The Bible Study Hour

Dr. James Boice: The long dusty roads leading to the holy city were choked with travelers. Pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to worship for the holy feasts. The roads led upward to both the city and the temple, and the people sang Psalms as they made their ascent.

Dr. James Boice: Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boyce, preparing you to think and act biblically. There's been much speculation as to the origin of the Psalms we know as the Psalms of Ascent. Some believe the 15 songs represented the 15 steps to the temple, while others felt they were the hymns of the exiles returning from Babylon.

Dr. James Boice: Join Dr. Boyce as he shares Psalm 120, the first of these Psalms, and one that speaks not so much of a pilgrimage itself, but of a restlessness that served as the catalyst for change.

Dr. James Boice: Quite a few years ago, I was in a Christian bookstore and I bought a book about which I knew absolutely nothing. I don't usually do that. Books today cost too much money to buy them without some idea of what they're about, but I bought this book anyway.

And I did it just because of its title. Its title was a long obedience in the same direction. That sounded like an apt description of the Christian life to me, and I thought, well, anyone who gives that kind of a title to a book must have written a book that has some value. I brought it home and began to read it and I discovered two things.

First of all, I discovered that the title came from a quotation from the atheistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche had written this, the essential thing in heaven and earth is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction. Thereby results and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.

Well, I never thought that I would ever be attracted by the words of a pagan philosopher, but I had been, in fact, I had been ensnared by them. Then as I began to read that book, the second thing I discovered was this. I discovered it was about the songs of ascent. That is those 15 songs that are found toward the end of the Book of Psalms and which some have called a Psalter within the Psalter.

Peterson had written a book about these 15 Hebrew poems and he had given his study of them the title that had attracted me. The name is Eugene Peterson. He's the pastor of Christ our King Presbyterian Church in Bell, Maryland. Now, we had a subtitle for that book.

The subtitle was also significant. It was discipleship in an instant society. It was actually a clue to what Peterson understood to be the central thrust of these songs of ascent, that they have to do with discipleship, and also his understanding that that is something that's very much needed in a culture such as ours.

We live in an instant society, he said. One way that has impacted our thinking is the idea, which many of us have and which is very widespread in our culture, that anything of any value ought to be achieved instantly. Quite an opposite idea from what people used to have in the past, where they thought that worthwhile things could be instantly achieved, but things that were of value took time.

At any rate, Peterson began to talk about that in his book, and I want to share a little bit of this with you. Here's the way he writes at the beginning, it's not difficult in such a world like ours to get a person interested in the message of the gospel, but it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest. Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ, but there's a dreadful attrition rate.

Many claim to have been born again, but the evidence for mature Christian discipleship is slim. In our kind of culture, anything, even news about God can be sold if it's packaged freshly. But when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There's a great market for religious experience in our world. There's little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue.

Little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. Now, I don't think Peterson is exaggerating at all in that analysis of our culture, and I don't think he's overstating it either when he says that the value of these Psalms is precisely in their ability to challenge us to a long-term discipleship.

Christianity, if we can put it this way, is a long obedience religion. If you don't understand that about Christianity, you don't understand much about Christianity at all. And if you're not in it for the long haul, whether you understand it or not, you're really no Christian. Now, these Psalms, as I said a moment ago, Psalms 120 to 134 are called the songs of ascent.

And apparently they were used by pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem for one or all of the three annual feasts. The Jews were required to go up from all over the land to these feasts and presumably they did. Joseph and Mary must have sung these Psalms as they made their way up to Jerusalem with the infant Jesus.

And later Jesus himself and his disciples as they made their way up to Jerusalem for the feast must have sung these Psalms too. There's been a lot of debate about what the title of these Psalms really means, and I suppose this is the place to deal with it and get it over with so we can go on to other things. That title which you see at the head of each of the Psalms, a song of ascent is in the Hebrew language, Shir Hamaalot.

Now, it lends itself to different interpretations, which is the problem. The word Shear is all right. It means a hymn or a song. And so the phrase is translated in our Bibles a song of, but then that later word is difficult. It's plural for one thing, but the singular of it, Malah, means a step, like a step going up the front of the church or steps in the plural, and by extension, a going up.

So, as what it means, you ask, going up where or how or when. To complicate matters just a little bit further, the Latin version of the Psalms renders the Hebrew phrase by the words Canticum Graduum, which means a gradual or graded song or collection of songs. But what does that mean?

In what sense could these Psalms be considered gradual? Well, there are four basic interpretations. The first begins with the fundamental meaning of the word step or steps, and says these Psalms are called step songs because of the way they're actually constructed. The first person to suggest that, so far as I know, was the great Hebrew Old Testament scholar Gesenius, who popularized it nearly 200 years ago.

