Summer Playlist: Part 4
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Are you guys enjoying this series? I hope you are so far. We are going through different songs in the Bible. If you haven't been here yet, we are for the summer. Every week we're going to choose a different song in Scripture and just going to learn about it and what it teaches us about God. We started this whole series off by talking about the importance of music and how important music is. God created music. One of the things that we've been doing too is we've been sending out emails to you guys the last two weeks with suggested Christian artists or bands. I don't know if you guys have listened. Anyone listen to any of those so far? Yeah, sweet! Awesome! We just want to encourage you to listen to music that will point you to God. So whatever mood or occasion that you have, we understand the reality that whatever goes in our ears goes directly to our hearts. It's so important to be vigilant to feed our hearts truth, music that reflects God's heart. We want to be listening to that, soaking that in. So we hope you enjoy those emails and encourage you if you haven't to try some of those bands and artists out. So far in our series, we started in Psalm 136 talking about how we need to give thanks to God because His love endures forever. And then Pastor Lauren brought us to 1 Samuel 2 with Hannah's song, a powerful biblical song that encouraged believers to focus their praise on God, to embrace humility and to surrender to His sovereignty. And then last week, Pastor Chris taught from Isaiah 64 talking about how God is the potter and forms us who are the clay. And just as God reshaped Israel from the ruins of Jerusalem, Jesus is shaping our lives today to be more like Him. So again, our hope each week is that we are reminded of the importance of the relationship of song and scripture and how important that is for our faith. It's what God intended and we pray that you are encouraged to sing.
I know some of us in here love to sing. It's easy. We sing all the time. Others of us never sing. We think our voices are terrible. That's not true. God loves your voice, however it may sound. And so we're encouraging you guys to sing and whether it's praises to God or songs of lament, whether you're smiling, the biggest smile you've ever smiled as you're praising God or whether you're praising God through tears. We pray that song, singing is a part of your worship and relationship with God. I also want to mention in our kids ministry today, if you have kids that are here in the class, they are singing this morning. We have Rachel Dolan who is here once a month. We love that she's doing this. She volunteers to teach the kids how to worship through song. So they're playing instruments. They're singing songs. And so our whole entire church is focused this Sunday on singing to God. So we're going to start today in the big church here. If you have your Bibles, you can turn with me or you can pay attention to the screen. We're going to be in Psalm 121. A different kind of song today. I'm going to go ahead and read for us and then we'll dive in.
Psalm 121, it says, "I lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."
Would you guys pray with me? Lord, we come before you thankful to be gathered together this morning. Thankful for the people in this room that we're sitting next to, that we get to worship with. Thankful that we have your word to teach us truth, God. And I pray that these next 20 minutes that we would be encouraged and empowered and equipped to serve you in new ways. We'd be drawn closer to who you are, have a deeper understanding of you and therefore a deeper understanding of what we're supposed to do in life, how we're supposed to live. So God, I pray that you would bless our time. We give this to you. We pray this in your name. Amen.
A little background on Psalm 121. It's a psalm that has been sung for thousands of years. Some psalms that we read are meant to be sung, but we don't really sing them anymore. They just kind of fell out of popularity. Still important we read them, but we don't sing them. But this psalm, an ancient song of Israel, has been sung in many different tunes over centuries. Maybe as we were reading, you might have picked up on some of these words or some of these lyrics might have sounded familiar from worship songs that you have sung growing up or even more recently. This psalm, 121, is an ancient song of ascent for Israel. We'll get to that in a little bit. But some of the songs that have stemmed from this psalm, 1846, I don't know how many of you know your 1846 music really well. Felix Mendelsohn wrote "He Watching Over Israel" based off of this. More recently, "Casting Crowns" has a couple songs. "Praise You in the Storm" is one of them that uses Psalm 121. "Cutlass" - anyone remember "Cutlass" back in the day? They have a worship album and they wrote "I Lift My Eyes", a worship song using Psalm 121. Bebo Norman? Yeah, some Bebo Norman fans out there? Another Christian artist from the 90s. Yes, Bebo Norman. He wrote "I Will Lift My Eyes". Ellie Holcomb is a more recent artist nowadays. She has a song that literally sings Psalm 121 verbatim. It's called "I Lift My Eyes". I grew up in a church that sang many, many old hymns. So when I read this psalm, I was brought to the hymn written by Timothy Dudley Smith in 1979, "I Lift My Eyes to the Quiet Hills". I don't know if any of you know that one. But it's a psalm that has resonated with believers for centuries. No matter what tune you know this psalm by, the truth remains the same. Like I said, it's a song of ascent.
