Scripture, including the Pilgrimage Psalms, celebrated the city of Jerusalem and the Temple as the epicenter of cosmic reality. We now know now that through Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection, he fulfilled the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17). All Old Testament references to Zion, Jerusalem, and the Temple point to Messiah, Christ Jesus. The way to God is no longer limited to a select group of pilgrims on a pathway leading up to the physical Temple in Jerusalem. The former role of the Temple as the place where God dwelled and met God’s people belongs now to Jesus. Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us, the one in whom God dwells fully, perfectly, and bodily (John 1:1,14). Jesus has opened up the way of love for all. As the divine Word dwelling in flesh, Jesus’ body is now the Temple, the place of mediation and encounter between God and humanity.
And we are included! Ephesians 2:19-22 tells us “you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.” In Christ Jesus we together grow into the Temple. In Christ Jesus, the cornerstone, the whole structure is joined together. In Christ Jesus we are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
Some early Christian hermits recited the entire Psalter, all 150 Psalms, daily. It was not unusual for early monastic communities to chant the entire book of Psalms each week. For 1400 years and counting, in Eastern Churches, these Pilgrimage Psalms have been recited in worship services four days per week, with Psalm 133 being recited daily. In some parts of the body of Christ, these Psalms are strategically sung at certain times of the year, as a reminder that Christians are ascending to the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Pilgrimage language helps us to better understand and enter more fully into the ever-deepening presence of God on our journey of following Jesus. We see this in John Bunyan’s 17th century influential allegory of the Christian life, The Pilgrim’s Progress. We can welcome and incorporate these Pilgrimage Psalms into our Christ-faith playlists.
There may be chanting or singing of these Psalms on other Sundays during this sermon series, but today we are going to read aloud all fifteen Pilgrimage Psalms. Below is a one-page summary of these fifteen Psalms, drawn from the text. I usually use the NRSV translation, the one my most learned seminary professors tell me is the best one for Scriptural exegesis. But today we will read each of these Psalms in The Message translation, a paraphrase from the original languages into contemporary and idiomatic English, which I have found to be both beautiful and beneficial, rich and relatable. May we find each of these Psalms as relevant today as they have been to all the generations before us who have gone up to worship God, as we experience the presence of God right here, right now! Come, Holy Spirit!
My hope for us all is that as we together hear these Psalms read aloud today, with these Pilgrimage Psalms in our hearts and on our lips, we will be able to together enter more fully into the eternal embrace of the Trinity, to be loved and to love.
The Pilgrimage Psalms
Psalm 120 – Deliver us from the liars, God!
Psalm 121 – God’s our Guardian, always.
Psalm 122 – Give thanks to the name of God, and live in peace!
Psalm 123 – We look up to you for help, God, waiting your word of mercy.
Psalm 124 – God didn’t go off and leave us; God’s strong name is our help.
Psalm 125 – God encircles his people – always has and always will.
Psalm 126 – God, bring rains to our drought-stricken lives.
Psalm 127 – God enjoys giving rest to those he loves.
Psalm 128 – Stand in awe of God’s Yes.
Psalm 129 – They never could keep us down; God rips the harnesses of the evil plowmen to shreds.
Psalm 130 – With God’s arrival comes love and generous redemption.
Psalm 131 – Wait for God with hope, now and always!
Psalm 132 – God is here for good and showers blessings on the pilgrims who come here.
Psalm 133 – When brothers and sisters get along, God commands the blessing and ordains eternal life.
Psalm 134 – Come, bless God, and may the God who made heaven and earth bless you!
Psalm 120 (The Message)
Deliver us from the liars, God!
1 I’m in trouble. I cry to God, desperate for an answer:
2 “Deliver me from the liars, God! They smile so sweetly but lie through their teeth.”
3 Do you know what’s next, can you see what’s coming, all you barefaced liars?
4 Pointed arrows and burning coals will be your reward.
5 I’m doomed to live in Meshech, cursed with a home in Kedar,
6 My whole life lived camping among quarreling neighbors.
7 I’m all for peace, but the minute I tell them so, they go to war!
Psalm 121 (The Message)
God’s our Guardian, always.
1 I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains?
2 No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
3 He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
4 Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep.
5 God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you –
6 Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moonstroke.
7 God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life.
8 He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always.
Psalm 122 (The Message)
Give thanks to the name of God, and live in peace!
1 When they said, “Let’s go to the house of God,” my heart leaped for joy.
2 And now we’re here, O Jerusalem, inside Jerusalem’s walls!
3 Jerusalem, well-built city, built as a place for worship!
4 The city to which the tribes ascend, all God’s tribes go up to worship, To give thanks to the name of God – this is what it means to be Israel.
5 Thrones for righteous judgment are set there, famous David-thrones.
6 Pray for Jerusalem’s peace! Prosperity to all you Jerusalem-lovers!
7 Friendly insiders, get along! Hostile outsiders, keep your distance!
8 For the sake of my family and friends, I say it again: live in peace!
9 For the sake of the house of our God, God, I’ll do my very best for you.
Psalm 123 (The Message)
We look up to you for help, God, waiting your word of mercy.
1 I look to you, heaven-dwelling God, look up to you for help.
2 Like servants, alert to their master’s commands, like a maiden attending her lady, We’re watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy.
3 Mercy, God, mercy! We’ve been kicked around long enough,
4 Kicked in the teeth by complacent rich men, kicked when we’re down by arrogant brutes.
Psalm 124 (The Message)
God didn’t go off and leave us; God’s strong name is our help.
