We come to Psalm 133, which I’ve always thought of as the “Unity Psalm.”

How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! It’s like costly anointing oil flowing down head and beard, Flowing down Aaron’s beard, flowing down the collar of his priestly robes. It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion. Yes, that’s where GOD commands the blessing, ordains eternal life. (MSG)

Peterson calls it Community and talks about one’s participation (or not) in a local church.

But real community in a local church context is difficult. Peterson describes what sometimes happens – I see this phenomenon particularly in some larger churches and even smaller churches who take their cues from the large churches:

Another common way to avoid community is to turn the church into an institution. In this way people are treated not on the basis of personal relationships but in terms of impersonal functions. Goals are set that will catch the imagination of the largest numbers of people; structures are developed that will accomplish the goal through planning and organization. Organizational planning and institutional goals become the criteria by which the community is defined and evaluated. In the process the church becomes less and less a community, that is, people who pay attention to each other, “brothers and sisters,” and more and more a collectivism of “contributing units.”

The key to community (and unity!) is love. JD Walt wrote recently, meditating on Jesus’ prayer as recorded in John 17:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17.20, 21, ESV)

Back to JD Walt. He observed:

I think what I am trying to say is if we focus on unity, we often get disagreement, but if we focus on love, we will get unity. 

That’s a good word:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13.34, 35, ESV)

We move to Psalm 132, which opens:

O GOD, remember David, remember all his troubles! And remember how he promised GOD, made a vow to the Strong God of Jacob, “I’m not going home, and I’m not going to bed, I’m not going to sleep, not even take time to rest, Until I find a home for GOD, a house for the Strong God of Jacob.” (Psalm 132.1 – 5, MSG)

It’s a “don’t follow-your-heart” example, where even though David’s heart was in the right place, he was not the one to build the temple. I wrote about this last year. Instead of God’s allowing David to build God a house, God, instead declared that he would build David’s house. Psalm 132 speaks of this promise:

GOD gave David his word, he won’t back out on this promise: “One of your sons I will set on your throne; If your sons stay true to my Covenant and learn to live the way I teach them, Their sons will continue the line— always a son to sit on your throne. Yes—I, GOD, chose Zion, the place I wanted for my shrine; This will always be my home; this is what I want, and I’m here for good. I’ll shower blessings on the pilgrims who come here, and give supper to those who arrive hungry; I’ll dress my priests in salvation clothes; the holy people will sing their hearts out! Oh, I’ll make the place radiant for David! I’ll fill it with light for my anointed! (Psalm 132.11 – 17, MSG)

We’ve been using Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction as our guide for these Psalms of Ascent. In nearly every case, Peterson has expanded on my observations and deepened my understanding. In this case, however, we didn’t see quite the same thing.

He sees the psalm’s opening as David’s bringing the Ark back to Israel as recorded in 1 Chronicles 13 – 15 and writes:

It is a psalm of David’s obedience, of “how he promised GOD, made a vow to the Strong God of Jacob.” The psalm shows obedience as a lively, adventurous response of faith that is rooted in historical fact and reaches into a promised hope.

Either way, obedience is not a bad theme. In my interpretation, David was obedient in NOT building the temple, while providing materials for Solomon’s eventual success. In Peterson’s version, David obediently brought the Ark back to Jerusalem.

In either case, we have to recall something from Israel’s history. The psalm doesn’t review that history, it merely alludes to it expecting the reader to know. The challenge then is that to be obedient we must REMEMBER. My friend Mike Metzger just published a piece last week that’s worth the read: If you stop remembering, you forget!

Peterson writes:

This history is important, for without it we are at the mercy of whims. Memory is a databank we use to evaluate our position and make decisions. With a biblical memory we have two thousand years of experience from which to make the off-the-cuff responses that are required each day in the life of faith.

Another good reason to stay in the Word!

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1.22, ESV)

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29.29, ESV)

We’re nearing the end of our series on the Psalms of Ascent: psalms 131 – 134 to go.

• GOD, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain. I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans.
• I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.
• Wait, Israel, for GOD. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always! (Psalm 131.1 – 4, MSG)

I call this is the “Above my paygrade” psalm.