And so there's a few songs of ascent. If you read your psalms in the Bible and it says underneath whatever chapter, "Song of Ascent", what that means is that this was sung. Israel would sing this on their way to Jerusalem or the Zion, the temple mount. So they would go up a hill. They would literally have to ascend to the temple and they would sing this song as they're climbing up to worship God. Traditionally it was sung during the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles in autumn. But really it was also sung during any pilgrimage in general to Jerusalem to worship God. And again, they would sing on their way. We can probably imagine this, right? People just on their way with their families, maybe with their mules behind them, whatever they're bringing. They're on their way to the temple and they're singing the song maybe as a family, maybe as a large group, caravaning together to go to the temple. But they're preparing their hearts for the place that they are going to to worship God. And this sounds familiar to us, right? Preparing our hearts for something, preparing our minds for something. So if you're working out, for those who work out, you probably listen to music that helps you work out. You may not be listening to the slow classical during your squats or something like that. You're probably listening to something like something hardcore that's going to pump you up, get your blood flowing, get you going. Or maybe if you're cooking a romantic dinner, you change the music, you're preparing the music, maybe it's some jazz. Maybe you play some jazz in the room and get ready for that mood and that atmosphere. If you're studying, maybe you play some classical music, some Beethoven, some Bach, help your mind to focus on the words that you're reading or studying information. And we do this every week, right? At church, we sing before we hear the message as a way to prepare our hearts. Those songs that we sing are kind of our songs of a sense. As we get ready to worship God, we prepare our minds and hearts. We get centered on Him as we enter a space and a moment to hear God's word for our lives.
So now that we know what this psalm was meant to do, let's take a closer look, verse by verse, of what the psalm is saying. Verses 1 through 2 say, "I lift my eyes up to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." This idea of looking up for hope and for help is almost innate in human nature. We all do this. We can't help it. When we're frustrated and overwhelmed and angry, we reach that point where our bodies are reflecting what's inside of us. So maybe at a certain point of frustration, we look down. We're like, "Let me just stay centered. Let me stay calm. I'm really frustrated." And maybe if we get pushed past that in a place of desperation, then we look up. We're like, "Oh my goodness. I cannot handle. The kids are going crazy. Dinner's not ready." We start looking up for help. I don't know how many of you have done this. It's just me at home on some days. We're just looking at God. Someone help me right now. Well, you know the feeling. Our bodies start to literally, physically reflect what's going on inside of us.
It's also, again, I'm a movie watcher. I like movies. I like books. This happens a lot. It's very telling when it happens in a movie or a book. When the main character, the hero, is looking up in desperation, you know that either that's the end of them. They looked up and nothing happened. Or you know that help is on the way and they're like, "Oh, he's looking up. Hope." And someone's going to come to the rescue. And I think of my favorite, I'm a Lord of the Rings nerd, Two Towers, Helms Deep. If you guys know, you know. And the good guys are being overwhelmed. And they remember. They said Gandalf, who's the wizard, the really good guy, he left them. And they were like, "Why'd you leave?" But he's like, "Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day at dawn. Look to the east." And in the movie version, they look up on the fifth day, up to the mountain, to the top of the hill, and he's up there with hundreds of horsemen. And he comes and he rescues them and he saves the day. If you're more of like a superhero person, the Avengers, the help is always coming from up above. Someone's flying in, right? Or you have that one character who always says, "On your left." And they hear that in their little... They all have earpieces. I don't know how they all sync up with earpieces when they're superheroes. But they all can hear each other. It's like, "On your left," and you know that that one superhero is coming in to save the day. Maybe in real life, depicted in movies like Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers from World War II, the way that soldiers on the ground cheered when they were so relieved to see the Air Force come in. And, you know, whatever that was, whether that was dropping supplies or freeing them up from being pinned down. But looking up has typically, we know, is a sign of looking for help and looking for hope. It's innate. We're looking for something beyond ourselves to help us. Why do we do this? Well, typically looking up to the sky or heavens is where a divine power, a deity, would come from. They're up above. When we are at our end and we recognize that we need something beyond, we look up. Our psalmist tells us that we lift our eyes to the mountains. Again, in ancient culture, gods dwelled on the highest point on earth. So they dwelled on the mountaintop. That's why the Parthenon in Greece is on top of a hill, the highest point. The psalmist says, "I lift my eyes. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth." We look up to Yahweh, to God, the creator of everything. That's who we hope in. As believers, as Christians, we hope and know that that's where our help comes from.
