Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
A meme that makes me chuckle every time I see it is a “quote” attributed to Abraham Lincoln in which he says, “The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they are often not true.”
(Not to spoil the joke for you, but unless Lincoln knew how to time travel to the future, I don’t think he knew about the modern internet! 😂)
I love this meme because it captures something that so many people fall into: a quick acceptance of a statement without verifying its source or thinking through the implications of the statement’s truthfulness.
Some insightful comments sound Shakespearean, but William never wrote them.
Some pieces of wisdom sound Socratic, but Socrates never taught them.
Some religious maxims sound godly, but the Bible never recorded them.
I would like to invite you to join me as we relaunch this series called Is That In The Bible? I think you may be surprised to discover just how many phrases we call biblical aren’t, and how many phrases there are that we never realized are actually in the Bible.
By the way, if you have a phrase that you would like to have us explore in this series, please leave it in a comment below. You may want to check out the questions we have already addressed:
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
We’ve made it to the top step after a long climb. We’ve arrived! But arrived for what? Not for taking it easy, but for serving.
Jesus was at the top, and consider what He did with that position:
He laid aside His prerogatives as God to serve us—Philippians 2:6-8
He demonstrated this by becoming a servant of the servants—John 13:3-5
He said, “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as One who serves.” (Luke 22:27)
We strive for the top not to be served, but to serve. This is why the final Song of Ascent addresses those at the top as “servants of the Lord” (Psalm 134:1).
The first duty of the servants is to praise (2x in vv. 1, 2). The KJV actually renders this word “bless,” which I believe is a good way for us to think about this. The word means:
praise God with a reverential mind and
celebrate God on bended knee
In other words, both our heart and our body need to be in a posture of a praising servant. In the Septuagint, the word used for praise / bless is eulogeo, which means to say good words. In putting the two parts of the definition together, it mean we aren’t grumbling about our service (like “I have to do this”), but we are thankfully and worshipfully serving (as in “I get to do this!”).
These servants are called to “minister…in the house of the Lord [and] in the sanctuary” (134:1-2), just as the priests in the tabernacle (1 Chronicles 9:33; Leviticus 6:13; 24:2, 4).
This blessing and serving is itself a blessing which unlocks even more blessing. The final words of the final Song of Ascent is a prayer request (notice the word “may” in v. 3).
The word bless in this final is the same word translated praise in vv. 1-2, except here the form of the verb means “to be shown divine favor”!
We don’t get blessed by God because we have blessed God, but we bless God because He has already blessed us. I don’t command His blessing, but I bless Him in recognition of the blessing that continually flows from Him to me.
To word minister as in v. 1 means to:
endure all hardships
continue until the task is done
cause or help others to stand too
God loves to bless people who love to bless people!
As long as we’re here, keep blessing and serving others as your act of worship to God. Say good words to people about God and say good words to God about people. Lift up your hands, fall on your knees, sing out loud, or worship quietly in your heart. But keep on serving like Jesus. All of this blesses God.
Your final and eternal reward in the Heavenly Zion is coming and it is beyond compare—
It will be good for those servants whose Master finds them watching when He comes. Truly I tell you, He will dress Himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose Master finds them ready, even if He comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. (Luke 12:37-38)
In blessing others, we are blessing the God who has already blessed us and who longs to bless us for all of eternity!
If you’ve missed any of the messages looking at the fifteen Songs of Ascent, you can find them all here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The 12th Song of Ascent (Psalm 131) was written by David to remind us to rely on God’s help even more as we progress on the journey (or mature in our faith). In the 13th Song (Psalm 132), the psalmist says, “Remember David” and his passion for God’s people to experience God’s righteousness and joy. In order for us to know that, we have to remember Jesus.
Those who put this collection of Songs of Ascent together now include David’s fourth song (Psalm 133) in this collection which expresses his desire for unity among God’s people.
Can you imagine the pilgrims starting out from their individual villages? Maybe there’s not very many of them to begin with and traveling is pretty easy, but they do have to be vigilant against dangers on the road.
As they progress, they begin to join with pilgrims from other villages. Maybe these are from the same tribe, perhaps even distant relatives. The journey may go a bit slower now that there are more people to keep track of, and some complications of personality may start to arise. But the level of safety and assistance also increases.
Soon the group is getting larger as they now join with pilgrims from other tribes. These aren’t near relatives at this point, so there may be more complications, but there is even greater encouragement, safety, and potential.
