Worshipping with Your Body

In the last of the Songs of Ascents, Ps. 134, we find that Israel has made her ascent and her feet are now standing within the house of God. And here we see what she has come to Jerusalem to do: “Behold, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD. The LORD who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion!” The psalm begins with the call to worship: bless the LORD! And ends with the benediction: The LORD…bless you from Zion! Beloved, that is why you are assembled here today: to bless God and receive His blessing. I’m sure that the people of Israel encountered all sorts of obstacles in making their ascent, just as you do: fussy children, marital spats, and heavy eyes (remember they walked!). But when they reached their destination they were to put all of that behind them and bless the LORD. That is the value of posture in worship. God doesn’t say, “Sit or stand, whatever suits you.” No, when you come into God’s house you stand to bless the Lord no matter whether you feel like it or not! Likewise He doesn’t say, “If you feel sort of silly raising your hands, that’s ok so as you are worshipping Me in your heart.” No (!), He tells you lift up your hands when you have drawn near to bless Him. The idea is that perhaps your hearts will catch up to your feet and hands. You see God created whole people with souls and bodies and intends for us to worship Him with both! And though sometimes He works from the inside out, He often works from the outside in. The Spirit works when the Word is heard, touched, and tasted. And likewise God trains your heart through your feet, knees, and hands. It is as you worship God as whole people with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, the strength even to stand, kneel, and lift your hands, that Lord will bless from Zion!

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The Blessedness of Christian Unity

The second to last of the Songs of Ascents, Ps. 133, begins with the call to behold something, something not often beheld in our day. David writes, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” David likens the blessedness of Christian unity to the oil of priestly ordination that flowed down from Aaron’s head and to the dew of God’s glory cloud descending upon the mountains of Zion. What unites these two similes for the blessedness of Christian unity is that they are both symbols of Holy Spirit. The oil of priestly ordination and the dew of God’s glory cloud are both fulfilled in Christian baptism as the Holy Spirit inducts us into his royal priesthood and claims us as His dwelling place forevermore. And Christian baptism is also the starting point for Christian unity, “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Just like your earthly family is given to you by birth, you don’t choose them; even so your Christian family is given to you by baptism, you don’t choose them. If you were baptized as an adult perhaps you selected a particular branch of the Church to identify yourself with, but that’s the funny thing about baptism: you’re not baptized into the PCA, or the SBC, or the AG, or whatever; you’re baptized into the Triune name and thus into the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church that He has established. And Jesus prayed for you, for us, in John 17 that we who would believe in him through the Apostolic Word, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that world may believe that You sent Me.” How has our witness to the world been hindered by the fact that Sunday morning at 11:00 am is the most divided hour in America? Even more troubling, given the imagery of Ps. 133, how have we grieved the Spirit of God by our divisiveness and disunity? Join me now in confessing these our sins and seeking to amend our lives to better manifest the goodness and pleasantness of dwelling together in unity. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Corresponding Blessing

Psalm 132, the 3rd last of the Songs of Ascents, celebrates the establishment of God’s dwelling place among His people in fulfillment of His covenant with David. The psalm reveals a wonderful correspondence between the people’s desire for God’s blessings and His intention so to bless them. The people are resolved to worship God at His dwelling place and plead, “Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.” Following a rehearsal of God’s promises to David we hear God’s intention to bless His people, “This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.” Is that not why we too make our ascent to the heavenly Zion. Beloved, you are the resting place that God has chosen, the “dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” And He desires you; He takes delight in you. Do you doubt that? He sent His only begotten Son to make a way for you to be incorporated into this dwelling place by bearing your sins in His body on the cross. How then “shall He not with Him freely give [you] all things?” He will most assuredly abundantly bless your provision, “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” And this day as you have been called to gather as His royal priesthood, to perform “your reasonable service,” He will yet again clothe you, His priests, with righteousness and salvation. And thus clothed in the very righteousness of Jesus Christ He has determined to satisfy you, His poor, with bread at His Table. And what will be your response to these abundant provisions? You, His saints, will shout aloud for joy! That is where you are headed. But to get there you must humbly seek these blessings by the confession of your sins. For in this way we make our ascent to Zion.