So we continue, verse 3 and 4 says, "He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." The psalmist now directs the psalm to be about God as a protector. He will not let your foot slip, which is a phrase in ancient culture which depicts stability. If you're on a journey and you are sure-footed, that is a good thing. And if you slip, that equals disaster. Something bad is happening. Disaster is happening. And so I know, I'm sure some of you have been hiking, backpacking in your time, and maybe you've been on those trails where you have to watch every single step. I was in Yosemite many years ago, and I do not like heights. Get me on this roof and I'm scared to death. Even just this ladder. I don't like ladders. But I was on Yosemite. We were hiking up and we were on top of Yosemite Falls. And the group I was with was very adventurous and they had no problem. They were like, "Let's get a picture on the edge." And I was like, "What?" And they're like, "Yeah, yeah, we're all here." And so they're just walking like they're on the ground. They're just like, "Yeah, yeah." And they're literally like, behind me is the cliff. And I was on all fours. And I was like, "I'll join you." I'm crawling out to the edge with them because my legs, I couldn't even stand up. And I knew that even as like, then I had to turn my back to the edge. And I was like, "Oh my goodness, it's right behind me." If I misstep, it's the end of me. And it's been a good life. But I was so scared. And so I imagine that when I read this verse of one misstep and it's disaster. And he's saying, "God is watching you. He will not let your foot slip." God will not let... It's not to say that there won't be challenges because we know that those are pretty much guaranteed in life, in the human life and in the Christian life. But he's watching over you. He's guiding you down the narrow path of righteousness and life. It says, "He who watches over you will not slumber. He will neither slumber nor sleep.”
This thought of being watched over today is pretty normal for us in our era. You know, whether we have our ring cameras or our phones that track us or CCTV around, we just know that to exist today probably means that there's a recording of us somewhere. And we're not that... Maybe we're uncomfortable with it, we don't like it, but we just accept it. That's part of being in this time. In ancient world, to be alone was to really be alone. There was no text message, "I'll just let my parents know where I am," or "I'll text my friend," or "I'm going on a hike, but I got my phone satellite, I got that special sat phone that even regular cell phones, I'll be safe out there." There's nothing. To be alone in the wilderness. Think of Israel alone in the desert in their history, that they had to wander for 40 years. They were alone. There was no like, "Hey, we're passing town after town after..." No, they were alone. And even individually, you think of in that ancient time, being alone was to truly be alone, but to know that God is watching over you, always, always on watch, never asleep, never dozing off, never like, "Man, I've been watching you for a long time, I'm going to take a break, I hope you're okay for the next couple hours on earth." No, he is always watching. What a comfort and a peace. And what an amazing God, that He's doing that individually for every single one of us. We still need that comfort today and that peace to know that even in our most remote moments, when we think that no one can see us, no one knows the struggling, the suffering that we're going through, that God does. That He sees you and He knows what you're dealing with, what you're thinking, what's in your heart. He doesn't get tired, He doesn't get bored. He's vigilant. He loves us. And He cares for us beyond comprehension in a way that we cannot fully understand. He is so intent on looking after you.
