We’re going through the Psalms of Ascent (120 – 134) letting Eugene Peterson, author of The Message Bible, guide us with his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. I’ll tell you in advance, I’m the learner here, not the teacher.

Today, before we get into Psalm 120, let’s pull a couple of principles from the introductory chapter. I’m long familiar with “the world, the flesh, and the devil,” but I’d never heard the concept broken down like this:

An old tradition sorts the difficulties we face in the life of faith into the categories of world, flesh and devil. We are, for the most part, well warned of the perils of the flesh and the wiles of the devil. Their temptations have a definable shape and maintain a historical continuity. That doesn’t make them any easier to resist; it does make them easier to recognize.

The world, though, is protean [tending or able to change frequently or easily – I had to look it up!]: each generation has the world to deal with in a new form. World is an atmosphere, a mood. It is nearly as hard for a sinner to recognize the world’s temptations as it is for a fish to discover impurities in the water. There is a sense, a feeling, that things aren’t right, that the environment is not whole, but just what it is eludes analysis. We know that the spiritual atmosphere in which we live erodes faith, dissipates hope and corrupts love, but it is hard to put our finger on what is wrong.

One aspect of world that I have been able to identify as harmful to Christians is the assumption that anything worthwhile can be acquired at once. We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently. Our attention spans have been conditioned by thirty-second commercials…

Thus we start our pilgrimage, leaving “Meshech and Kedar.” Here is Psalm 120:

I’m in trouble. I cry to GOD, desperate for an answer: “Deliver me from the liars, GOD! They smile so sweetly but lie through their teeth.”

Do you know what’s next, can you see what’s coming, all you barefaced liars? Pointed arrows and burning coals will be your reward.

I’m doomed to live in Meshech, cursed with a home in Kedar, My whole life lived camping among quarreling neighbors. I’m all for peace, but the minute I tell them so, they go to war! (MSG)

Peterson writes about this psalm which starts with “I’m in trouble” and ends with “war.”

The dissatisfaction, coupled with a longing for peace and truth, can set us on a pilgrim path of wholeness in God. A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way. As long as we think the next election might eliminate crime and establish justice or another scientific breakthrough might save the environment or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety into a life of tranquility, we are not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith. A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace.

“A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world…” not trusting in the next election, the next scientific breakthrough, or the next pay raise. He continues:

Christian consciousness begins in the painful realization that what we had assumed was the truth is in fact a lie. Prayer is immediate: “Deliver me from the liars, God! They smile so sweetly but lie through their teeth.” 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, happily and successfully,
• from the lies of religionists who “heal the wounds of this people lightly,”
• from the lies of moralists who pretend to promote me to the office of captain of my fate,
• from the lies of pastors who “get rid of God’s command so you won’t be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions!” (Mark 7:8). (Bulleted for clarity)

“I’m doomed to live in Meschech, cursed with a home in Kedar.” Peterson explains:

Paraphrased, the cry is, “I live in the midst of hoodlums and wild savages; this world is not my home and I want out.” The usual biblical word describing the no we say to the world’s lies and the yes we say to God’s truth is repentance. It is always and everywhere the first word in the Christian life. John the Baptist’s preaching was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3.2 RSV). Jesus’ first preaching was the same: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4.17 RSV). Peter concluded his first sermon with “Repent, and be baptized” (Acts 2.38 RSV). In the last book of the Bible the message to the seventh church is “be zealous and repent” (Revelation 3.19 RSV).

So the word for Psalm 120 is repent. Peterson clarifies:

Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision.

It’s a decision to say no to the world and yes to God.

“I’m doomed to live in Meshech, cursed with a home in Kedar! My whole life lived camping among quarreling neighbors.” But we don’t have to live there any longer. Repentance, the first word in Christian immigration, sets us on the way to traveling in the light. It is a rejection that is also an acceptance, a leaving that develops into an arriving, a no to the world that is a yes to God.

With respect to repentance, Paul wrote:

…yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Corinthians 7.9, 10, NIV)