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Put No Hope in Presidents

Psalms 130 and 131 are psalms that express trust in the LORD that evidenced by waiting upon Him. The first, Psalm 130, depicts this waiting upon the LORD by employing the image of the watchman waiting for the morning. This image evokes a sense of expectation for morning shall surely come. The second, Psalm 131, depicts waiting upon the LORD by employing the image of a weaned child with his mother. This image evokes a sense of trust and safety in mother’s arms. In light of the events of this Tuesday, I exhort you to heed the words of the psalmist and put your trust in the LORD. As the people of God you “do not put your hope in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Instead, put your trust in the LORD the maker of heaven and earth, and in His Son who has been given all authority therein. Christ is even now sitting at the right of the Father directing all things after the counsel of His will for the good of the Church and for the advancement of His kingdom in the earth. Whatever the outcome of Super Tuesday, you can know that God’s kingdom is advancing in the earth and the gates of hell shall not withstand our march to the ends of the earth. Yes, you should vote. Yes, the issues before our nation are important. But the kingdom doesn’t advance by the power of the sword. The kingdom advances by the power of the Spirit working by Word and Sacrament in and through the worshipping community that is the Church. The kingdom advances as we do what we’re doing right here this morning. Whether our next president is Obama, or McCain, his heart will be in the hand of our LORD and He will turn it like a channel of water to do whatsoever He pleases (Pr. 21:1). And one day all the kings of the earth will join us in worshipping our Triune God. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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He Cuts Their Cords!

Psalm 129 celebrates the righteousness of God as seen in the way that he enables his people to persevere in the faith by subduing our enemies. The psalm begins with the refrain, “Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth. – Let Israel now say – “Many times have they afflicted me from my youth. Yet they have not prevailed against me.” Consider the efforts of the seed of the serpent to stamp out the seed of the woman. From the dawn of creation to the present day the serpent and his cohorts have attempted to prevent what we are gathered here to do this day. They have persecuted and afflicted the church in countless ways and yet year after year Israel made her ascent to Jerusalem and Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day we make ours. The psalmist likens their efforts to driving a plow over the backs of God’s people only to find that God has cut their cords and freed his people from their tyranny. No doubt there are many weeks that you gather here feeling the assaults of the world upon your backs. You have firsthand knowledge of how the world, flesh, and devil attempt to stamp out the work of the Spirit in your lives and your families. Whether by overt attacks upon your character, or by more subtle temptations to make peace with the world, you have endured the plow of the wicked upon your backs. And yet week after week the Lord cuts their cords and frees you to gather in His presence with psalms like these upon your lips. We join Israel in singing, “Let all those who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back.” And week after week God hears these cries and drives back the forces of darkness. Indeed week after week as we make our ascent to the throne of God with the psalms upon our lips, God sends another blow of the battering ram against the gates of hell. Week after week Christ is building His Church by Word and Sacrament and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us!

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The Lord Builds the House

The next two Songs of Ascents speaks quite clearly to the material we’ve been considering in Colossians 3. Psalms 127 and 128 remind us that unless the LORD builds the house, all of our labors are in vain. What does that look like? How does God build the house and guard the city? First, He fills your wombs and homes with children like arrows in the hands of a warrior and like olive plants all around your table. Second, He blesses your homes husbands and fathers who fear the Lord and live fruitful and productive lives in the world. Third, He glorifies your homes with fruitful and productive wives who are the very heart of your homes. What is your response to these blessings? Worship. You bring your household to worship asking him to cleanse and forgive you of your sins so as to restore and renovate your homes. Each Lord’s Day your family is in need of an Extreme Makeover and God is the Master-Builder. Employing the tools of Word, Sacraments, and Prayer, He sets to work each week renovating your household. Even this morning, He intends to fashion each of you men to fear Him and walk in His paths in the callings He has given you. He intends to form you wives and mothers to rejoice in childbearing and view your children as a blessing and reward. He intends to form you children into arrows to go forth from here to occupy positions of influence in the world. And the result of all this is God’s blessing resting upon the New Jerusalem. In blessing and building your households, He intends to bless and build His Household, the Church. So having heeded the call to worship this morning, set your hearts and minds upon the Master Builder who alone is able to build your house for He is the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.

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The Weightier Matters of the Gospel

Psalm 126 describes, in striking terms, the type of people we become in response to our redemption. The psalmist describes the experience of the Israelites returning from exile. The Israelites “were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter. And our tongue with singing.” Their confession was simple: “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.” And beloved, the Lord has likewise done great things for you. He has brought you into the true Israel of God from a bondage far worse than that of Egypt or Babylon. He has brought you out of the kingdom of Satan and into the kingdom of His Beloved Son. In doing so he has forgiven the guilt of your sins and adopted you as his children. And the proper response to this bounteous grace is joy and gladness, laughter and singing. Don’t get so bogged down in the details and duties of the Christian life that you neglect these weightier matters of the gospel. Yes, you have many duties and the responsibilities of rearing children, providing for your families, and serving those in need are great, but don’t neglect laughter and singing. Luther once quipped at his monkish assistant Melanchthon, “For heaven’s sake, why don’t you go out and sin a little? God deserves to have something to forgive you for!” Luther was saying, “Where is your joy? Loosen up a little and live!” Now of course to some extent joy, gladness, laughter, and singing can’t be, nor should they be conjured up. That’s the hollow way of our entertainment culture, which attempts to package and sell laughter and happiness. No, these weightier matters of the gospel come from sustained reflection upon and experience of God’s grace. And that is why we’re gathered here today. We come as poor and needy pilgrims, sowing in tears and heavy hearts that we might reap in joy. We come confessing that the joy of the Lord is our strength and our song!