Verses 5 and 6 say, "The Lord watches over you, the Lord is your shade at your right hand, the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night." Again, how blessed are we in this day and age to live in a world with vast amounts of comfort that we have, to not have to face the reality that the sun might be the end of us. That's a reality in the ancient world that if you were outside too long, if you were exposed to the sun, death was a real probability. We have some hot days ahead, thankfully, not triple digits. But we still have to be careful. However dangerous it is for us today, it was that much more dangerous in the ancient world. And again, Israel, in their history, has the wandering of 40 years in the desert. And God, in that time, was their protection. By day, He was a pillar of cloud, a cloud over them, casting shade on them, giving them life. And at night, He was a pillar of fire. So whatever dangers the night has, in an ancient world, again, night brought all sorts of dangers, whether it was wild animals, bandits, whatever it is, night was a dangerous time. And God was this pillar of fire to protect them. And so He's drawing on that imagery here, saying, "I will watch over you." Again, in the ancient Near East, shade could be the difference between life and death. And God is that difference for us. Having Him protect us, watch over us, guard us, is the difference between life, eternal life, and death. There's a line in here that says, "Being on the right hand." And that means it's a position of favor. There's another piece in this line that is addressing that it wasn't uncommon in the ancient world for gods to descend at nighttime, like they kind of went to sleep. And God is saying, "No, no, no. I am constantly available. I am vigilant to watch over you. Night or day, I am here.”
The chapter wraps up in verses 7 and 8. It says, "The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore." I love that it's just saying that God is not a stationary protection. It's not like, "Hey, as long as you're at church, as long as you're at home, as long as you're in the safest place that you can think of, that's where I'll protect you." No. Wherever you go, wherever you are, He is with you and He's protecting you for your entire life. God is watching over you now. He's been watching over you since you were born, and He will continue to watch over you for the rest of your life. And He's going to be watching you as you end your time on earth and join Him in heaven as you walk into those gates. He's going to be watching you the entire time with a smile on His face, eager for you to join Him. The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore. I pray that that is a blessing for us to hear today, that He's with you and that He knows what you're going through. Stuff isn't happening in your life that's taking Him by surprise that is like, "Oh, I didn't see that. I'm sorry. I missed that." That's not anything that God would say. This song, Psalm 121, it's a rather simple song, but I love the picture of Israel and the pilgrims from all over the area journeying to the temple to offer sacrifices to God, to worship Him. And they're singing about Him being their protection, that comfort or the reminder that would have been for them to hear and sing those words about their God. And maybe they're drawn from experience. They're coming to the temple being like, "God, I know that you protected me. I know that I just came from something that your hand was at work." And maybe that's true for us. When you come to church on a Sunday, maybe there's days where you are singing extra loud because you know, "God, I saw you this week. I know that you were doing something in my life. I want to praise you for that.”
I want us to reflect for a bit on a couple things. And really, the big question that I want to ask today is, "Are you looking up?" Are you looking up? This implies a couple of things. First, are you looking for help? Oftentimes, in the midst of hardship, we keep our heads down. You've heard that phrase, "Keep your head down and power through." And the world today gives honor to that. They like that. They're like, "Man, yeah, do that. If you have a hard time, you need to keep your head down and just push through it." But I like what Scripture says a little bit better. It says, "Look up." I lift my eyes with hope and anticipation, expecting God to do something. Looking up requires a heart of surrender, a posture of humility, and a faith and trust in God. To look up means, "God, I can't do this on my own. I need help." So it's a heart of surrender. A posture of humility saying, "God, as much as I want to be able to do this, I know that I'm at the end of myself. I'm humble enough to recognize that I can't do it." And then we have to believe that God can. It takes a faith and a trust in Him. One of those songs that I mentioned earlier, Bebo Norman, he writes this, this is his lyrics, "I will lift my eyes to the maker of the mountains I can't climb. I will lift my eyes to the calmer of the oceans raging wild. I will lift my eyes to the healer of the hurt I hold inside. I will lift my eyes to God." I love that. I think that perfectly encapsulates what this psalm is saying. God is the one who is in control of everything, who can handle every chaotic moment, every stress, every anxiety, every hurt. God is the one that can help. So again, are you looking for help? Do you have that heart, that posture, that faith and trust? Second part of