Aha! Potential.
We’ve gone singing with a small ensemble to singing in a choir. And David is anticipating us singing in an even larger, majestic choir! There will undoubtedly be more problems, but there is also assuredly so much more potential, beauty, and strength in their combined worship.
My friend Dan Chastain has over 20 years of experience in the United States Army. He points out that the Army did the same things in his day as we read in the Old Testament.
The unity of a fighting force, Dan said, is a blessing. David was a professional soldier. Many people today join the military because of this professional, unity, and camaraderie. Maintaining this unity is the responsibility of everyone, because disunity leads to mistrust, chaos, and defeat.
David says this choir paints a picture—“it is like” (v. 2) and “it is as if” (v. 3). He is saying that God desires overflowing blessings on His people (v. 2), and that God desires saturating blessings on His people (v. 3). Why? Because God wants to give us more than enough for our needs so that there is plenty left for those who aren’t brothers and sisters yet. He longs for our choir to include people from every tribe, race, and nation.
Just as we said last week that a Christian’s joy is a testimony, a choir of Christians is an even more compelling testimony!
David calls this unity “good” which really means so much better than the alternative. And he calls this unity “pleasant.” The Hebrew word literally means singing a sweet sound!
The Hebrew word for “unity” here is also instructive. It means to be together in the same place—not just in spirit and desire—but in physical proximity. This is exactly the picture we see in the first Church (Acts 2:44, 46-47), as well as the picture of the choir from every nation, tribe, people, and language singing around God’s throne in Heaven (Revelation 7:9-10).
In order to navigate all of the differences of personality that could keep us from this unity, we have to work at. We need the attitude of Jesus (Philippians 2:1-5). This requires a daily transformation of our minds (Romans 12:1-3), and this transformed mind is what helps us move from a small ensemble to a majestic choir (Romans 12:4-5, 16-18).
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
A recent movie set box office records. Many Hollywood commentators are surmising that it is because the unlikely duo in the movie does something so noble at the end of the movie. Throughout the movie one of the main characters takes to calling himself “Jesus.” At the end of this movie, this character and his friend take the full brunt of the evil on them in the hopes of saving the universe.
Of course, this storyline isn’t new to Hollywood or even in ancient literature. This epic quest is longed for in the human heart, looking for a hero to selflessly sacrifice himself to save everyone else around them.
The only problem is that these heroes aren’t sure if their sacrifice is actually going to work.
This, of course, isn’t the case with Jesus. Angels announce before His incarnation that He will save His people. Jesus Himself says, “I will lay down My life for My friends and I will take it up again.” And in the very last book of the Bible we read that before Time even began, Jesus was already seen as the sacrificial Lamb slain for the deliverance of His people.
This story doesn’t start in Bethlehem, but when John 1:1 says, “In the beginning,” the language there is really saying, “From before there was a beginning, Jesus our Hero already knew the outcome of His selfless sacrifice.”
We see hints and foreshadowing of this Most Epic Story all throughout history and throughout Scripture. Like in Psalm 132—the longest of the Songs of Ascent (at 18 verses, the next longest song is only half its length).
The key verse (v. 10) is in the middle: it connects David and Jesus. The words “Anointed One” is one word in Hebrew: Masiah which is Messiah. In the New Testament,the word Christ also means Anointed One.
What do we learn in the first half of this song. It opens with the words, “O LORD, remember David…” (v. 1).
Because this psalmist mentions the same incident that we discussed in Psalm 131, this is another reason why I think David had the incident of moving the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem in mind when he wrote the previous song (see Psalm 132:2-5; 2 Samuel 6:17). The people continued to rejoices as David made arrangements and provided building materials for his son Solomon to build the temple (vv. 6-9).
Look at how verse 10 connects David to Jesus the Messiah. In verse 2, David swore an oath to the Lord, but he was physically unable to fulfill his promise. In verse 11 (also see 2 Samuel 7:11-16), “The Lord swore an oath to David.”
God was able to fulfill His promise, which we see in the life, death, resurrection, andascension of Jesus, and then in the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter declares this in his sermon—connecting the work of Jesus to the prophesy of King David (Acts 2:22-36).
We can sum up the first half of Psalm 132 with the words “Remember David.” And we can sum up the second half of this song of ascent with the words “Remember Jesus.”
Remember Jesus [the] Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David (2 Timothy 2:8).
