The Psalms of Ascents are Psalms 120-134. The final psalm in the series of “fifteen steps” pictures a pilgrim inviting servants of the LORD who stand by night to bless Him and to lift up their hands in the Holy Place.
Adult males in Israel were required to journey three times a year to Jerusalem and there ascend to the Temple on Mt Zion. The contrast between the oppressed believer in Psalm 120 who is starting out and the joyous one in Psalm 134 who is arriving.
My observation is that over the past five decades we’ve lost something of the ascension experience; from verbal oppression upward to heartfelt thanksgiving, to high praise and to sublime worship. The old hymns captured the onward and upward experience; the choruses less so; and rare these days are those that rise above praise.
The essence of thanksgiving and praise is gratitude for the things the Lord has done in our lives, but worship has less to do with that and more to do with the One True God as the Creator of all things and the Redeemer of the lost.
The shift has been downward rather than upward: from hymns of redemption to melodious songs to lovely lyrics to pounding beats. It has been from rhyme to blank verse, and from heartfelt holiness to mere happiness, and the journey downward has resulted in Worship Lite.
I could soften this by referring to some good aspects resulting from the change; for example, a wider appeal to young adults in societies that were somewhat sacred but have now become secular; but to do so would be to soften the point of this post, which is to urge friends to read Psalms 120 to 134 and move from the ordinary to the upward, from thanksgiving to praise, then to high praise, and then to worship.
The LORD’S desire is to inspire us as we continue our personal pilgrimage. Nowadays, this does not necessitate a pilgrimage over distance followed by a hard climb (of more than 3,000 feet from Jericho up to Jerusalem) but instead an increase in the time spent in the presence of the Lord (which to those among us who are “time poor” may prove much more taxing). The worship of God on this or that holy mountain ceased with the coming of the Holy Spirit into the church (John 4:21)
Read Psalms 120 through 134 and with each verse overcome the climb and enjoy the ascension experience: the rise to new heights in Christ through thanksgiving, high praise, and worship, the end of which will be a fresh encounter with God that will enable you to ‘descend’ to the normality of everyday life! Until the next Feast, when again it will be
onward and upward!