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. (Psalm 131.1, ESV)

Politics is above my paygrade. So is governance…of a nation or state or even a large corporation. Best not to have too many opinions on stuff I know nothing about. “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”

Right after I wrote this in my journal, I received what I would consider an extremely biased news report from a national news service on a current issue. I was immediately exercised about it and made a derogatory note in my journal… Then I remembered what I just wrote and corrected myself:

But, per Psalm 131, it’s way above my paygrade and far outside my circle of influence or control.

Peterson calls it Humility and contrasts an attitude of humility with “ambition.”

Psalm 131 is a maintenance psalm. It is functional to the person of faith as pruning is functional to the gardener: it gets rid of that which looks good to those who don’t know any better, and reduces the distance between our hearts and their roots in God…Psalm 131 prunes away unruly ambition.

…Our culture encourages and rewards ambition without qualification. We are surrounded by a way of life in which betterment is understood as expansion, as acquisition, as fame. Everyone wants to get more. To be on top, no matter what it is the top of, is admired. There is nothing recent about the temptation. It is the oldest sin in the book, the one that got Adam thrown out of the garden and Lucifer tossed out of heaven. What is fairly new about it is the general admiration and approval that it receives.

Peterson writes that “aspiration” is a good thing, the kind of thing expressed by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3.13, 14:

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (ESV)

But…

Psalm 131 reminds us to humbly NOT operate “above our paygrade.”

GOD, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain. I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans. (Psalm 131.1, MSG)

Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentiles will hope. (Matthew 12.18 – 21, ESV, Jesus quoting from Isaiah 42)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5.1 – 5, ESV)

We come to Psalm 130 in our journey through the Psalms of Ascent.

• Help, GOD—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
• If you, GOD, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.
• I pray to GOD—my life a prayer— and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.
• O Israel, wait and watch for GOD— with GOD’s arrival comes love, with GOD’s arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin. (1 – 8)

“Wait and watch for GOD.” A fitting introduction to Advent, which starts tomorrow.

Peterson opens with the observation that “To be human is to be in trouble.”

Help, GOD—the bottom has fallen out of my life! (Psalm 130.1, MSG)

…man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5.7, ESV)

He writes:

We live in a culture that wants to do away with suffering or pretend that it doesn’t exist. But Psalm 130 is an affirmation that “…suffering is real; God is real.” But Peterson continues:

Peterson talks about “waiting and watching” in terms of being a night watchman. He worked as one for a year…

But I never did anything, never constructed anything, never made anything happen. I waited and watched. I hoped…The psalmist’s and the Christian’s waiting and watching—that is, hoping—is based on the conviction that God is actively involved in his creation and vigorously at work in redemption.

Hoping does not mean doing nothing…It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions…

And hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain. It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what what he said he will do…in his way and in his time.

Tomorrow begins Advent Season, and the First Sunday of Advent has been designated “Hope.” It gives new meaning to Psalm 130’s nearly last words:

O Israel, wait and watch for GOD— with GOD’s arrival comes love, with GOD’s arrival comes generous redemption. (Psalm 130.7, MSG)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4.4, 5, ESV)

We move to Psalm 129:

• “They’ve kicked me around ever since I was young” —this is how Israel tells it— “They’ve kicked me around ever since I was young, but they never could keep me down. Their plowmen plowed long furrows up and down my back; Then GOD ripped the harnesses of the evil plowmen to shreds.”
• Oh, let all those who hate Zion grovel in humiliation; Let them be like grass in shallow ground that withers before the harvest, Before the farmhands can gather it in, the harvesters get in the crop, Before the neighbors have a chance to call out, “Congratulations on your wonderful crop! We bless you in GOD’s name!” (1 – 8)

There will always be “us” and “them.” I’ve been “out of it” my whole life. Some of it from excessive legalism, but not all. Couldn’t go to movies with my friends when I was young. Couldn’t join in with the foul language at ROTC summer camp (some of the worst I’ve heard). Couldn’t do the crazy things my fellow Air Force officers did when they were drunk (I always left those parties early). “They’ve kicked me around…”

Eugene Peterson says that Psalm 129 is about Perseverance.

