Psalms for pilgrim people
So often, the simplest way to understand something is the best.
What is possibly the loveliest single group of psalms in the whole collection, Psalms 120 – 134 describe themselves as ‘Songs of Ascents’. Like all the titles of individual psalms, this is to be taken seriously as a pointer to how the psalm in question is to be understood and used. The plural word ‘ascents’ could be what in Hebrew is called a ‘plural of magnitude’ – ‘the Great Ascent’, or it can be left as a simple plural, an ‘ascent’ that happened over and over again. Either way, it readily points to the journeys of pilgrims from all over the land ‘up’ to
This is the most direct interpretation of the title, and far less fanciful than some other suggestions that have been made. It also happens to be one that suits the psalms themselves very well, and, as we shall see, also suits the way in which they have been carefully edited into this small collection. In order to keep this in mind we will generally use the translation ‘Songs of the Ascent’ or ‘of the Great Ascent’.
Walking, running and arriving
But we must not get ahead of ourselves! Surprisingly, neither the verbs ‘to go on a pilgrimage’ and ‘to be a pilgrim’ nor the nouns ‘pilgrim’ and ‘pilgrimage’ appear in the Bible! There are five places where some translations introduce the thought, but, as far as the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New are concerned, they do so without justification. In Genesis 47:9, Exodus 6:4 and Psalm 119:54 the word means ‘sojourning’, being a temporary resident or even an overnight guest, and in Hebrews 11:13 and 1 Peter 2:11 we need a translation like ‘resident alien’ or, perhaps, ‘expatriate’.
The words of pilgrimage, then, are not used, but the pilgrim idea is deeply ingrained right through the Bible, and not only in the official sense in which what we would call pilgrimages to Jerusalem were commanded once our ancestors were settled in the Promised Land, but on the level of individual devotion. Can we avoid saying that the Lord called Abram ‘to be a pilgrim’? Hebrews 11:8 could not be clearer: Abraham was called to leave
Presently, in connection with the psalms of the Great Ascent, we will call this ‘the pilgrimage of the heart’, our daily ‘walking with God’. It is in this way, indeed, that ‘pilgrimage’ becomes a central Bible truth. Think, for example, of the fact that, early on, Christianity was called ‘the way’; that is to say, not only a set of beliefs, nor only an unforgettable experience of accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as our own personal Saviour, but a pathway for life, a distinctive lifestyle, truth to be lived out, ideals to be pursued, goals to be set and striven for. Above all, a perfect Jesus to be imitated, for all these references find their root in his claim that ‘I am the way’ (John 14:6).
It is more than a bit sad that the NIV has chosen to obscure the matching metaphor of ‘walking’. After all, we say to new parents, ‘Is the baby walking yet?’ ‘Walking’ is one of the earliest and most prized signs of a properly developing life and it is no wonder that the New Testament makes full use of it in relation to Christian living. Ephesians almost hammers us with our vocation to ‘walk worthily of our calling’ (Ephesians 4:1), to ‘walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk’ (4:17), to ‘walk in love’ (5:1), to ‘walk as children of light’ (5:8), and to ‘look carefully how we walk, not as unwise but as wise’ (5:15); walking is, you see, a pretty comprehensive description of the Christian’s progress as a growing entity from infancy to adulthood, with proper, balanced development, inwardly and outwardly: a pilgrimage of conduct, character, mind and heart. We will find that the psalms of the Great Ascent speak to us of all this, in their own distinctive and uniformly lovely way.
Have you noticed the ‘golden cord’ that binds Hebrews 10, 11 and 12? Hebrews 10:39 says that ‘we are those who believe and are saved’. More literally, we are ‘of faith’. That is our hallmark – faith. Hebrews 11:1 starts, ‘now faith is . . . ’, because if faith is our central characteristic, we need to know what we are talking about. This is the point of the marvellous picture gallery of Hebrews 11: faith as seen in the lives of such a varied and instructive band. And so into Hebrews 12 where the initial ‘therefore’ alerts us to what is about to happen. The people of faith surround us like a cloud, and their testimony to what faith is, how it works, and so on, summons us to ‘run with perseverance the race marked out for us’ with our eyes fixed on Jesus. The life of faith is on the run! Pilgrims on the run! I hope I am right in seeing this, not as a picture of speed – for many of us, days of speed are long gone – but of urgency, of the need to be up and doing, so that even when the feet are unfit for the sandals of the pilgrim walk, never mind the running shoes of the athletic track, the pilgrimage of the heart is our daily preoccupation, and to fix our eyes on Jesus our moment-by-moment preoccupation.
But, before we return to the psalms, we must take a brief moment to look forward to the pilgrims’ goal. Some glad day, for us, as for the pilgrims on the great ascent, travelling days will be over and our mobile home will be exchanged for a house, but one not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 5:1), and, in the dramatic words of Revelation 22:14 (NKJV), we will ‘enter through the gates into the city’. An elderly couple, treasured friends of mine, once qualified for tickets to one of the Queen’s garden parties. As they parked their car, a well-meaning policeman came up and, pointing to a small door, said, ‘If you like to go through there you will find yourselves in the garden and save yourselves a long walk.’ They drew themselves up to their full height, and replied: ‘We have been invited by Her Majesty. Do you really think we are going in through a back gate?’
What a day it will be when the gates swing wide, the trumpets sound, and all the bells of the heavenly city ring out in delirious celebration!
"From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s furthest coast,
Through gates of pearl stream in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
Hallelujah"