1 If God hadn’t been for us – all together now, Israel, sing out! –
2 If God hadn’t been for us when everyone went against us,
3 We would have been swallowed alive by their violent anger,
4 Swept away by the flood of rage, drowned in the torrent;
5 We would have lost our lives in the wild, raging water.
6 Oh, blessed be God! He didn’t go off and leave us. He didn’t abandon us defenseless, helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.
7 We’ve flown free from their fangs, free of their traps, free as a bird. Their grip is broken; we’re free as a bird in flight.
8 God’s strong name is our help, the same God who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 125 (The Message)
God encircles his people – always has and always will.
1 Those who trust in God are like Zion Mountain: Nothing can move it, a rock-solid mountain you can always depend on.
2 Mountains encircle Jerusalem, and God encircles his people – always has and always will.
3 The fist of the wicked will never violate What is due the righteous, provoking wrongful violence.
4 Be good to your good people, God, to those whose hearts are right!
5 God will round up the backsliders, corral them with the incorrigibles. Peace over Israel!
Psalm 126 (The Message)
God, bring rains to our drought-stricken lives.
1 It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when God returned Zion’s exiles.
2 We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune. We were the talk of the nations – “God was wonderful to them!”
3 God was wonderful to us; we are one happy people.
4 And now, God, do it again – bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
5 So those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest,
6 So those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.
Psalm 127 (The Message)
God enjoys giving rest to those he loves.
1 If God doesn’t build the house, the builders only build shacks. If God doesn’t guard the city, the night watchman might as well nap.
2 It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?
3 Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift? the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?
4 Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth.
5 Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you; you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep.
Psalm 128 (The Message)
Stand in awe of God’s Yes.
1 All you who fear God, how blessed you are! how happily you walk on his smooth straight road!
2 You worked hard and deserve all you’ve got coming. Enjoy the blessing! Revel in the goodness!
3 Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes, your household lush as a vineyard, The children around your table as fresh and promising as young olive shoots.
4 Stand in awe of God’s Yes. Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God!
5 Enjoy the good life in Jerusalem every day of your life.
6 And enjoy your grandchildren. Peace to Israel!
Psalm 129 (The Message)
They never could keep us down; God rips the harnesses of the evil plowmen to shreds.
1 “They’ve kicked me around ever since I was young” – this is how Israel tells it –
2 “They’ve kicked me around ever since I was young, but they never could keep me down.
3 Their plowmen plowed long furrows up and down my back;
4 Then God ripped the harnesses of the evil plowmen to shreds.”
5 Oh, let all those who hate Zion grovel in humiliation;
6 Let them be like grass in shallow ground that withers before the harvest,
7 Before the farmhands can gather it in, the harvesters get in the crop,
8 Before the neighbors have a chance to call out, “Congratulations on your wonderful crop! We bless you in God’s name!”
Psalm 130 (The Message)
With God’s arrival comes love and generous redemption.
1 Help, God – the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help!
2 Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
3 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance?
4 As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.
5 I pray to God – my life a prayer – and wait for what he’ll say and do.
6 My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.
7 O Israel, wait and watch for God – with God’s arrival comes love, with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.
8 No doubt about it – he’ll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
Psalm 131 (The Message)
Wait for God with hope, now and always!
1 God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain. I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans.
2 I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.
3 Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!
Psalm 132 (The Message)
God is here for good and showers blessings on the pilgrims who come here.
1 O God, remember David, remember all his troubles!
2 And remember how he promised God, made a vow to the Strong God of Jacob,
3 “I’m not going home, and I’m not going to bed,
4 I’m not going to sleep, not even take time to rest,
5 Until I find a home for God, a house for the Strong God of Jacob.”
6 Remember how we got the news in Ephrathah, learned all about it at Jaar Meadows?
7 We shouted, “Let’s go to the shrine dedication! Let’s worship at God’s own footstool!”
8 Up, God, enjoy your new place of quiet repose, you and your mighty covenant ark;
9 Get your priests all dressed up in justice; prompt your worshipers to sing this prayer:
10 “Honor your servant David; don’t disdain your anointed one.”
11 God gave David his word, he won’t back out on this promise: “One of your sons I will set on your throne;
12 If your sons stay true to my Covenant and learn to live the way I teach them, Their sons will continue the line – always a son to sit on your throne.
13 Yes – I, God, chose Zion, the place I wanted for my shrine;
14 This will always be my home; this is what I want, and I’m here for good.
15 I’ll shower blessings on the pilgrims who come here, and give supper to those who arrive hungry;
16 I’ll dress my priests in salvation clothes; the holy people will sing their hearts out!
17 Oh, I’ll make the place radiant for David! I’ll fill it with light for my anointed!
18 I’ll dress his enemies in dirty rags, but I’ll make his crown sparkle with splendor.”
Psalm 133 (The Message)
When brothers and sisters get along, God commands the blessing and ordains eternal life.
1 How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!
2 It’s like costly anointing oil flowing down head and beard, Flowing down Aaron’s beard, flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.
3 It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion. Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing, ordains eternal life.
Psalm 134 (The Message)
Come, bless God, and may the God who made heaven and earth bless you!
1 Come, bless God, all you servants of God! You priests of God, posted to the nightwatch in God’s shrine,
2 Lift your praising hands to the Holy Place, and bless God.
3 In turn, may God of Zion bless you – God who made heaven and earth!