Yep. We persist in the face of various kinds of persecution.

Peterson says that when he was growing up he flitted from one interest to another. His mother would say:

He continues:

Paul persevered. See 2 Corinthians 11.23 – 29.

The writer of Hebrews called for perseverance:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12.1 – 3, ESV)

Yes, it’s still on despite retailers’ attempts to quash it. The Family Circus comic of November 15 shows mom walking into a store with the four kids. The store is already decorated for Christmas, and one of the kids said:

Aren’t they going to have Thanksgiving this year, Mommy?

Yes, “they” are, at least we are. We celebrated with sons Mark and Matt and their families last Saturday. We finally decided there are too many moving parts with in-laws and exes to try to squeeze in their Thanksgiving on the day. June and I are having Thanksgiving dinner at a nice restaurant tonight.

Clockwise around the table beginning with Mark, farthest away: Mark, Kesley, June, Bob, Matt, Amber, Emerson (8)

And ought not every day be Thanksgiving Day, anyway?

• Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever.
• Give thanks to the God of gods,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever.
• Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever;
• to him who alone does great wonders,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever;
• to him who by understanding made the heavens,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever;
• to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever;
• to him who made the great lights,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever;
• the sun to rule over the day,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever;
• the moon and stars to rule over the night,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever;
• …It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever;
• and rescued us from our foes,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever;
• he who gives food to all flesh,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever.
• Give thanks to the God of heaven,
  • for his steadfast love endures forever. (Psalm 136, ESV)

PS Sahil Bloom posted a lovely Thanksgiving meditation centered around:

What did your younger self pray for that you take for granted today?

It’s worth the read in its entirety.

Continuing with the Psalms of Ascent, we come to 128:

• All you who fear GOD, how blessed you are! how happily you walk on his smooth straight road! You worked hard and deserve all you’ve got coming. Enjoy the blessing! Revel in the goodness!
• Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes, your household lush as a vineyard, The children around your table as fresh and promising as young olive shoots. Stand in awe of God’s Yes. Oh, how he blesses the one who fears GOD!
• Enjoy the good life in Jerusalem every day of your life. And enjoy your grandchildren. Peace to Israel! (Psalm 128.1 – 6, MSG)

I said yesterday that both psalms 127 and 128 contain positive comments about the family. Here’s the promise from Psalm 128:

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. (Psalm 128.3, ESV)

Eugene Peterson’s take? Psalm 128 is about Happiness. He opens:

He continues:

Summarizing:

Blessing is the word that describes this happy state of affairs.

Jesus’ most famous sermon starts with the “beatitudes:” “Blessed are…” Eight of them. (Matthew 5.1 – 10)

Enjoying God and the good life presumes that we are walking the road he intended for us. Peterson concludes:

The psalms open with the same idea:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1.1, 2, ESV)

We come to Psalm 127 in our Psalms of Ascent, long a favorite of mine, and, I’ll confess, I didn’t associate it with the Ascent psalms. I memorized it in KJV decades ago:

• Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
• It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows: For so he giveth his beloved sleep.
• Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: And the fruit of the womb is his reward.
• As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; So are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
• They shall not be ashamed, But they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127.1 – 5, KJV)

Three uses of “vain” in the first two verses: my work is in vain if the LORD isn’t in it. Then three positive verses on the family: “Happy is the man whose quiver is full of children.” There are more positive verses on the family in Psalm 128. Stay tuned.

Here’s The Message:

• If GOD doesn’t build the house, the builders only build shacks. If GOD doesn’t guard the city, the night watchman might as well nap. It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?
• Don’t you see that children are GOD’s best gift? the fruit of the womb his generous legacy? Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you; you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep. (Psalm 127, MSG)

Peterson deals with two extremes on our perspective on work.

• Babel

The greatest work project of the ancient world is a story of disaster. The unexcelled organization and enormous energy that were concentrated in building the Tower of Babel resulted in such a shattered community and garbled communication that civilization is still trying to recover. Effort, even if the effort is religious (perhaps especially when the effort is religious), does not in itself justify anything.