And then it has been picked up somewhat more recently by Franz Delitzsch in his great and very important commentary. These men argue that these Psalms are distinguished from others because as you analyze them, you find that there's kind of a step-like upward progression of ideas. For example, Psalm 121, it's probably the best example of all. In that Psalm, help in verse one is picked up and developed in the next verse, verse two.

Watches over in verse three is picked up in verses four and five, and the word harm in verse five reoccurs in verse seven. Well, that's one idea. There's just two problems with it, of course. First, although this is a notable feature in some Psalms, like Psalm 121, it seems to be absent in some of the other Psalms.

For example, the one that we're going to be looking at today. And then the second problem is that this feature, though it's present in some of the Psalms in this collection, is also present in some Psalms that are not in this collection. And so H.C. Leupold, one of the great and balanced commentators says what is regarded as the chief requirement of this view is a bit more conspicuous by its absence than by its presence.

So we can dismiss that view. The second also begins with that idea of steps and relates them to the steps in Jerusalem that connected the court of the women with the court of the Jewish men in the exterior of the Jewish temple or Tabernacle. There were 15 steps that led up to that particular courtyard in the temple.

And the Jewish Talmud in two separate places alludes to that and makes a connection between those steps and the 15 songs of ascent. Well, some have picked up on that and said, that probably suggests that these Psalms were sung by the Levites standing on the steps. The only problem with that is it's pure speculation.

There's nothing in biblical literature, the literature of Israel, or historical references that would suggest anything of the sort. And even the Talmud doesn't say it. The Talmud just makes a connection based on the number 15. 15 steps, 15 Psalms. That's sort of a traditional Rabbinic way of thinking, but it has nothing to do with any actual historical connection.

So we throw that out too. The third view takes that word, Hamaaloth, in reference to the going up to Jerusalem from Babylon at the time of the Jews' return from exile. Now, there's some textual help for that because the word is actually used that way in Ezra. In the seventh chapter of Ezra, verse nine, the word is used of the return of the exiles to Jerusalem.

If you look that up in your Bible, you'll find that in the New International Version, it's actually translated journeys. But it refers to a going up. And it's a reasonable way to describe a return from the flat plains and deserts of Babylon to the high country of Jerusalem. You go up when you go to Jerusalem. The problem with that view is that in the title of the Psalms, the word is plural.

That is the goings up, not the going up. And that seems kind of a strange way then to refer to songs that were sung on the return from the exile. All of that together has led most scholars in our day to conclude that it's what I suggested it was when I began. That is, the word refers to the goings up, which were frequent as pilgrims three times a year made their way up to the holy city.

They would go up for Passover, Pentecost and also the Day of Atonement. And when you begin to think along that line, and begin to study these Psalms, you find that there are a number of phrases in them that seem to reflect that kind of pilgrim experience. For example, Psalm 122, verse one, I rejoiced with those who said to me, Let's go up to the House of the Lord.

Or Psalm 122, verse two, the very next verse. Our feet are standing in your gates, oh Jerusalem. There's joy in that for the pilgrim. Or Psalm 132, verse seven, Let us go to his dwelling place, let us worship at his footstool. So Peterson is right and the others are right in my judgment when they think of these as pilgrim songs or discipleship Psalms.

Now, it's been said that these Psalms don't reflect the high level and faith of spirituality that's found in most of the other Psalms in the Psalter, in David's Psalms, for example. And there's some truth to that. They're marked by a kind of plaintive note, a certain kind of sadness. But that's appropriate, you see, for pilgrim songs.

These are being sung by people who are longing for Jerusalem, but haven't reached it yet. And of course, that's what makes them so valuable as discipleship songs for us who are engaged in the Christian life. We too are bound for a heavenly city. We're bound for the city of God, the New Jerusalem. But we haven't reached it yet.

And so something of the sadness and the struggle and the longing of an unrealized goal should be present for us as well. Now, let's look at this first one, Psalm 120. It seems a strange place with which to begin. As a matter of fact, in thinking of some people, it's even strange to have it in this collection because it doesn't mention Jerusalem.

It doesn't even mention a desire to go there. Why then is it here? Well, what it describes is the feeling of alienation and homesickness for people who are dwelling in an alien land. And that of course, makes it a good Psalm with which to begin. In other words, you start out with this feeling of restlessness or alienation, because it's only people who have that who are ever going to set out on a pilgrimage.

Derek Kidner writes about that. He says, this collection appropriately begins the series in a distant land, so that we join the pilgrims as they set out on a journey, which in broad outline, will bring us to Jerusalem in Psalm 122, and in the last Psalms of this group, to the ark, the priests, and the Temple servants, who minister by turns day and night in the House of the Lord.