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The Lord Surrounds His People

In Psalm 125 the psalmist sets out the fundamental attitude of the one who has put their trust in the LORD and makes their ascent to God’s dwelling place: confidence! The psalmist likens the one who trusts in God to “Mt. Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.” He writes, “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.” In the Scriptures mountains are a symbol of immovable strength. And that immovable, unshakeable, confidence in God and His purposes for you is to be a defining characteristic of your life. Life in the ancient near east could be quite chaotic with threats of invasion from every side. Yet, Yahweh wanted His people to know that their lives were in His hands and that His presence surrounded them. Just as the pillars of cloud and fire surrounded Israel in the Exodus, even so the LORD continues to surround and protect His people. And in light of God’s presence with you, you are to be unshakeable. We live in the midst of a fragile culture. To a people whose trust is in their riches, the recent upheaval of the stock and real estate markets has shaken our nation. But beloved, you are not such a people. You are the people of God and as those who have put your trust in Him you are like Mt. Zion in its strength. And like Mt. Zion your place in God’s purposes is fixed and unchanging; He will never leave you nor forsake you. In the midst of the myriad uncertainties of this life, be reminded of the place in which you are now standing. Every week as you make your ascent to Mt. Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, be reminded that your life is hid with Christ in God. The kingdom that you have received from Him and which you have entered by baptism and the working of God’s Spirit cannot be shaken but will endure world without end. Be, therefore, steadfast and immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord!

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God, Our Help

The fifth of the Songs of Ascents, Psalm 124, contains a striking meditation on what it means to confess, “our help is in name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth” (v.8). This confession rightly has formed the basis for calls to worship from Old Testament times until the present. But what are you confessing about God when you call Him your “help”? Is it the expression of some naïve, “pie in the sky” view of the Christian life? “God is our help and therefore our lives are free from the cares and obstacles that others face.” Absolutely not! The psalm rehearses Israel’s deliverance from the mouth of the dragon, the waters of the flood, and the snare of the fowler. Just like Job, the fact that Israel was God’s chosen people and had God as their help, didn’t mean that difficulty and distress would never come their way. In fact it was their experience of difficulty and distress that gave meaning to their confession of God’s help. God’s help comes in the midst of difficulty and distress and can only be understood and confessed against that background. But God’s help, His promised way of escape, is a way through the difficulties and distress that you experience. Beloved it is your experience of the dragons of cancer and job loss, the floodwaters of financial pressure and marital stress, and the snare of anxiety, that fills out your confession of God’s help. And just like the Israelites we shouldn’t pretend that these difficulties don’t exist. Rather, we bring our dragons, floods, and snares to God in prayer and song in the confidence that the maker of heaven and earth, and our redeemer in Jesus Christ, will deliver us from all our fears. David actually pauses after the first line to call Israel to join him in rehearsing God’s deliverances. Even so I call upon you now to join me in the confession of our sins that we too might know his deliverance.

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Lord Have Mercy

Psalm 123, the forth of the Songs of Ascents, defines our position in relation to the God who calls us to worship: we are his servants. In heeding the call to worship we lift our eyes to God who dwells in the heavens as “the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters” and “as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress.” The call to worship puts us in a position of dependence upon God. We are those who “wait upon,” or “attend to,” God and His Word. And the psalmist states three times what wait for: mercy. The psalmist says they look to God “until He has mercy us,” and then cries, “Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us!” The church calls this the Kyrie eleison, which is the Latin form of the petition, “Lord have mercy.” And it has been a fixed part of the Church’s liturgy since the beginning. The Kyrie expresses the basis of our relationship to God: His mercy. When we come before God’s throne of grace, our greatest need is to obtain mercy. But isn’t it so often the case that we don’t want to acknowledge our need. We don’t come before God with the expectancy of the psalmist because we don’t share the psalmist’s assessment of our need. We try to patch our lives together, shake the dust of our Bibles, and make our ascent to God’s house. Well, that’s not going to cut it! In heeding the call to worship, you must confess your utter dependence upon God’s mercy. He doesn’t want to patch you up. He wants to cut you up by the sharp two-edged sword of his Word to remake you into a holy priesthood. So as his servants let us now acknowledge our dependence upon him in the confession of our sins. And let your confession be marked by that same air of expectation seen in the psalm, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!”

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Are you glad to go to God's house?