• Buddha

Eastern culture…manifests a deep-rooted pessimism regarding human effort. Since all work is tainted with selfishness and pride, the solution is to withdraw from all activity into pure being. The symbol of such an attitude is the Buddha—an enormous fat person sitting cross-legged, looking at his own navel. Motionless, inert, quiet. All trouble comes from doing too much; therefore do nothing. Step out of the rat race.

Peterson said there were people in Paul’s Thessalonica like that, and Paul had to address the problem:

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you…For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. (2 Thessalonians 3.6 – 11, ESV)

Peterson goes on to say that work with the right perspective is a good thing. I’ve made that point many times, most recently a little over a week ago.

The premise of the psalm for all work is that God works: “If GOD doesn’t build the house . . . If GOD doesn’t guard the city . . .” The condition if presupposes that God does work: he builds; he guards…The Bible begins with the announcement “In the beginning God created”—not “sat majestic in the heavens,” not “was filled with beauty and love.” He created. He did something. He made something. He fashioned heaven and earth. The week of creation was a week of work. The days are described not by their weather conditions and not by their horoscope readings: Genesis 1 is a journal of work. We live in a universe and in a history where God is working.

And he concludes by pointing out that the most productive “work” we do – reproduction – doesn’t feel like work at all!

Don’t you see that children are GOD’s best gift? the fruit of the womb his generous legacy? Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! (Psalm 127.3, 4, MSG)

We continue our journey through Psalms of Ascent. Today, Psalm 126:

It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when GOD returned Zion’s exiles. We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune. We were the talk of the nations— “GOD was wonderful to them!” GOD was wonderful to us; we are one happy people.

And now, GOD, do it again— bring rains to our drought-stricken lives So those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest, So those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing. (1 – 6)

Growing up I was taught to quote verse 6 in the context of “soul-winning.” (You go out weeping for the lost and carrying the gospel and come home with the fruit – new believers!)

He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. (Psalm 126.6, ESV)

So I, fixated on weeping, wondered what what Peterson’s theme would be… Duh, read the text! It’s JOY!

• We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
• We are one happy people.
• Those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing.

The fruit of the Spirit is…joy. (Galatians 5.22, ESV)

Our former Pastor, Dave Jordan-Irwin, who passed a little over a year ago from pancreatic cancer epitomized joy. From our first meeting, laughing over jokes in the Babylon Bee and Wittenburg Door to his last public appearance, he radiated joy.

Dave Jordan-Irwin greets June at a receiving line at his last public appearance.

Ironically, Dave was a Presbyterian pastor, a tribe erroneously known for no joy. Eugene Peterson, another Presbyterian pastor, opens his Psalm 126 homily this way:

Ellen Glasgow, in her autobiography, tells of her father who was a Presbyterian elder, full of rectitude and rigid with duty: “He was entirely unselfish, and in his long life he never committed a pleasure.” Peter Jay, in a political column in the Baltimore Sun, described the sober intensity and personal austerities of one of our Maryland politicians and then threw in this line: “He dresses like a Presbyterian.”

I know there are Christians, so-called, who never crack a smile and who can’t abide a joke, and I suppose Presbyterians contribute their quota. But I don’t meet very many of them. The stereotype as such is a big lie created, presumably, by the devil. One of the delightful discoveries along the way of Christian discipleship is how much enjoyment there is, how much laughter you hear, how much sheer fun you find.

Peterson clarifies for the benefit of those who for whatever reason don’t experience joy. (Another pastor I had once talked about “summer Christians” and “winter Christians.” He was definitely a “winter,” consumed with the trials of people he counseled all week long.) Peterson writes:

Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience…We cannot make ourselves joyful. Joy cannot be commanded, purchased or arranged. But there is something we can do. We can decide to live in response to the abundance of God and not under the dictatorship of our own poor needs. We can decide to live in the environment of a living God and not our own dying selves. We can decide to center ourselves in the God who generously gives and not in our own egos which greedily grab. One of the certain consequences of such a life is joy, the kind expressed in Psalm 126.

Amen.