I like this verse from the Amplified Bible: Constantly keep in mind Jesus Christ (the Messiah) as risen from the dead, as the prophesied King descended from David, according to the good news (the Gospel) that I preach.
David swears an oath (v. 2) but has no power to fulfill it. God swears an oath (v. 11-12) and fulfills it (Luke 1:33; Revelation 11:15).
David longs for blessings for the priests and saints (v. 10) but has no power to make it happen. God says, “I will” bless the priests and saints (vv. 13-18; 1 Peter 2:5-9; Revelation 1:6).
All of our longings for a Hero—for salvation, for purpose, for meaning—are fulfilled in Jesus. All of God’s promises for these things are fulfilled in Jesus. All of our life should be lived in this joyful assurance (Hebrews 10:35-39; Revelation 3:11)!
Not only should we not stumble in the homestretch, but we should live in such joyful assurance of God’s promises that we soar across the finish line!
If you cannot remember anything else, remember David and remember Jesus.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
We’re up to Psalm 131. After this step, only three more steps to go until we reach the top! We’re almost there. We started in a dark valley surrounded by enemies that wanted to keep us in the valley, but we persevered, we matured, and now the end it almost in sight!
Notice that David wrote this Song of Ascent, and I think he may have had a particular instance from his history in mind when he did.
At the height of David’s success, the Bible says that, “David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom had been highly exalted for the sake of His people Israel” (1 Chronicles 14:2). So David used his position to do something very noble: return the ark of the covenant of the Lord to Jerusalem. This was a popular decision that “seemed right to all the people” (13:3).
But it turned out disastrously!
One of the priests overseeing the transportation of the ark of the covenant was killed, and as a result David became angry at God and fearful of Him.
After a cooling off time, David humbled himself. He admitted that he hadn’t “inquired of the Lord” before undertaking this task and then he looked to the Scriptures to find out how to move the ark the correct way (15:12-15).
It’s quite possible David had this incident in mind when he wrote the Song of Ascent for people coming to worship God in the temple where the ark of the covenant of the Lord would be housed.
The opening words sound the tone of humility—“my heart is not proud” and “my eyes are not haughty.” I think in the context of this opening verse of Psalm 131, pride can be defined as:
trying to handle things on my own
concerning myself with things outside my control
That means that humility is trusting that God is in total control.
Verse 2 starts with an important word: But. Instead of the fretting of pride, David chooses the trusting of childlike humility. David says that he has “stilled and quieted my soul.” He has chosen childlike humility.
This is exactly what Jesus told us: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4).
The consistent message throughout Scripture—from Creation in Genesis 1 until the realization of our eternal reward in Heaven in Revelation 22—is childlike trust in our Heavenly Father.
We can trust God to handle…
…every care—1 Peter 5:7
…every step—Proverbs 3:5-6
…every reward—Luke 12:32
Don’t let pride cause you to stumble in the homestretch. The closer we get to the end of the journey, the more childlike we should become.
Even the well-known hymn The Solid Rock has the line that says, “When all around my soul gives way.”
Isaiah 40:27-30 gives us a helpful example from the eagle of how we can handle life’s storms.
Eagles have huge wingspans and can travel up to 125 miles in a single flight. When they see storms coming, they lock their wings in place and stop flapping on their own. Instead, they sense the warm currents of air and rides those up and over the storm.
So Tom gave us these steps:
Disengage from our own efforts—don’t try to handle the storm on our own.
Perceive the warmth of God’s promises.
Trust the everlasting God (Isaiah 40:28). “Everlasting” means that God is infinite, vigorous, strong, faithful, and capable.
Ride up and over the storm in God. When God says we mount up on wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31), it means we are braided together with God.
Live in the renewed strength that only God can give us.
Jesus went through the most unimaginable life storm that any human has ever had to endure, and He said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). We need to trust our Heavenly Father just like Jesus did when we face storms!
I like the bridge in the song I Keep Falling In Love With Him—
When I first fell in love with Jesus, I gave Him all my heart And I thought I couldn’t love him more than I did right at the start. But now I look back over the mountains, and the valleys where I’ve been And It makes me know I love Him so much more than I did then
Out of the depths—Think how far we’ve come on this climb. In the first Song of Ascent, we were experiencing the woes of being in the valley (Psalm 120:5-7). But now in this song, the feelings of being in the depths are not from someone else’s sinful activity.
The psalmist is pointing out that national sin is the culmination of unrepented individual sins. God addressed this in Leviticus 20:22—Keep all My decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out.
