This is the first of the pilgrim psalms in the Psalter under the title of "Songs of Ascents". Now there is much theological speculation about the use of these psalms in Hebrew times past. Some think that each was sung upon a particular step in the Temple worship. Something perhaps like the fourteen stations of the cross still celebrated in many Catholic congregations. Others think that these songs were sung by the pilgrims on their annual trip up to Jerusalem. John Calvin thought that the ascents were meant to be sung only in a higher key than the others. Some ancient commentators even concoct a supra-spiritual meaning to the ascental order of theses psalms.

Given the wide disparity of thought, it is probably just as well that Calvin noted that he was "not disposed to make it the subject of elaborate investigation." In that same spirit shall we agree and while we will follow the series of ascental psalms, we will focus upon the lessons that are clearly of benefit to us.

Today we focus our thoughts upon the first in this series, the 120th. Derek Kidner entitles this psalm "The Outsider". He well notes the strong personal nature of this psalm of a pilgrim who wants to leave his present company and seek a better company. Well may we observe this desire even in our own day and time. Very many of the cults fill themselves with lonely people who desire a better life than they have. We may be very certain that while not all the cults are as desperate as those historic ones at Jonestown or Waco, but still the end of those who are suckered in is just as final and just as fiery throughout eternity!

Would it not be far better for us to befriend the lonesome and the desperate so that they might have a hope in heaven once they come to know the source of our kindness and our love? Do you see the ministerial need in our time and culture that is an unspoken hope of many lost and wayward sheep whom the devil would pull into one of his own cults if he could!

Look at the earnest desire of the lost soul in this psalm. And even if he is not lost, look at the undesirable company that he is forced to keep far and away from the holy city and fellowship of our very own God. Perhaps you can even remember the early steps in your own salvation as you hear the desire of our psalmist here? "In my distress I cried to the Lord, and He heard me."

There is the fond hope in heaven that leads people to begin the process of salvation. Very many are the elect who have had a miserable existence and hoped for something better. That something better was the hope of finding peace and safety in the arms of the God of heaven.

"Save me, O Lord," the NIV version insists ... from what? I remember one evangelist who approached a sinner with the invitation of salvation. The sinner didn't realize that he needed saving from anything. He was perfectly content in his lost condition. But how much more appealing is the blessing of working with sinners who already realize their particular need. One of my friends once experienced the frustrations of working as an evangelist. He wondered why a drunken friend was more interested in talking about Jesus Christ than the members of his Sunday School class in a liberal church. Why indeed, except the one has needs that the socially pampered have yet to dream of? This does not mean that the members of his class are all to be denied access to our God, however they feel no pain nor need and are unlikely to search with the same desperation as those who are down and out.

As we examine the context of this particular psalm, we may well wonder by what means the author found his way home from the likes of Meshech and Kedar! One observation that we may make of the majority of people in our time is that the totally liberal nature of their education and religion practically makes them immune to conversion. Our psalmist at least wishes to be saved from lying lips and deceitful tongues. Would that more people desired the same in our era. Our psalmist wonders out loud what God will do to the lying lips and deceitful tongues of his time. May we learn to wonder of our age as well.

During the Son of Heaven display a decade ago I learned that at one time the very ancient Chinese worshiped one creator spirit which they called "Shangtri". One of the early sons of heaven put an end to such worship in favor of his own divinity and a multiplied polytheism on purpose.

In that same sense may we view the literary and scientific works of a select group of authors in the last century. Beethoven, we know had an overwrought sense of his own importance and the power of his music. Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and other writers had a humanistic purpose in their writings. Richard Wagner built on the foundations of lesser "gods and goddesses" to celebrate the Twilight of the gods in his hope to rescue mankind from the Christian God. In that framework, Charles Darwin, the greatest Science Fiction writer of all time, set forth his miserable myth which most educated people feel required to believe. Freud, Marx, Carnegie and a multitude of others built on Darwin's essential myth to reorganize all of modern society.

Well may we know that even today there are lies, darn lies and statistics to be rescued from. These modern myths, like the ancient Chinese myths have been established with a common purpose - to drive out the worship of our One God.

What would our psalmist wish upon these myth makers? Look at verse four. "He will punish you with a warrior's sharp arrows, with burning coals of the broom tree." Somewhere, some how in the midst of death's destruction, the myth makers and common liars of all ages will have a warm welcome.

"Woe is me", moans our psalmist to have lived in the far places from Zion's pleasant porches. Meshech and Kedar represent the far north and south geographically in Palestine. To have lived amongst such pagans even more remote spiritually than geographically was the real cause of angst. "My soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war."

Such is the common cause of all those who have loved the peace and security of Zion's holy hill. Even if we know the peace of Christ in our hearts, we still dwell in a worldly world, we even in being close to Christ are still far away from heaven.

This earnest desire for peace can be demonstrated in many ways in our day and time. Would that news programs only long enough to share the essential news - like the interruptions when something really important happens. There is really no need for the hours and hours devoted to constant analysis and the newly conceived habit of making news to mold public opinion.

At school, I am considered somewhat laid back by the students, we don't hurry about our work, we take our time to make a point well and then to reinforce it twice over or more. A few students will even admit that they are rested after my class from the hustle and bustle of making work which is often futile and meaningless. So much of the educational establishment these days is ordered by the need to imitate the frenzy of the sports establishment.

Once at Seminary, we had a two week summer course in the use and abuse of the camping environment for the sake of ministry. After a week's reading and study, we were divided into two groups by popular association. The one group was always on the run - identifying plants, playing competitive games and all the usual activities that plague such camps.

Our group, camped out around the fire barrel and cooked for the frenzied go-getters, did the dishes and sat around, talked, read and rested. Guess which group was most prepared to return to the real world at the end of the week?

How much I can personally identify with the plight of this psalmist after twenty-five years in public service! It is so fortunate for those who belong to the Lord, that they truthfully and faithfully gain from His kind provision of one day's rest in every seven. And in His house, week by week, they are rewarded with a foretaste of heaven's rest from all the worldly pursuits that wear us down. May we learn to yearn for heaven even as our psalmist yearned for Zion. May we also learn to perceive the liar's songs that are sung in our world, so that we may better appreciate the hope of heaven. Amen.