We, a few weeks ago, a couple weeks ago, finished our series through the Gospel of John. That took 76 messages in two years. And now some of you are really worried because you see the word Psalms. And you're like, ooh, buddy. But I would notice, I would ask you a note of assent, because this is not the entire book of Psalms we're going to attempt to undertake. We're going to go to a certain portion of the book of Psalms, And today we're going to be in Psalm 120. Do you like music? Maybe you're kind of a earbuds in, listen to something all day kind of person. I love music, but I have to admit that when it comes to listening to music, I kind of go through phases. Currently I have on my phone, I have this free trial of Apple Music for like two months. during the week when I'm here working on stuff, I enjoy, you know, I put the earbuds in, I listen to music as I work on sermons and other things. But I mean, I'll tell you, next month that's gonna expire and I'll be back into that, well, I guess maybe I'll listen to something or maybe I won't because I just don't pay for that kind of stuff, you know? But maybe you do, you know? Maybe you just really love and you enjoy and you consume it, and there's nothing wrong with that, right? Because over the years, God's people have expressed theology and doctrine through song, through music. They have cheered heart and soul through the great songs and hymns. If you study the texts and you study the history of countless hymns of the faith, you will learn the lessons and life events that were brought about by God in the writings of these hymns. It's a fascinating thing. But theology, doctrine, comfort, and pedagogy are not 21st century concepts for him to read. They aren't even 20th or 19th or 18th or 17th or 16th century concepts. God's people using music to express praise, teaching, lament to God about the life of God's people and about God has its roots in ancient history. As you leaf through the scriptures, you run across the oldest collection of these songs and poems in this book of the Bible called Psalms. These collected works span generations of Israelite history, and many people from Israel's history contributed to its writing under inspiration of God. David is perhaps the most well-known of the authors of the Psalms, but he is not the only human author to appear in the pages of the book of Psalms. And as you peruse the Psalms, you come across a collection within the collection here in Psalms 120 through Psalms 134. Hot on the heels of the Bible's longest chapter, these shorter Psalms bear a curious title, the Psalms of Ascent. In reality, you could call this collection the Psalter within the Psalter. And while various reasons and theories have been offered over the years as the reason why these are called the Psalms of Ascent, there is one consistent explanation for the title that's assigned to this collection. It resurfaces time and again and fits what's going on here as we look at the history of Israel. According to God's law, there were three feasts that required every male Israelite to travel to Jerusalem each year. That was the Passover and the subsequent Feast of of unleavened bread, the Feast of Weeks, which we also know as Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. And if you study those, you'll find that each of these were crucial in their own way to Jewish life and worship of God. And what you need to understand about the topography of the nation of Israel is this, that no matter where you are located, the hike, the trek to Jerusalem is always a climb. So no matter where you begin your journey, the wording of scripture is always the same. You always go up to Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem is located at a higher level than other places there in Israel. And of course, there's Mount Zion that's there as well. So physically, Jerusalem is located at a higher elevation than other places in Israel. So even if you live near Galilee in the northern part of Israel, and you're traveling south, you're still going up to Jerusalem. Spiritually, the trek to Jerusalem is also up as well, because it is in Jerusalem that Solomon's temple was constructed. There, the worship of God was carried out as he commanded in the Old Testament law, and even after the temple was destroyed, it was later rebuilt, and the people would come to worship God there in Jerusalem. So as one was traveling up to Jerusalem, he was moving towards the place where God's presence was demonstrated among his people. It doesn't mean it's the only place that God was because God cannot be contained, but his presence is demonstrated there and that's where they would go to worship him. So then, why are these called the Psalms of Ascent? They are called this because as the people travel to Jerusalem, As they went up to Jerusalem, they would sing these songs. These songs were committed to the hearts of the Israelites and were precious to them. Think about this. When Jesus was a boy and his family went to Jerusalem, do you know what they sang? They sang these songs. When Jesus and his disciples went up to Jerusalem, you know what they would sing? They would sing these songs. These songs remind the people of the afflictions they had suffered. They remind them of the work of God on their behalf and the blessing of being in Jerusalem where God's presence dwelt. And they still speak the truth of God to our hearts today, calling us to trust the Lord and live for him, let come what may. So no matter what the road of life brings, we may walk on that road singing as we go. But that is, of course, only if we have a relationship with God and we stay focused on Him, serving Him and living for His glory. So with that, let us look at Psalm 120 today. And we read here together a song of ascents In my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you? And what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? A warrior's sharp arrows with glowing coals of the broom tree. Woe to me that I sojourn in Mishek and I dwell among the tents of Kedar. Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, They are for war. Fathers, we come before you today and open the Word of God, and we begin this look at these Psalms of Ascent, the songs that your people sang. May you use these texts that were inspired by you to stir our hearts again. May we see you for who you are, high and lifted up. May we see our situation as pilgrims in this life if we know you as Savior. May we long for the day that we would see you face to face, but may we trust you here in this place, that we may live for your honor and your glory. We pray, whatever it is that you want to do in our hearts today, convict us of sin, draw us to yourself, show one their need of the Savior. May you have the freedom to do that today. In your name we pray, amen. As we open Psalm 120 today, the title is A Pilgrim's Life for Me, because many of these psalms are called the pilgrim songs. And what you're gonna see here today, though, particularly, is the focus of one who is a pilgrim. And as you open this psalm, what you're gonna see here is this, that hope and peace for life are found in trusting God as we struggle through this broken world, longing for eternity with God. And I chose that wording Purposefully. Because do you ever feel that life is a struggle? Do you ever feel the brokenness of the world that we live in? Even as a Christian, you struggle with sin. You struggle with the lies of our culture. You struggle with the lies of your own heart and flesh. And we feel that the world is broken. And our hope for peace, our hope for eternity, for the everyday ability just to keep serving the Lord is found in God alone. We don't look within ourselves. We look to him. And that's exactly what Psalm 120 does. It focuses us on who God is and what he's done as we are pilgrims going through this life. And it begins with these first couple of verses here. We see the pilgrim's hope. In verse one, we see the answer to the trouble that we face. In my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me. So this psalm begins with one who is in distress. Let me back up even further. This song is about, it is sung by a pilgrim. And I've used that word, and so maybe we should define what we mean by that term. What is a pilgrim? Well, a pilgrim is someone who has grown dissatisfied with where he is, longs for something better, and so therefore makes strides to that end. If you are a student of American history, I hope that you already understand that concept and that word, right? Because this is that time of year, as we get ready to go into November, that we start talking about pilgrims. And pilgrims are more than just those little plump salt and pepper shakers that your mom put out at Thanksgiving, right? These people, right, that we think about American history, they weren't satisfied with the situation where they were, so they did something about it, right? They got on a boat and they left. And so the idea of what a pilgrim is, we can understand that, that Psalm 120 is a song of an Israelite who is unhappy where he has been and he longs to be home. It is one, the Psalm is one that is fitting to be sung as he ascends to Jerusalem, because he's going to that place where he longs to be. And the thoughts and the feelings of the physical pilgrim in Psalm 120 are shared today by us as pilgrims passing through this life, looking ahead to eternity with God. You know, we feel that reality that was recorded by the author of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 14, for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. The author of this psalm felt distress in his life. He was afflicted by his surroundings. He was troubled by his experiences and his observations. And in his distress, we read here in verse one, he calls out to the Lord, specifically he calls out to Yahweh, the self-existent God. And to this end, know this, that trouble can serve a glorious purpose in our lives. One pastor said it this way, see the wondrous advantage of trouble that it makes us call upon God. God uses all things in our lives for our good and his glory. That's really easy to say when everything is going pretty well in your life. You know, God uses everything for my good and his glory, but when things are really crummy, perhaps that's a little harder to remember. But God uses the distress of this life even to cause us to cry out to him. He can use our distress to help us turn our hearts to Him. And know this, that it is good and right to call out to God at all times. It is good and right to praise God when things are going well. It is good and right to seek God for our daily needs. It is good and right, though, to also call out to God in our times of distress. The Scriptures are full of God's promises to hear the prayers of His people. And I'm going to give you just a few of those here rather quickly. Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 29, the Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. Jeremiah 33, three, call to me and I will answer you and I will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Second Chronicles chapter seven and verse 14, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. James one, five, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him. Hebrews 4, 16, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And every one of those passages is a message in and of itself and the context to frame it in. But just know that each one of those is a promise God was making to his people to hear their prayers. In this world, we are bound to experience hardship and distress. If you haven't, just hang on. Because this world is a sinful broken place. We are surrounded by sinful broken people and we are sinful broken people. So we're gonna feel boxed