Even in these depths, the psalmist is confident that God will hear—let Your ears be attentive (v. 2). Nehemiah was confident too. Look how he joins his personal sin to the national sin after Israel had be vomited out of the land (Nehemiah 1:1-7).
Our confidence comes from the rock-solid assurance that God completely forgives our sins and then forgets all that He forgives (vv. 2-3; Psalm 103:10-12).
The middle verses (vv. 5-6) have the key words wait, watch, and hope. This middle part comes down to: (1) What I’m going to pay attention to, and (2) What God pays attention to.
God is attentive to our cries for mercy, and He is watchful for our care, not for our punishment!
We are called to wait and watch in hope because God has proven that He is all in for us. Look at this completeness:
full forgiveness (v. 3)
unfailing love (v. 7a)
full redemption (v. 7b)
all their sins (v. 8)
Notice in v. 7 the phrase “all THEIR sins” is now corporate (not singular, personal as in the opening verses).
We’ve gone FROMmy voice, my cryTOyour hope, O Israel and redemption of their sins.
If national sin is the culmination of unrepented individual sins, then national revival is the culmination of individuals repenting of their sins!
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Have you ever said to yourself…
…I should have known better?
…why I am going through this again?
…I thought I was over this hurdle?
…you would think I would have matured enough by now to not have to deal with this?
Maybe the author of Psalm 129 felt this way: “Here I am on the 10th step and I’m still having to deal with this! When will I finally arrive at the top and be done with these issues?” (compare Psalm 129:1-2 with 124:1-5).
I think those statements—“I should have known better” or “I thought I was over this”—pre-suppose that we will reach a point in our life where we “arrive.” If nothing else, this psalm is a reminder that we are still on the journey, that we are still a work-in-progress, that the saint-ification process is still ongoing. It’s clear from Scripture that we never “arrive” until we arrive in Heaven and hear our Master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
While we are ascending up toward our heavenly home, these great oppressions and plowings remind us that there is still work to be done in us and through us to bring glory to God (Romans 5:3-4; James 1:2-4, 12).
Of his Soviet prison, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “I bless you, prison—I bless you for being in my life—for there lying on rotting prison straw, I learned the object of life is not prospering as I had grown up believing, but the maturing of the soul.”
The reality is God is using all of those things for my good and for His glory (Romans 8:28).
What happens as I am oppressed and plowed?
(1) I am refined—Psalm 66:8-12, 16-20. God is removing the impurities from my life.
(2) My prayers are matured. Psalm 129:5-8 is an imprecatory prayer, a prayer that says, “Get ‘em, God!” These have their place, but for us they are to be our emergency release valve (which I discuss in more depth in my book When Sheep Bite). But Jesus calls for our prayers to mature from imprecatory to intercessory (Matthew 5:43-45). In my book I write, “This is the highest level of Christian maturity: To pray like Jesus did for those who insulted Him, slandered Him, and crucified Him, ‘Father, forgive them for they don’t understand what they are doing’ (Luke 23:34)”
(3) I develop more intimate God-dependence—2 Corinthians 1:8-10.
(4) I am better equipped to help others—2 Corinthians 1:3-6.
(5) Others feel more inclined to pray for me—2 Corinthians 1:7, 11.
“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength.” —Vance Havner
Oppressed? Yes! Defeated? No!
Plowed? Yes! Enslaved by the plow’s cords? No!
God uses this to bring us closer and closer to Him until He can eventually say to us face-to-face, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” That’s when we truly arrive! Until then, we keep on ascending.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Let’s review the historical background for the Psalms of Ascent. The Jewish people made four pilgrimages to Jerusalem each year, which sit about 2500 fee above sea level, so this was a physical climb. But this also has a spiritual lesson for us today: We are to continue progressing in our walk with God—upward and onward!
The songs of ascent that these pilgrims sang give us life-changing lessons that we can still apply today.
I’m sure there were some pilgrims who thought, “We have to go to Jerusalem.” Just as there are some people today who may something like, “I have to tithe.” But when you have experienced the blessing that comes from obedience, your “have to” turns to “get to” really quickly!
There is a longing in Psalm 128 for God’s blessing. In fact, we see it in nearly every verse: blessed (v. 1), blessing and prosperity (v. 2), blessed (v. 4), bless and prosperity (v. 5), and peace (v. 6).
