Songs for Those Who Are Traveling Home (Psalms 120–122)

Songs on the road have a way of pulling us forward when life pulls us apart. We walk through Psalms 120–122 and the ancient tradition of the Songs of Ascent—lyrics sung by pilgrims climbing toward Jerusalem—that still steady modern hearts surrounded by noise, deceit, and conflict. We start with a clear-eyed look at a world that prefers war to peace and lies to truth, then learn how honest lament becomes the first step of real pilgrimage.

From there, we rethink the familiar line, “I lift up my eyes to the hills.” Those hills weren’t safe; they were places of ambush and idolatry. Help doesn’t come from the landscape or from quick fixes perched on high places. Help comes from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. We talk about the God who never sleeps, why his vigilance frees us to rest, and how his nearness is like shade that cools our fears in the heat of the day and stills our minds in the watches of the night. This is practical faith for anxious commuters, exhausted parents, and anyone tempted by easy escapes.

Finally, joy rises in Psalm 122 as David calls us to gather, give thanks, and look ahead. Jerusalem becomes a signpost of unity and a promise of a king from David’s line who will judge with justice and bring lasting peace. We unpack why praying for the peace of Jerusalem is a forward-facing prayer that longs for Christ’s return and a restored world. Along the way, we share simple, grounded ways to sing through struggle, resist the pull of counterfeit help, and travel with friends who point us back to worship.

If this journey helps you rest and hope, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find the show. What line from these psalms will you carry into your week?

The Christian's Compass is a companion study guide that corresponds to each of these lessons along The Wisdom Journey. Download a copy for free, or cover the cost of printing and shipping and we'll mail you a booklet.

Learn More: https://www.wisdomonline.org/mp/the-christians-compass

Chapters

• 0:00 Songs That Carry Us Home
• 2:21 What The Songs Of Ascent Mean
• 4:37 Psalm 120: Lying Lips And War
• 6:26 Choosing Worship In A Hostile World
• 6:56 Psalm 121: Help Beyond The Hills
• 9:07 The Lord Who Never Sleeps
• 10:22 Shade By Day, Safety By Night
• 10:57 Psalm 122: Joy In Jerusalem
• 12:22 Thrones, Prophecy, And The Coming King
• 13:37 Praying For The Peace Of Jerusalem
• 14:42 Blessing, Resources, And Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:37

Do you have some songs that remind you of home? Have you ever been on a journey and some songs encouraged you? Maybe God uses a song to lift your spirits in a difficult time. No matter where you are in life, God is with you and protecting you. You can rejoice in the truth that you have immediate access to his presence. Some of the psalms speak about this, and Stephen Davy called this lesson songs for those who are traveling home.