The third of the Songs of Ascents (Ps. 122) provides us with the words that we recite as we begin our service each week. The psalm begins with David saying, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD.” And follows with Israel’s confession, “Our feet our standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!” This psalm teaches us that the call to worship is to make us glad. Is that how you would describe the state of your heart right now? Are glad to go to the house of the Lord on Sunday? Or do you make your ascent to God’s house out of compulsion? Because it is what Christians are supposed to do? You children and young folks, do your parents have to drag you out bed and force you to come here? Beloved you all ought to be glad to go to God’s house! You ought to be able to say with the psalmist that a day in God’s courts is better than a thousand outside (Ps. 84:10). What would you prefer to being in God’s house? Would you rather be in bed? Would you rather be in the park, or spending time with friends or family? You must train yourself to prefer the presence of God to everything else in life. You do that by spending time with him throughout the week in morning and evening prayer, in times of song around the table, in reading his Word. You do it by confessing your sins to God and one another, endeavoring by the power of God’s Spirit to walk in new obedience. Nobody who is clinging to his sins is going to be glad to go to God’s house. For our God is a consuming fire. When we join the Israelites in confessing that “our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem,” we are confessing that our feet are standing on holy ground. Therefore let us confess our sins to God and make our ascent with joy and gladness, knowing that He will show us the path of life and in His presence is fullness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).

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Where does your help come from?

In the second of the Songs of Ascents, the psalmist directs his eyes to the hills and asks the question, “From where does my help come?” He answers his own question and confesses that his “help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” And this confession was of vital importance to Israel’s ascent to Jerusalem. In making their ascent the people of Israel were to direct all of their attention to the maker of heaven and earth for he alone was their keeper, or guardian. You see when Israel looked to the hills they saw a lot of other sources of help, for there were many counterfeits that promised them help in distress. Many idolatrous shrines were set up on the hilltops in Palestine. Thus their looking to the hills involved a renunciation of these counterfeits and a confession of their faith in the Maker of heaven and earth. And in heeding the call to worship this morning, in making your ascent to the Jerusalem above, you likewise must set your minds and hearts upon God, from Whom your help comes. There are many counterfeits out there, other gods who would summon you to come to them for help. Whether the idols of sex, money, and power, or drugs, alcohol, and self-help; they are all counterfeits. The Triune God who has made and is now remaking the heavens and earth, he alone is your keeper, your guardian. He has not promised that the path will be easy, free from conflict and distress. No, he’s told us that the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life (Mt. 7:14). It’s filled with potholes and fraught with danger; the times are evil. But each week we rehearse our basic response to all that assails us in this life as we fix our eyes upon Jesus. He alone is your guide, leading you in paths of righteousness and granting you refreshment of soul in the means of grace he has given.

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Repentance and Ascension

Psalms 120-134 are known as the “Songs of Ascents.” They were sung by the Israelites as they made their pilgrimages up to Jerusalem for the three great feasts of their year. As those who are likewise making our ascent to feast in God’s house, these psalms teach us much about we are to make this ascent. The first of these psalms is a plea for deliverance from a lying and warmongering people. And the psalmist’s righteous dissatisfaction with the culture around him is a prerequisite for biblical worship. When God calls his people to worship him, he calls them to break with ungodly thoughts, words, and deeds of the culture around them. Thus the psalmist leaves behind the lies and hostility of his culture to seek out the truth of God’s Law and the peace of his presence. And we likewise dwell in a culture that is steeped in lies and full of hostility. But do you share the psalmist’s distress with our culture? Or have you become accommodated to the lies and numb to conflict around you? The lies told about God, mankind, and the world are so pervasive that it is hard to escape them. The violence and conflict that mark our relationships are so “normal,” that peace is increasingly hard to find. In the midst of a culture like this we must learn to confess with Isaiah, that we not only live among a people of unclean lips, but also that “I” am a man of unclean lips. For you have no doubt bought into some of the lies of the world, whether regarding success, or beauty, or relationships. And you have no doubt learned to respond to people and circumstances with hostility rather than peace. In heeding the call to worship you must turn from these lies and hostilities to be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Transformed into a people ready to think and speak and live out truth towards your neighbor. Transformed into a people who seek peace and pursue it with God and your neighbor. Come, let us ascend by confessing our sins.

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Songs of Ascents

For the next couple months I'll be using the Songs of Ascents to guide my Exhortations. These psalms (120-134) were sung by Israel as they made their ascent to Jerusalem for the three great feasts of their calendar. I trust they be helpful to us as we make our ascent to the heavenly Jerusalem each week in our service of covenant renewal!

After deciding to do this I picked up Eugene Peterson's, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, and realized that Peterson employs the Songs of Ascents as a guide for Christian discipleship. I think you would find Peterson's book a blessing and I'll no doubt be making use of his insights in my exhortations. The peace of the Lord be with you!

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