in. We're gonna feel oppressed by what we see and what we experience. We're gonna feel wearied by the world that we live in. We feel like life is a struggle as we wrestle with our own sinfulness even after salvation. But know this, we are never without hope because our God is attendant to the prayers of his people. Never let your heart grow so despondent and discouraged that you do not look to your God. Now that is a truth that preaches easy and lives hard. Is it not? It's one thing to say, yeah, I mean, that's right. We'll never let our heart grow so despondent we won't look to God. And then we get into the place where we're in distress and we're like, I don't know what to do. You ever done that? And then like after you've wrestled with it and wrestled with it and wrestled with it, you're like, you know, I probably should talk to God about this. And it's not like it's the magical fairy dust and it all goes away. but there's hope there, there's peace there. Let us seek the Lord and ask him to remind us of his loving kindness and his presence when we feel so far away. And so I would encourage you to this end. We should cultivate a close relationship with God at all times. When we're in what we might call the good times of our lives, that's when we have a tendency sometimes to forget the Lord and we should be using those times to cultivate that deep relationship with God. When we experience times of goodness and abundance, may we not leave God's side or forget his omniscience, but may we be drawn closer to our great God, because such a deep relationship will help us to turn to God in times of distress. But do not think that the hard times are not times to go close to the Lord, because it is often in the valleys of our lives that we draw closest to God. Because in our God, we have hope. And the reason for our hope in the Lord in these times is because he answers us. The psalmist said, in my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. If God would not answer, there would be no hope. His answers in the past, when we look back in our lives and we see his answers, they call for our trust in the present and in the future. Now, the answer that God gives may not be the answer we thought it would be or think it should be or the time that we thought it would happen, but God promises to answer the prayers of his children. And there is no other person, there is no other deity who can hear our cries no matter where we are or what we experience. Only God is available to us as the infinite, immense creator. He is our hope and he is worthy to be trusted. God is the answer to the trouble that we face. And again, this does not mean he will always remove everything that troubles us. Sometimes he keeps us in a place where all we can do is cry because that is what we need. But with his help, we can find strength and grace to walk this life on earth And we can see specifically what troubles the psalmist here. We see not only is the psalmist crying out to God and see that God is the answer to his trouble, but we see in verse two, under this hope of the pilgrim, the oppressors of the righteous. Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. So the psalmist is one who loves and follows the Lord. So therefore he loves the ways of the Lord. One of the defining attributes of God is that he is the God of truth. God is the definition of truth. God speaks only truth. So therefore, it must follow that if you are a follower of God, you love truth. If we don't love truth, we show we don't belong to God because those who follow God love truth. The truth is what leads us to the Lord. It is therefore the truth that keeps us in fellowship with God. And so therefore, the psalmist asks that God would deliver him from lying lips and a deceitful tongue. And what he's talking about here, by the way, is not his own lying lips and his own deceitful tongue. He is talking about others who are seeking his destruction. The sinful world that we live in loves lies. Those who do not belong to God are opposed to the things of God. Satan is the master and the father of lies. Therefore, his entire domain is built on lies. And what is the greatest lie? Satan tells us that we can choose to do what we want, and God isn't gonna punish you for sin, and you're not accountable to God. That's all a lie. They may not always look like lies, but they're there. And inevitably, these lies will attack God and his kingdom. And the psalmist feels the oppression of those who lie. Now, perhaps here, this psalmist is the specific target of liars in his life, or perhaps he just feels the general oppression as a follower of God experiencing the hardship of living for the truth in a world full of lies. And maybe you resonate with that. Maybe you feel the oppression of trying to live for what is right in a world where what is wrong is called right. And sin will lie to you. Sin will promise you anything to allure you from God. It promises you freedom, release, fulfillment, a good life. It besmirches the things of God. It claims that such a path is the way to restriction and drudgery. And Satan's lies always attack God's goodness and his grace. Go back to Genesis chapter three. That's where it started. From the very beginning, the lies of Satan attack the goodness and the grace of God. And the people of God will feel this oppression. It is part of the friction that the sinful world produces. And the answer is always that we should cry out to God. When you feel the oppression of the world, When you feel the despair of life, when you feel the attacks of just the world we live in that's opposed to God, cry out to God. He is the hope of the pilgrim, a pilgrim's hope. And we cry out to him and we trust in him because secondly, we see he is our trust for justice. In verses three and four, we see a pilgrim's justice. Let's begin by looking at verses three and four and see that there is a