We have to remember that our obedience doesn’t earn God’s blessing, but rather our obedience keeps us in the place where we can receive God’s ever-flowing blessings. When I have experienced the blessing that followed even my “have to” attitude, I now joyfully “get to” obey because I know that keeps me in a blessed place.
But even knowing that these blessings are flowing for us, sometimes we still get weary. Sometimes it seems as if we are being faithful but we aren’t seeing the results that perhaps we saw before.
Think about these pilgrims ascending 2500 feet year after year after year. It was challenging enough during the golden days of King David and King Solomon, but can you imagine the feelings of futility during the dark days? Perhaps during the exile when the temple was in ruins, or after the exile when the temple didn’t look as it did before and there were overlords ruling Israel? And then it was unquestionably true that the older a pilgrim got, the harder the climb became for them.
But the struggle keeps us reliant on God. Like Solomon said, “The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below” (Proverbs 15:24). The longer I walk, the more I get to rely on God’s help, and the sweeter He becomes to me!
I love the line in the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness, “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow—blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.” Because of God’s blessings that I’ve already experienced, I can trust Him for more, even in the struggle of the climb.
Look at some of these promises that come out in other biblical translations.
Blessedare those who fear God (NIV) = “How joyful are those who fear the Lord” (NLT)
Blessing and prosperity will be yours (NIV) = “You will enjoy the fruit of your labor” (NLT) and “You will eat what you worked so hard to grow” (NET)
The middle of this psalm is in verses 3-4. Remember above when I said nearly every verse contains a word of blessing? I didn’t list verse 3, but there is language in this verse that makes it pregnant with blessing—Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.
You may ask, “How is this a blessing?”
The phrase “under their own vine and under their own fig tree” appears throughout the Old Testament. It described a blessed, prosperous, happy, and peaceful home. It was a home at peace within because there was also peace without.
This described the golden era of King Solomon—During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, everyone under their own vine and under their own fig tree (1 Kings 4:25).
After the northern kingdom of Israel fell and the southern kingdom of Judah was surrounded by the Assyrian forces of King Sennacherib, the king’s field commander tried to entice them the people with similar words—
Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’” (2 Kings 18:31-32)
Notice that he said the land would be “a land like your own.” He was trying to get them to compromise, to no longer listen to God’s voice, to no longer climb up into God’s presence. Much like satan tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit with the promise, “You will be like God.”
But these blessings in Psalm 128 don’t come from fearful “have to” obedience to man, but from reverencing God above all else. So the longing of verses 1-4 become the prayer of verses 5-6 (notice the word may used three times in these verse).
The focus of our longing—where we need to keep our eyes—is on God’s heavenly throne: Zion, Jerusalem, Israel (vv. 5-6; Micah 4:1-5).
In an earlier story, Caleb may have gotten tired while he waited for God to fulfill His promise to him, but he always trusted God as he walked on (see Joshua 14:9-12).
What promises of God are you still praying for?
What are you longing to see accomplished?
What has God already done that you can look back on?
The Hill, though high, I covet to ascend, The Difficulty will not me offend; For I perceive the Way to life lies here. Come, pluck up Heart, let’s neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the Right Way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the End is Woe. (John Bunyan)
Don’t give in.
Don’t give up.
Keep climbing.
Like Caleb say, “It may have been 85 years of walking and climbing, but I’ll keep climbing. GOD, GIVE ME THIS HILL!”
If you would like to check out the other songs of ascent that we’ve already studied, please click here.
Every year, Jews from around the world made four pilgrimages up to Jerusalem for various feasts and sacrifices. These journeys reminded them of God’s goodness as they went to the Temple to worship, and they helped refocus on God’s ways as they returned to their regular routines.
Jerusalem is over 2500 feet above sea level, so the pilgrimage there was a physical workout as well as a spiritual workout. These workouts were beneficial for God’s people, preparing them to minister in their cities in the following months.
The Book of Psalms contains 15 songs that these pilgrims would sing to and with each other as they traveled up to Jerusalem. These Psalms of Ascent are still instructive for Christians today.
As we resume this series this summer, I hope you can join me for this look at the life-changing truths these pilgrimage songs can still teach today to all of God’s people. We would love to have you join us in person, but if you are unable to do so you can watch the videos of these messages on my YouTube channel.
You can check out the messages we shared last summer from Psalms 120-127 here. And the current series of messages include:
A meme that makes me chuckle every time I see it is a “quote” attributed to Abraham Lincoln in which he says, “The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they are often not true.” 
Craig T. Owens 