Psalm 124: A Psalm of Ascents for Today

Sometimes in our reading we come to a passage of scripture like Psalm 124, and we wonder what we are supposed to do with that as Christians.  

Psa. 124:1   If the LORD had not been on our side — let Israel say —  2 if the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us,  3 when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive;  4 the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us,  5 the raging waters would have swept us away.  6 Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth.  7 We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped.  8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.  (NIV)

Psalm 124 is a Psalm of Ascents.  These were songs that were sung on the road to Jerusalem when people were on pilgrimage to the temple.  They were making their way from whatever place they were at, and taking a road that wound ever upward toward the mountain of God.   At some point in the journey now unknown to us they would burst into song, remembering from where they had come, and how unlike it was to the place they were going.  

They were going from life amongst the heathen to the place of holy worship.  They were going from the Profane to the Sacred.  They were going from the unclean to the sanctified.  Their faces were upward, joy was in their hearts as they thought about the joy of being amongst like minded people who were also zealous for God.

That alone should speak to us today.  How do we look at worship?  Are excited about going to where sacred songs are in every heart, and where people hunger for scripture to be read and taught?  Is it our delight to sing songs of praise that bless the heart of God?  Such is the lesson presented to us by the mere existence of the psalm of ascents.  Here was a people that accounted it a joy and privilege to be able to go and spend a short season of a few days with God, before they would have to return to their homes many miles away.  It might be months or years before they would have the ability to go and appear before God to present their prayers and offerings.

How different from us.  Any little thing will do as an excuse to keep us in bed, fellowshipping with Pastor Pillow and Sister Sheets.  Brother Breakfast finds it all to easy to keep us home.  We’ve lost the sense of the privilege that it is to go and appear before God.  I wonder if we would miss it more if we had to travel on foot many days just to go and worship!  Maybe it would be good for us if we were forced into such a situation of privation!  Did you miss worship when the power was out?  Or did it feel more like an opportunity?

Back to the psalm at hand.  The Psalm speaks of times when the people of Israel were under threat to be destroyed.  Think of people like Haman, or of Nehemiah’s adversaries when he sought to rebuild the wall.  Yes there are people like that in the world today who hate Christians.  But bear in mind, Paul has told us that our real enemies are not flesh and blood.  Our real enemies are sin and Satan.  Paul tells us that our enemies are the principalities and powers.  God tells us that Sin hides nearby, ever ready to pounce on us and reign over us.  

These enemies do seek to swallow us up.  No trick is too low, no deception too base to ruin us, our testimony and our separation to God.  These enemies to seek to overwhelm us like a torrent (4) or swallow us up in raging waters of a ruined life (5).

Today, in our new dispensation, we are to love our enemies and pray for their peace.  But Jesus is talking about our earthly enemies.  We are to pray against the spiritual enemies that seek to destroy us, and it is for enemies like that we can use this Psalm.  

God has not given us over to our enemy the devil (6).  He has sent His Son to die on the cross, and that cross trips the snare that Sin and Satan would use to trap and kill us (7).  See? This Psalm is still quite relevant today!

We live amongst people who care nothing for God.  Hunger for the fellowship with the Saints of God, and for worship in the Holy Temple.  Stay close to Christ, and keep Him in the center of your life to keep from falling into the snare of the devil.  May this psalm serve as a reminder to us all to do both!