Songs for the Road
The summer months are a strange time in London. The regular hum-drum of autumn, winter, and spring seems to calm down as the temperature rises. Some of us may go away on holiday or take annual leave. At the very least, things move slower and the days are longer.
Summer can also feel disconnected. Due to the many (wonderful) social engagements, weddings, parties, BBQs, etc., it is easy to look at your schedule and realise it is completely full throughout July and August. Yet, despite being filled with good and wonderful things, the irregularity that summer brings can impact your usual rhythms of church, worship, and community.
This summer, we have put together a short study on the Psalms, specifically a collection in the Psalter called the ‘Psalms of Ascents’. The purpose of this project is to encourage us as a church to continue digging into Scripture and feasting on the food it provides.
A few months ago Pastor Bijan preached on Jonah 2 and noted how Jonah’s famous prayer, in the belly of the fish, was a compilation of quotes and themes from the Psalms. During moments of great distress and repentance, our own words often fail us, but the language of the Psalms can provide us with the right words to express ourselves in prayer.¹
This phenomenon of using the Psalms in prayer is found throughout Scripture. In fact, the New Testament quotes the Psalms more than any other Old Testament book. Jesus himself often uses the Psalms to prove his messiahship, even claiming that many psalms are really about him.
Throughout church history, the Psalms have been pivotal in the formation of the people of God. The church father Athanasius called the Psalms ‘an epitome of the whole Scriptures’.² Martin Luther, a church reformer, spoke of the Psalms as ‘a little Bible, and a summary of the Old Testament’.³ There was even a time when a prospective bishop had to have the entire Psalter memorised by heart before being considered for ordination.⁴
The Psalms provide a spiritual vocabulary for immense hope, joy, delight, peace, and love. They also help us pray through seasons of doubt, fear, anxiety, anguish, longing, anger, and frustration. John Calvin beautifully captures this:
I have been wont to call this book not inappropriately, an anatomy of all parts of the soul; for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.⁵
Studying, learning, and meditating on the Book of Psalms will be of incalculable benefit to our spiritual formation.
Due to its importance and size, you may be forgiven for not really knowing where to start with the Psalms. There are 150 separate psalms, approximately 2,461 verses, and around 42,704 words, encompassing every human emotion. They were written over a span of approximately 500 years by numerous authors, covering themes ranging from creation to the culmination of all things. Eventually, each of the individual psalms were placed into a defined order.
Traditionally split into five separate books, each book appears to have its own distinct voice.⁶ Within these larger separations, there are also interesting collections of psalms, often categorised by theme or type, such as royal, lament, thanksgiving, and wisdom. Another notable collection found in Book 5 are the Psalms (or Songs) of Ascents.
The Psalms of Ascents (Psalms 120–134) comprise a collection of 15 psalms. These psalms all include a title with the inscription ‘A Song of Ascents’. The original readers would have understood exactly what this phrase meant, but this primary knowledge has been lost over time. As a result, we are challenged to study these psalms individually and as a collection in order to consider why they have all been given the same inscription and why they are grouped together.⁷
Over the centuries, scholars have explored suggested explanations. Some have suggested the inscription refers to a spiritual ascent (Augustine), while others argue it could mean an ascent of musical pitch (these are songs to be sung, after all), and still others argue that the ascent is a literal, physical one.⁸ An ancient Jewish commentary suggests that the fifteen songs correspond to the fifteen steps of the temple in Jerusalem itself.⁹
All interesting suggestions. However, the majority position today is that the Psalms of Ascents are the songs pilgrims would sing while they journeyed up the mountain to Jerusalem in order to worship at the temple, particularly during the annual festivals.¹⁰ These were songs for the road, an ancient Israelite equivalent to your road-trip playlist on Spotify!
The journey from their homes to the temple in the holy city was, of course, not just a physical pilgrimage. It was also a spiritual pilgrimage. The pilgrims were preparing their hearts and minds on this journey to meet with the community of God’s people, and to come into close proximity and worship him. Jerusalem, and specifically the temple, was the meeting place of heaven and earth.
The Psalms of Ascents are designed to encourage our hearts to worship. They encourage us to journey and gather as the people of God, in the presence of God in order that we may praise God. All the while, they remind us that our lives here on this earth are a spiritual journey from—as John Bunyan has shown—from the city of destruction to the city of God. Every child of God is on this pilgrimage, being transformed by the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
This 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.¹¹
Further resources:
- Shaping of the Psalter by O Palmer Robertson
- Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel by Nancy deClaissé-Walford
- Psalms by Tremper Longman
- A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson
- A podcast addressing the ‘imprecatory’ psalms
Sources:
- Quoted in John Calvin’s Introduction to his commentary on the Psalms, accessed here: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom08.ii.html
- Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 35: Word and Sacrament I ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann; vol. 35; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, 254–257.
- Second Council of Nicea, 787 AD, Canon 2.
- John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms: 1–35. Introduction.
accessed here: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom08.ii.html - Nancy deClaisse-Walford, Rolf Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner. 2014. The Book of Psalms. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. “The Songs of Ascents: Psalms 120–134”.
Accessed here: https://ereader.perlego.com/1/book/2015638/134?element_originalid=ch07 - Tremper Longman, Psalms, TOTC vol. 15–16 Grand Rapids: IVP, 2014, “Excurses: Psalms of Ascent”.
Accessed here: https://ereader.perlego.com/1/book/1470558/13?element_originalid=sigil_toc_id_1041 - Ibid., “Excurses: Psalms of Ascent”.
- Ibid., “Excurses: Psalms of Ascent”.
- Nancy deClaisse-Walford, The Book of Psalms, “The Songs of Ascents: Psalms 120–134”
- Ibid., “The Songs of Ascents: Psalms 120–134”
- John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. “Part 1: Stage 3”.
Accessed here: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/bunyan/pilgrim.iv.iii.html
