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:
The psalmist Heman is the grandson of Samuel. “These are the ones who served with their sons: From the sons of the Kohathites wereHeman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel, the son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel, the son of Toah” (1 Chronicles 6:33-34; 1 Samuel 1:1, 20).
Samuel came from the line of Levites (specifically the Kohathites), which is the same family to which Moses, Aaron, and Miriam belonged. While the tabernacle of the Lord was mobile in the wilderness, the Kohathites were responsible for carrying the furnishings of the tabernacle (Numbers 4:4-20).
When the permanent temple was constructed in Jerusalem, the responsibility of the Kohathites changed. They now oversaw the worship in the temple, and Heman is listed as the chief worship leader, with others to his right and left. “Heman’s brother Asaph stood at his right hand, Asaph the son of Berechiah, the son of Shimea. … On the left hand were their kinsmen the sons of Merari: Ethan the son of Kishi, the son of Abdi, the son of Malluch” (1 Chronicles 6:39, 44).
And then we see Heman’s family line continuing in the roles of worship leaders after him: ”All these were the sons of Heman the king’s seer to exalt him according to the words of God, for God gave fourteen sons and three daughters to Heman. All of these were under the direction of their father to sing in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the direction of the king. Their number who were trained in singing to the Lord, with their relatives, all who were skillful, was 288“ (1 Chronicles 25:5-7).
The Book of Psalms contains just one psalm that Heman composed (Psalm 88).
We don’t worship because we have a comfortable setting. We worship God because He is worthy to be worshiped! Our focus is not on these temporal things, but on His eternal, majestic glory!
Remembering all God has done is the antidote to any fear or anxiety that we may feel. Recalling who God is and what He has done cannot help but lead us into worship of our awesome King! Then, as the words of an old chorus remind us—
🎶 In the presence of Jehovah
God Almighty, Prince of Peace
Troubles vanish, hearts are mended
In the presence of the King 🎶
I have shared a couple of other insights from Psalm 77 here:
“The God who is our salvation” is on each side of this sacred pause. What can we consider from this?
God is my salvation
God is for me
God is my daily provision
God is my light and my life
God is my escape from death
God is worthy of all my worship
Let’s take time to slow down and truly savor the inspired thoughts when the Holy Spirit moved the biblical author to pause. There are powerful, encouraging, life-changing truths just waiting to burst into our heart and mind!
We are to love the sinner but hate the sin. This is hard to do, especially when the sin they are doing is directed at us and making us angry! Jesus gave us a great example in these times of high anger: withdraw. Check out my full message “A Christlike Response to Skeptics.” I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“In many pagan religions the purpose of worship is to placate the gods—to keep them happy and to stay on their good side, lest they mess with, you know, the harvest or procreation or whatever. Worship is thus a work pagans do to earn or keep the favor of their deity. Christians don’t worship to placate God or earn His favor. We don’t worship to make God happy or bring Him pleasure. God is all-satisfied, all-happy, and all-pleased in Himself alone. We add nothing to Him when we come together to worship. At the same time, as we worship, God adds Himself to us. He deigns to commune with us, inhabits our praises, and brings us into His presence and joy in ways that transform all we are, think, feel, value, say, and do. … In worship, rightly conceived and conducted, our minds and imaginations expand beyond their everyday thoughts and dreams, stretched and molded to fill up with the glory of the heavenly throne room, to be conformed to the mind of Christ, and to see the world as He does (1 Corinthians 2:16).” —T.M. Moore
J. Warner Wallace shares two reasons why we can still consider the Bible relevant today.
My grandpa had honey bees on his farm, and I’ve been intrigued by them ever since that time. In fact, honey bees were subject of my semester-long research project in my ecology class. So I’m always fascinated to read more discoveries about these amazing insects!
The level of a leader’s strength and courage is directly tied to the leader’s meditation upon God’s word. God’s wisdom transforms a leader’s heart and sharpens his thoughts. This is what gives the leader the necessary courage to lead people in a God-honoring way. I have a whole series of posts on godly leadership where I expand more on these thoughts.
Peter described the ministry of Jesus as “doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil.” Historical records tell us the first Christians lived this exact same way! This clip is from our current series of sermons on prayer. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
Belshazzar was unknown outside the Bible for quite awhile, prompting one biblical skeptic to say, “the whole story [in the Book of Daniel] is disfigured and falsified by the author, who was neither an eye-witness of the occurrences, nor accurately acquainted with the history of them.” Once again, archeology has confirmed the historicity of both Belshazzar and Daniel.