Now, when we look at the Psalm that way, we discover that there are two things that bother this author, and presumably also those who would have sung this song on their way up to Jerusalem. And the first is that they're living among an untruthful people. People who make it a habit to tell lies. And secondly, that they're living among a belligerent or warlike people.

People who would rather fight than pursue peace. The first thing is discussed in the first four verses. This Psalm falls into two parts. If you look at verse three, it seems to be talking about a single individual because it's looking to God to judge this deceitful tongue singular. But the circumstances have to be understood more broadly because verse two is talking about lying lips and deceitful tongues plural.

So what it's really saying is that this is the kind of world in which we live. We don't live in a truthful world. We live in a world that tells lies. And so the starting point on a spiritual pilgrimage is to recognize that that is so and turn from the lies to God's truth. That's what a pilgrim does. A pilgrim is one who is dissatisfied with where he is and he wants to set out for something else.

There's the way Peterson puts it. He says that a Christian pilgrim is one who has repented of the lies that surround him and are in him and is now going someplace else. That is going to God and whose path for getting there is Jesus Christ. Now, let me share a little bit from this book because Peterson is good when he writes about the lies.

He says this, The world says to us that human beings are basically nice and good. That everyone is born equal and innocent and self-sufficient. That we are born free and that if we're in chains now, it's someone else's fault and we can correct it with just a little more intelligence or a little more effort or a little more time.

When people find that the world isn't actually like that, what happens, of course, is that they become bitter and angry and they act like spoiled children. Instead of turning from what is apparently a lie to the truth of God. Now, if we want to be Christians, we need to ask God to deliver us from falsehood.

And that's what the Psalmist does when he begins this Psalm. Verse two, Save me, oh Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues. Do you ever pray that prayer over against the world in which you live and where you work day by day and the people with whom you associate? Do you ever say, Lord, deliver me from the lies?

Here's a suggestion. Peterson says, you might pray like this. Rescue me from the lies of advertisers who claim to know what I need and what I desire. From the lies of entertainers who promise a cheap way to joy. From the lies of politicians who pretend to instruct me in power and morality.

From the lies of psychologists who offer to shape my behavior and my morals so that I will live long and happily and successfully. From the lies of religionists who heal the wounds of my people lightly. From the lips of moralists who pretend to promote me to the office of captain of my own fate.

From the lies of pastors who leave the commandment of God and hold fast to the traditions of men. Rescue me from the person who tells me about life but omits Jesus Christ or speaks about my destiny but ignores God. Now, many of these lies that we hear are factual, which is to say, they are based on facts, and yet they're lies all the same because what they do is leave out God.

They do not tell us that we come from God and have our destiny in God and that we're here to know and serve God. They tell us about the world without telling us that God made it. They tell us about our bodies without telling us that they're temples of the Holy Spirit. They instruct us in love without telling us about the God who loves us and gave himself for us.

Christian discipleship begins with recognizing that that's true. And that if we're going to find the truth, it has to be as we pursue it in God. Now that's the first half of the Psalm. The second half deals with the second problem, and that is that the Psalmist and those who presumably sang the Psalm as well, dwelt among a warlike, belligerent people.

Those are memorable words here. Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am a man of peace, but when I speak, they are for war. Now most people today don't think of themselves like that. We all want to think of ourselves in the best light possible, and generally speaking, we think of ourselves as nice.

People that of course would never start a fight, and as a matter of fact are doing everything they can do to resolve disputes. But we're not like that. We carry the seeds of warfare in our hearts, and when we have opportunity, we allow it to spill over and harm relationships, and when it operates on a national or a worldwide scale, it produces great battles.

As far as history is concerned, nothing is more characteristic of the human race than war. One scholar has observed that war is man's chief legacy, which means to say we act in our generation in a way that sows the seed of discord for the generation that is going to follow us. Each of the treaties of history has been hailed by someone as a just and lasting disarmament.

Politicians are doing it today. But the ink is scarcely dried on most of these treaties when the guns begin to sound for the next encounter. People talk about the weapons of war, and they say they've made war far too horrible to contemplate. Gunpowder, tanks, airplanes, missiles, and nuclear weapons, but the lesson of history is that they do not make war too horrible to contemplate, and people use them to impose their will on others.

If you go back in the historical records, one of the earliest of all historical records is the Sumerian Bar relief that shows soldiers marching in close array wearing helmets and carrying shields and swords. War has filled the history of every ancient culture. The history of Babylon and Syria, Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia, the Peloponnesian War lasted 27 years and destroyed the great civilization that had been built up as the result of Athens' golden age.