looking up is, where are you looking for help? If you get to the point of needing help, sometimes we're guilty of looking in the wrong direction. Instead of looking up, we look around. Sometimes it's to bad things, maybe substances to help us cope, something that sounds like it'd make us feel better, improve the situation, but really those things often just lead to more pain and suffering that end up hurting us even more. Sometimes we look around to good things, maybe peers, maybe influences, influencers that seem to have life figured out. And again, sometimes God does speak through people, often he does, but we have to look to him first, and then we can look around. Are we looking up to God for our hope and rescuing? Again, sometimes we tend to put our head down, we isolate ourselves in times of need. We're too embarrassed to reach out, not wanting to be a burden to someone else, but Jesus tells us to bear one another's burdens. We need to look up first to God for help, then we can look around to others that we love, that we trust, the church, as a way to say, "Hey, maybe the help is coming from those who love me." And so, circle back around, are you looking up to God? Where does your heart and mind go when you are in need? Is God the first thing? You may be saying, "Yeah, I look to God at some point," but really what you may be doing, and I say this as someone who's been guilty of this too, is God's the last thing. I've looked around, I've done this, I've tried all this on my own, I've put my head down, I've tried powering through, and now when I'm absolutely at the end of myself, then I will look up to God. And I want to encourage you, look to him first. Maybe you're someone who says, "It's hard to trust God. I don't know if I trust that he is protecting me all the time, that he's watching over me, he's guarding me 24/7." And I want to say this, there's a prayer that you can pray to help you in those situations, if that's you, if you have a thought of doubt. It's a scary prayer, sometimes praying scary things helps us, but it is scary. It's this prayer, "God, show me more ways in which you are working in my life so that I can give you praise. Show me more ways in which you are at work.”
The truth is, he is at work in your life, whether you see it or not. And if you're not seeing God, then ask to see how he's working in your life. It's a simple prayer. But I think we're going to get to heaven, and it's going to be revealed to us, and I think he's going to be, it's going to be a lot of joy for him to do this. He's going to show us things in our life. He's like, "By the way, I want to show you what I've been doing in your life." And it's going to be all these things that we never knew, all these things that he protected us from, that he guarded us from, that he steered us away from. And so we can pray, "God, can I have a piece of that now? Can I just see a way in which you're working? I want to praise you. I want to know that you're a part of my life." So are you looking up to God? Where are you looking first? Hopefully it's him. I want to end with this. Each week we've encouraged you to do something specific, engaging with music. Music is powerful. Pastor Lauren and I were just at a conference this week. We took the high school students to a youth conference, and we were reminded of how powerful music is, and it embeds in our hearts and minds. It can change our moods. If we're listening to some angry, aggressive music, we might start coming across really short with the people that we're talking to. If we listen to slower instrumental music, it might help our minds focus and study.
So music is powerful. If we listen to worship music, we might be more likely to have a heart that loves and has grace and reflects God's heart. And so the challenge this week is to incorporate a song of scent in your life. What does this look like? Well, maybe on your way to work, to meeting a friend, to an appointment you have, put on a worship song to help your heart prepare for what is to come. It can be from the Psalms, really any worship song, but the idea is on your way to something, listen to something that will bring you closer to God so that when you get there, you have a heart that reflects God's heart. We often have things that stress us out, whether it's work, maybe work is stressful, maybe we have a coffee with someone and it's like their drama is stressing me out, I don't know if I can handle, I'm supposed to talk, I'm supposed to be there for them. Maybe it's just going home after work and you're like, "Home is stressful right now. Got all this stuff going on." And so in that place, have a song of ascent. Prepare your mind and your heart to be there and when you get there, to be a reflection of God. If that's all too overwhelming, I'm going to simplify it down to just this. If you can remember, and maybe we'll send out a text to remind you, a week from today, before church, come to church listening to worship music. On your drive, turn on whatever it is, the radio, K-Love, your iPhone, listen to worship music on the way. And if you want to take a little bonus step, let me say this for you extra achievers out there in this room, listen to worship music Saturday night. Prepare your heart. The way you go to bed on Saturday has an immediate effect on how you go to church on Sunday. So I would say go to bed listening to worship music and have your heart and mind be prepared to say, "When I wake up, I am ready. I'm in a posture to worship God."