On YouVersion I shared this on Job 1:20-22. The Old English spelling of worship is “worthship.” We worship God because He has infinitely greater worth than any other person or thing. It’s not that Job wasn’t sad about his losses, but He saw Jehovah as the One of greatest worth in spite of his earthly losses.
“Leaders are responsible for building organizations where people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models—that is, they are responsible for learning.” —Peter M. Senge, in The Fifth Discipline
Never stopping praying for your loved ones. It could be that with their very last breath they will call on Jesus as their Savior!
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
It would be nice if complainers were satisfied just complaining to themselves, but they’re not. Do you know the cliché misery loves company? It’s just as true for complainers: They really want others to join them in their bellyaching!
I think a good word for what these negative people do is ambush. The dictionary says that means to lie in wait with hostile intent. Jesus told His followers that this ambushing behavior was going to happen. In Luke 6:22, He uses the word “when” not “if”—
Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
We see this vividly portrayed in the life of Daniel. This man had done nothing but helpful things since the moment he arrived in Babylon. He faithfully served foreign kings, never wanted any recognition for himself, saved lives, interpreted dreams, and explained confusing things. He had a great work ethic and impeccable integrity. But the complainers still wanted to ambush him (see Daniel 6:1-5).
One psalmist described these ambushers in terms of a hunting lion: His mouth is full of lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue. He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent. His eyes watch in secret for his victims (Psalm 10:7-8).
Doesn’t this sound like what the devil does too? Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).
Jerusalem was surrounded by three armies that were lying in wait to ambush the Israelites. After God told the people of Jerusalem that He would deliver them, King Jehoshaphat sent out his army with the worshippers at the front of the ranks. Then listen to how worship not only thwarted the ambushers but boomeranged their evil plans back on themselves—
As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another. (2 Chronicles 20:22-23)
When we worship God and sing our grateful praise to Him, we put the sword of God in our mouths. And there isn’t a more effective sword against the darkness than the (S)Word of God (Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 1:16; Ephesians 6:17)!
Paul told the church at Colosse that singing our praise to God with other saints was an encouragement to all who heard those worshipful songs (Colossians 3:15-17).
So when the ambushers are surrounding you, use your thankful songs as a shield, as a sword, and as an encouragement to others!
If you’ve missed any of the other messages in our series The Great Attitude of Gratitude, you can find them all here.
Questions engage people more than statements do. Check out the full conversation Greg and I had on The Craig And Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“In America, we have a tendency to worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.” —Lenny Esposito
“Young people are told, ‘You’ve got plenty of time, live a little, first,’ as if life ends after the wedding. The truth about marriage, however, is that it is, statistically, the single best predictor of long-term happiness. Making this even more important to understand is that for at least the last 20 years now, Americans have been steadily getting less happy.” Here’s how John Stonestreet shares this report from the University of Chicago.
T.M. Moore shared an interesting component of early-colonial American lawmaking: “Peruse the civil codes of the American colonies and you will discover a curious phenomenon. Frequently, colonial legislators drafted their civil codes by looking to the Old Testament Law of God.”
Dr. Tim Clarey said, “The global Flood also answers why dinosaurs were still alive and flourishing until the end of the Cretaceous. At that moment in the Flood, they were likely trying to stay on the highest ground available as waters encroached closer, week by week. As the dry land rapidly disappeared, many species herded together. This explains why varied types of dinosaurs were buried together at the end of the Cretaceous. The Flood’s tsunami-like waves eventually crashed over the remaining dinosaurs and entombed them in what’s called Upper Cretaceous strata.” Check out more evidence for the Flood that is recorded in the Book of Genesis.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I know you want to lash out against those evil people who come at you—just to say something that will “put them in their place.”
I get it. I feel like that at times too.
But pause.
Think about the last rain storm that came your way. The rain beat down on your roof and the wind blew against the walls of your house. You knew that there was no reason to yell at the rain because you were safe in your house. You also knew that yelling at the wind and the rain wouldn’t do a thing to it.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. (Matthew 7:24-25)
When you abide in Jesus—when His words are the foundation of your life—you are safe and secure. There is no reason to fret about the breath of the ruthless, there is no reason to lash out at them. In fact, there might not be any reason to speak to them at all.
Let the evildoers rage, but you can save your breath. Instead of using your breath to respond to their howling words, use your breath to praise the One who holds you securely forever!
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.
Craig T. Owens 