SPEAKER_01: 2:15

We've now arrived in our wisdom journey to Psalm 120, and this begins a collection of 15 Psalms, and they're given the same heading, a song of ascent. Or you could translate this, a song of going up. This title comes from the fact that Jerusalem is at a high elevation there in the land of Israel. Back in Exodus chapter 23, the Lord commanded all adult male Israelites to appear before him during three significant festivals. And this required, of course, then making the trip to Jerusalem, which meant they were literally going up. They were ascending to the holy city. Many of them would bring their families along with them, just as Joseph and Mary brought Jesus in his early years. Now the practice of singing along the journey to Jerusalem began back in those ancient days. We're not exactly sure when. This became, though, a long held tradition. In fact, the prophecy in Isaiah chapter thirty and verse twenty nine reads, You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the rock of Israel. So these psalms of ascent then were traveling songs. They were written for the Israelites to sing on their way to these three annual feasts. You had Passover, that was unleavened bread, you had Pentecost, the feast of weeks, and tabernacles, or the feast of booths. Now keep in mind that these fifteen psalms or songs kept God's people focused on essentially reaching God. I guess you could say it that way. Jerusalem really wasn't their destination. God was. You see, worshiping Him was their focus, and this singing along the way prepared their hearts. Now when you read Psalm 120, you discover here in the opening verses that the author is troubled by the fact that he's living in a world of deception. Frankly, he's had about all he can take. He writes here in verse two, Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. He's also grieving here that he lives not only in a deceitful world, but in a depraved world, he writes in verse five. Woe to me that I sojourn in Meshach, that I dwell among the tents of Kidar. In other words, he's bothered by the pagan influence of the people living in the far north of Israel as well as in the southeast. It might be, in fact, that he had neighbors who had adopted the pagan lifestyles of these idolatrous people. So as he's traveling toward Jerusalem to worship the Lord, he's troubled that his world is so wicked, it's so deceitful and depraved. But he's now going to complain to God as he sings that his world is also dangerous. He writes here in verse 6, Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. Well, maybe that sounds like your world today. You love the truth, you want to speak the truth, but people around you just want to keep on lying or believing lies. You want to live a pure life, but you're surrounded by people who want to be impure. You just want a little peace. You just want a little tranquility, but everybody else just wants to stir up trouble. Well, let me tell you, beloved, that's the perfect time to make sure you're heading upward toward Jerusalem, so to speak. That is, you're ascending to God through faith and trust in your praying, in your singing, in your thinking. You might be troubled today. You might be exhausted. But in spite of what's surrounding you, you're going to choose to surrender in worship to your living Lord. Well, now Psalm 121 immediately gives us the sense that this journey up to Jerusalem is now underway. The author writes here in verse 1, I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come from? I gotta tell you, this verse is often misunderstood. Help isn't coming from those hills. You see, as the pilgrims are traveling to Jerusalem, they're camping out at night. They're constantly on the lookout for robbers and wild animals. Those hills actually represented physical danger, but they also represented spiritual danger. That's because pagan places of worship were built on top of those high hills. Idolatry and false worship included sexual immorality, it included drunkenness. These were all temptations for the Israelites. So the travelers going up to Jerusalem would want to steer clear of those high places of idolatry. So the psalmist is really asking this question: where am I going to find help as I look up ahead to those high hills? Well, he answers his own question here in verse 2. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Maybe today, beloved, you're surrounded by unbelievers, liars, temptations, troublemakers. Your help isn't up there in those hills. It's in the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. Well, the psalmist goes on to say here in verses three and four that the Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps. In other words, he never goes off duty. He's always on guard. So as you head in life through those dangerous places, God isn't dozing off, he isn't slumbering, he isn't sleeping, and you know what that means? That means you can. You can sleep at night. You can you can doze off and take a nap. Why? Because God is never sleeping, He's always watching over you. Well, here in verse 5, the author reinforces this idea as he writes, The Lord is your shade on your right hand. It's another way of saying the Lord is close at hand. And his presence is literally casting a shadow over you, like a like a shade tree on a hot afternoon. The psalmist adds here in verse 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. To understand this, we have to go back to the ancient days where the sun was believed by the pagans to attack people with heat. That was actually the sun attacking them. And the moon supposedly made people lose their minds. Well, the point is then here that either during the daytime or in the nighttime, no matter what kind of attack you're experiencing, your source of strength remains steady. It comes from the Creator, Lord. He created the sun. God created the moon. You're not subject to them. You have no reason to fear them. They are subject to him. Well, now with that, we turn to Psalm 122, which David composed as a song that's going to remind the travelers of the glory and power of God. David has come to Jerusalem with thousands of others during one of these festivals, and he couldn't be any happier to have so many friends around him who encourage him to worship the Lord. David writes it this way here in verse one. Well, let me tell you, it's a wonderful thing, isn't it, to have friends who want to worship the Lord with you? Historians tell us that by the time of Christ, Jerusalem's population during one of these festivals would swell to more than a million people, as all these travelers arrived. Verse 4 tells us here that they all come from the tribes who go up to give thanks to the name of the Lord. Then here in verse 5, David begins to sing prophetically about the future role of Jerusalem, and now he's referring to the coming kingdom that hasn't arrived yet. He writes it this way, there, that is in Jerusalem, thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. Well, this future promise of the Lord through David was actually made back in 2 Samuel chapter 7. The promise included a forever king sitting on David's throne in Jerusalem. That king happens to be the Messiah, King Jesus. If you go all the way over to Revelation chapter 20, you have the fulfillment of this prophecy here. It unfolds as Jesus returns, sets up his thousand-year kingdom on earth following the tribulation period, his return to earth with his redeemed, and he finally reigns in Jerusalem. And let me tell you something, beloved. The prophecies of the first coming of Jesus all came to pass. I mean, from the town he was born in to the cross he died on. And we can be sure that the prophecies of his second coming will all come true as well. And the invitation here, by the way, in Psalm 122 and verse 6 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That's a prayer that is looking all the way down to Revelation chapter 20, when Jesus reigns upon that throne at his second coming. And I need to say that because listen, there isn't going to be any peace in Jerusalem. There isn't going to be any lasting peace, I should say, until that day when Jesus Christ returns and sets up his headquarters in Jerusalem and rules and reigns from his throne in that city. So when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, you're actually praying prophecy. You are praying for that lasting peace that will finally come to the land of Israel when Jesus returns one day. So you're actually praying, Lord, come quickly. Well, in the meantime, as we wait for Him, as we live for Him today, here's my prayer for you. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 13:37

Thanks for listening to The Wisdom Journey with Stephen Davey. To learn more about us and access all of our Bible teaching resources, visit wisdomonline.org. Our phone number is 866-482-4253. And you can email us at info at wisdomonline.org. Stephen developed this daily program to help you know what the Bible says, understand what it means, and apply it to your life. So please join us next time to continue the wisdom journey.