Joel Nagel
6.27.2020
Psalm 120-127
Summary
The 15 Psalms that follow the longest Psalm in the bible are called the Songs of Ascents (see subheading under each Psalm). These were the songs that people would sing as they travelled with their families to Jerusalem for festivals like Passover or Tabernacles. I’m preaching about these Psalms on Sunday so I’m including a longer video for Saturday and Monday from my message (spoiler alert!) and a poster to help you pray through these Psalms and have a super epic prayer time.
Key Verse:
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” – Psalm 121:1-2
This has been one of my favorite verses in the bible for a long time. The Psalmist wasn’t looking at the hills because they were beautiful or imposing. The hills were full of high places where people would worship improperly. There must have been such a temptation on the long journey to Jerusalem to just stop at one of these places and worship instead of totally following God. These tourist traps could make you feel like you were doing a good thing even though you were breaking God’s law that his people must only worship on Mount Zion.
Vision of God
God wants us to sacrifice to worship him. I’m so grateful that I don’t have to lug sheep to Jerusalem 3x a year but I still have to watch out for shortcuts. If worshipping God isn’t at least a little hard then I’m probably not doing it right.
Vision of Others
The question in the Psalm is so good! “Where does my help come from?” I’m so grateful to have amazing spiritual friends and counselors but at the end of the day my help must come from the Lord. After all, he is the maker of heaven and earth.
Go with God
I want to work and sacrifice to spend time with God!
Jesus
Jesus shows us what living for God with no shortcuts looks like on the cross and then he shows us how blessed we will be with the empty tomb!
2020 Bible Vision 