Rome made war a way of life, but eventually Rome itself declined and chaos came into culture. In the Middle Ages, wars ravaged Europe, culminating in the horrors of the 30 Years' War, which ended by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Encyclopedia Britannica lists 278 wars in the centuries between 1480 and the end of World War II.

135 of these were international. Speaking of World War II, the Britannica says, wars showed a slight tendency to decrease in length during the modern period, but in all other aspects, they tended to increase in magnitude. There were more battles, more participants, larger forces, larger numbers of casualties, more extensive areas of occupation and mechanization, resulting in much heavier economic losses.

The costs of the 30 Years' War of the 17th century were very great. World War II, however, was greater in all these respects than any other war in history. Approximately 30 million people perished in World War I. People were horrified, but within a quarter of a century, World War II was fought in the same amphitheater by the same parties and for much the same reason, and it took 60 million lives, that is, twice the toll in life and the cost quadrupled from $340 billion to an estimated $1 trillion.

Here's what US News and World Report wrote in 1967. Since World War II, there have been at least 12 limited wars in the world, 39 political assassinations, 48 personal revolts, 74 rebellions for independence, 1,162 social revolutions. And of course, by now, all of those figures obviously have to be increased in every category.

Are we a peaceful people? We're exactly what the Psalmist describes us as being, people who are for war. What about those words Meshech and Kedar, which the Psalmist mentions in verse five? They're the names of people. Meshech is referred to not only in the Bible, but in other ancient writers.

It was a group of people who, according to Herodotus and some others, lived in the province of Pontus in modern Turkey and later pushed on north and east toward the area of the Black Sea. So they were far to the north of Israel. And then Kedar in the Bible is a son of Ishmael, and it refers to a wild Arabic tribe that would have been to the east and south.

These two peoples were so far apart that we can't understand the writer of the Psalm literally to say that he lived in the midst of both of them. No one person could have done that. They were two radically different geographical areas. So what he's obviously doing is using them as symbols for what people are like. These were warlike tribes.

And he says, when I'm out in the world, that's what the world is like. It's just like Meshech, just like Kedar. It's fighting, fighting, fighting all the time. And so what he was looking for was a kingdom of peace, established by a God who is not only the God of truth, but a God of peace as well.

Now, let me ask this question. Are you aware that you have no true home here? That your real home is in heaven. If that's not true of you, that you have no real home here, but your home is in heaven. If that's not true of you, you're not a Christian. Or if it is true of you, but you don't realize that it's true, you're no pilgrim.

Because you're not striving toward that which God has provided the New Jerusalem. Listen, here's what the Apostle Peter says. He's writing to people who are strangers and aliens in the world. He says, Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against the soul.

Live such godly lives among the pagans that although they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Do you remember that old camp song that was sometimes sung, especially in fundamentalist churches, perhaps half a generation ago? It goes like this, This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through.

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Well, it's not great poetry, and the tune was not particularly distinguished. But a lot of those old hymns embodied great truths, and this is one of them.

If you're a Christian, this world truly is not your home. Heaven is your home, and God is waiting. So, why don't you realize that you can't settle down in Meshech? You can't make your home in Kedar. And if that's true, why don't you get on with the business of discipleship in the Christian life?

Put on your hiking shoes, put your pack on your back, set your eyes to Zion and start marching because the King of Glory is waiting for you there. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for these Psalms that come out of the life and aspirations, longings, disappointments, joys of an ancient people.

And yet speak and have spoken so powerfully to the people of God of all ages. Grant that as we study them, by your grace, they might also speak powerfully to us. You promised to bless your word that way. So we ask you to bless it in order that we might be encouraged in our discipleship and appear among our contemporaries as those who truly have no home here because our eyes are fixed on Zion for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Dr. James Boice: Thank you for listening to this message from the Bible Study Hour, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is a coalition of pastors, scholars, and churchmen who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith, and who proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today's church.

To learn more about the Alliance, visit Alliancenet.org. And while you're there, visit our online store, Reformed Resources, where you can find messages and books from Dr. Boice and other outstanding teachers and theologians. Or, ask for a free Reformed Resources catalog by calling 1-800-488-1888.

Please take the time to write to us and share how the Bible Study Hour has impacted you. We'd love to hear from you and pray for you. Our address is 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. Please consider giving financially to help keep the Bible Study Hour impacting people for decades to come.

You can do so at our website, Alliancenet.org. Over the phone at 1-800-488-1888, or send a check to 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. For Canadian gifts, mail those to 237 Rouge Hills Drive, Scarborough, Ontario, M1C 2Y9. Thanks for your continued prayer and support, and for listening to the Bible Study Hour, preparing you to think and act biblically.