Psalms on the Way to Worship
While the pain, stress, and precautions of the pandemic do not seem to be anywhere close to being over, some churches have been blessed with the opportunity to hold in person services again. While these services are still taking the needed precautions to protect the congregation from getting sick, it is still a joy to be back in church seeing our brothers and sisters. It has certainly been a painful and surprising year for the world and the Church to say the least. As churches slowly begin to open doors again, there are some passages from Scripture that I think can be good to pray and reflect on as we come back in fellowship.
The Song of Ascents
Of the rich collection of psalms found in the Old Testament, I have found a lot of blessing in the last year focusing on Psalm 120-134. These psalms have a heading often translated in English Bibles as “A Song of Ascents”. While there have been some different interpretations over the years as to what exactly the “ascending” is toward, it is commonly believed that these psalms were sung and recited by Jewish believers as they traveled to Jerusalem to worship and celebrate annual festivals. A simple way to put it is that they were worshiping on their way to worship!
When reading these psalms, this makes a lot of sense. Not only are almost all of them very short, some consisting of just a few verses, but many of them have a certain tone where the Psalmist is both preparing to worship the Lord and to worship alongside others. Psalm 120 states toward the end how tired the Psalmist is of being around ungodly company. Psalm 122 opens with, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD.’”(CSB) Psalm 123 and 131 set the reader to have a humble heart as they begin to pray to God and await His response. And Psalm 133 and 134 are short psalms of being blessed and joyful to worship with others.
Now there are different roads we can take in reviewing and analyzing these fifteen chapters. There are important discussions in trying to piece together the cultural context of each Psalm individually and themes that drive them all together. At the end of the blog, I will share a couple good resources for further research if anyone is interested. But for this post, I just want to focus on two takeaways I have gained from reading these psalms and how as Christians we can use them in the Church today.
Setting your heart to worship before even stepping into Church
Many Christians have developed helpful disciplines and routines for themselves every morning, such as devotionals. Personally, for a long time I did not, and it had a noticeable effect on me when I’d fellowship with others. On Sunday, I would say a quick prayer in the morning, drive to church with different things on my mind, walk in the doors and smile at everyone, talk about something often not related to God with friends, and suddenly switch my focus as the music started to play. And I would often be upset with myself that I had a hard time focusing on genuinely worshiping God as the service was going. I could not concentrate on singing or listening, and I would put all this pressure on myself to do better next time.
Looking back, it’s silly how long it took me to realize what the problem was. I was treating church service as something to be done in my day, and not a blessing from God to be unified with members of the Kingdom. Church is not an event that you make time in your busy schedule to fit in, nor is it a building we donate money to go to once a week.
We as followers of Christ are the Church, and our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1st Corinthians 6:19). To meet with our brothers and sisters, whether it’s for a worship service on Sunday or any moment of any day is an incredible blessing! To not only express our worship to our almighty Creator and Savior, but to also do so with the saints is an intimacy and love only the Holy Spirit can bring (Psalm 133). I should be giving God my complete focus on my way to the service, during the service, and after the service. To care more about what lunch I’m going to have after the service or what entertainment to consume in the afternoon is a vain and fruitless waste of God’s blessing.
The Lord has been humbling me in the last year to really ask myself important questions every time I prepare to worship with others. Are there sins I need to confess right now to the Lord and my congregation (James 5:16)? Am I currently resenting or being resented by a brother or sister (Matthew 5:21-26)? Am I actually looking to God in the midst of my troubles and the chaos of the world, or looking for solutions from myself or others (Psalm 121)? Am I being humble and not boxing God with my own expectations or desires (Matthew 6:9-13)? Is it truly God’s Kingdom I am seeking first every day (Matthew 6:33-34)?
I’m not suggesting that there’s one particular way we are all supposed to ready ourselves for worship, nor am I suggesting it’s sinful to have small talk with friends before the service starts. Rather, I am proposing that through different Scriptures such as the Song of Ascents we can better prepare ourselves before the Lord together with a more focused, humble, and united heart.
The Jewish people would worship God as they traveled to Jerusalem for a time of celebration, worship, and united fellowship. Are we doing the same today in the Church as we travel to see each other for fellowship and communion?
Laying to the feet of Christ our worries and pain
Like the rest of the psalms, there are passages of lament in the Song of Ascents. Examples can be found in Psalm 120, 123, 129, and 130. The Scriptures say that we are to cast our cares to the Lord because He cares for us (1st Peter 5:7). So what are the concerns, anger, and pain you can honestly surrender to Christ as you enter into worship and fellowship? Instead of using worship as some kind of temporary escape from our pain, let us worship God through our pain like the Psalmist does.
If we’re getting ready to go to a worship service, and our hearts are grieved, we can express that to God as we worship, not feel pressured to pretend everything’s okay. If one is suffering from the coronavirus or another illness, we can plead with God for healing and protection. When we lament in the Church over the anger and pain of racial injustice and oppression, we can go to church seeking the Lord for His justice, mercy, and healing. This kind of lament is seen all over the psalms, including the Song of Ascents. If we are in a good mood, then let us rejoice and worship with gladness! But if we or others in our congregation are suffering, let us still worship the Lord, but with an honest spirit and prayer for God’s mercy, as expressed in Psalm 123 and 130.
So I pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to grow all of us in having greater appreciation for fellowship as well as having a more focused mind toward Him. This focus of course should not just be exclusive to church and fellowship, but in every moment of the day. And let’s always make sure that when we need guidance for prayer and worship, we look to the Scriptures first, as they are still speaking to us right now in the chaos.
“I lift my eyes to you, the one enthroned in heaven. Like a servant’s eyes on his master’s hand, like a servant girl’s eyes on her mistress’s hand, so our eyes are on the LORD our God until he shows us favor.
Show us favor, LORD, show us favor, for we’ve had more than enough contempt. We’ve had more than enough scorn from the arrogant and contempt from the proud.” –Psalm 123 (CSB)
For further reading on the Song of Ascents:
Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary –Tremper Longman III, 2014, InterVarsity Press, USA.
The Book of Psalms- Nancy Declaisse-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth Laneel Tanner, 2014, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Michigan.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.