coming judgment of evil. What shall be given to you and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? Oh, warrior's sharp arrows with glowing coals of the broom tree. So the psalmist now turns and considers what will become of those who oppress him. And what he says here is the deceitful tongue must expect that something is going to happen. Those who love right, those who follow God, understand this basic concept. Our actions have consequences. Right? I mean, if you bought into Satan's lies, you don't believe that, right? You're not accountable to God. You do what you want. But if you've come to a relationship with God, you understand, look, my sin, my actions have consequences. I'm accountable to my creator. That's why I need Jesus Christ. God's righteousness requires him to judge sin, and he does not always judge sin immediately. In his long suffering, he gives sinners an opportunity to repent, but make no mistake, one day God's justice will come. And the psalmist here sees God's justice like sharp arrows and fire. These verses speak of retribution that will be carried out against the wicked one day. He mentions here the glowing coals of the broom tree. The broom tree was a tree that was used for fire because it burned longer than most woods. And it is not the first time in Scripture, the only time in Scripture, that God's judgment is pictured as fire. We read in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 29, our God is a consuming fire. God's justice is seen as a fire that consumes and refines. When you think about fire, you understand that it burns everything in its path until nothing is left. The answer to sin's deceit is the judgment of God that will one day consume his enemies. The psalmist sees in God the eventual destruction of the wicked, the lies and the deceit of the wicked will one day be destroyed by the arrows and fires of God's judgment. And so honestly, we have to understand then that there is a great comfort in the fact that we know that God is the judge. So therefore we need to trust God as the righteous judge. Because we, like the psalmist, again, we feel oppressed. And we look ahead to what God promises to one day set all things right. And sometimes we see this judgment from God play out on earth. We see those who exalt themselves against God, who propitiate sin and call it good, we see them sometimes get their, what we may call their just desserts, right? because God always balances the scales. But understand this, God is the only one with the prerogative to declare what the judgment is and when that will happen. We don't get to make those rules. God is the judge. So therefore, may we trust God for his righteous judgment to be delivered in his time. You know what that doesn't mean? That doesn't mean we don't stand up for what is right, right? Because we love truth. That doesn't mean we don't speak the truth, but it does mean that we stand up for what is right and we speak the truth and we leave the work of that, the finality of those things in God's hands because he's the judge. We can rest in God's control. knowing he will do what is best and right for his perfect will and plan. And may we realize, may we soberly realize that one day, final judgment will come. You understand that each day, final judgment comes on sinners faster than you know it. Because my friend, people are dying and going to hell today. There are people meeting the end of their lives, and they have rejected God, and they have not accepted Him, they have refused the gospel, and they are dying, and they're going to hell to spend eternity separated from God. They are meeting their judgment every day. You know what that should do to us? That should sober us, that should motivate us to share the gospel. to give the good news of what Jesus has done to others, to build relationships with people that we may share with them what God has done for us. One day, the new heaven and the new earth will be created. We read about that in the book of Revelation, and sin, and death, and the awfulness of this life will be eradicated forevermore, but until then, we have a mission. to preach the gospel to the lost, to trust God to do what he says he's going to do. And all the while we long for the peace of God as pilgrims. The last thing we see in this psalm today is a pilgrim's peace. In verse five, we see the life of a pilgrim. Woe to me that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar. This song is the song of the pilgrim, right? We said a pilgrim is one who longs for a better place. It is the cry of one who realizes and one who lives where he's not ultimately going to live one day. It is one who travels through life looking ahead to a glorious hope. And along the way, he longs for home. What does the psalmist bemoan here? He bemoans his absence from Israel. He dwells in lands outside of God's promised land. He talks of Meshech and Kedar. These are locations that are far apart from each other. These would be equivalent to modern-day Turkey and then the Arabian Desert. They're not used literally here in Assyria, but they're used as a picture of how far away the psalmist is from his homeland and describe how far he feels from home. And there's great application here to the lives of those who belong to God. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you do not belong to this world and its system of sin. You are a child of God. You are a citizen of God's eternal kingdom. And so therefore, the longing to go home grows stronger the longer you live here. We know this even from the temporal experiences of our lives. Last week, our family had the privilege of going out of town for a week. I love going out of town on trips with my family. We always have a great time together. But the longer I'm gone, the more I look forward to just coming home, right? I mean, I don't know about you, but I say the same thing to my wife every time we get back. I lay down and I go, this is the best bed in the world. You know? I mean, I could have been sleeping on a $3,000 bed or a $50,000 bed, but I just want to get home and sleep. Does that make me old? I don't know, okay? There's just, what does Dorothy say? No place like home, right? That's not in the Bible, okay? And the desire that we feel in a situation like that is a reality we feel in this life on earth. Perhaps you came to the Lord at a younger age. Maybe you would hear people talk of longing for the Lord's return and their desire to be in heaven. I remember that as a kid. I came to know the Lord at an early age, and you hear people talk about going to heaven, and I kind of felt guilty because I was like, man, I mean, That's great, but I kinda have some things I'd like to do in life first, you know? I mean, I've been saving up for that Lego set. I mean, could God wait till then, you know? It was real spiritual, you know? And certainly, there's nothing wrong with living the life God has given us to full measure and to his glory. But perhaps as you've gotten further down the road of life, you realize that you too desire to go to eternity with God. And the longer you're here, the more you feel the reality of what it means to be a pilgrim. And hopefully that's a reality for your life as a Christian. And what I hope is this, I hope that you long to go as a Christian to heaven more and more each day. We should hope that that's our desire, not just because we hurt all the time. I mean, that's a reason, but it's kind of a shallow reason, right? You know, we kind of get to this point in life, and you're like, I just can't do what I used to do. I just like to go to heaven. Well, that's kind of a shallow reason to want to go to heaven, right? Just because you're hurt all the time. We should desire to go to heaven and be with God, because the more we get to know God, the more we just want to be with God. That's a glorious reason, right? We can say, I wanna be with God because I've been reading the word of God, I've been getting to know God, I just love God, I just wanna be with God. I wanna go home. So what we have to understand is this. Being a pilgrim requires us to belong to God. It means we have to grow weary of our present condition. My friend, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior, You are not a pilgrim. You belong to this world. You belong to the system of sin. But if you tire of sin and tire of guilt, of restlessness, of unsurity, of defeat, and wondering if maybe you'll reach heaven one day, you can find peace in Jesus Christ. And then you can know what a pilgrim's life is like, yearning for the presence of God and living in God's power and hope here on earth. A pilgrim knows the things of God and he desires God's ways. It is a desire for the peace of God. We see that in verses six and seven, the desire of a pilgrim. Too long I have had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. The pilgrim of this psalm has dwelt among people who hate peace. He literally dwells among people that are a warring people. He wants to enjoy the peace of God in his homeland. One pastor observed that perhaps nothing has more characterized the human race in history than war. And he's pretty right on that, is he not? Since the fall of man, there has been conflict between God and man and man and man. Again, you read the first four chapters of the Bible, and you find out that after sin comes strife. We live in a world that's full of war, whether it be hot wars or cold wars, wars of words, whether they be in person or online. We are people that are given to strife and conflict, and the people of God should seek God's peace. More than this, in this life, we can know God's peace, even in strife. But one day in eternity, we will know God's peace forevermore. Now perhaps you feel battered in a world that loves war. You feel battered because the Christian life is war. But we're told that very plainly in the scriptures. That's why Paul said in Ephesians chapter six, put on the whole armor of God. You don't put on armor of God so you can sit around and sweat it out, right? You put it on because this is a war. We battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. We long for God to return, not because we gleefully wish for sinners to die, but because we long to be surrounded by God's peace. This is our earnest and right desire, and so may it call us to live a life of praise to God. If we long for God's peace, may we live in and live out God's peace. Though we may speak the things of God's peace and experience pushback from the sinful world, may we continue to seek God's peace and share that with others. We who know Christ are pilgrims. We are not in our final home, but we can hope in God, cry out to God, and live for God, knowing his peace. And that's a peace the world can't take away, my friend. That's a peace that, as Paul would say, surpasses all understanding. Greater than understanding why this is happening in your life is knowing the peace of God in your life. We are why people, right? Why this? Why that? Why this? If you have kids, that's their favorite word, right? But we do that to God, right? Why this? Why this? God, why me? Why did this happen? Why did that happen? We need to rest in God's peace and seek him. And share that peace with a lost and dying world. Hope and peace for life are found by trusting in God as we struggle through this broken world, longing for eternity with God. The life of a Christian on this earth is the life of a pilgrim. We who know Christ no longer belong to the system of this world, yet we aren't home yet. We're not free of sin's influence on our lives. We battle against it in our own hearts, in our own lives daily. So Christian, I ask you today, do you resonate with the psalmist here? Do you long for eternity while you live on this earth? That's natural and normal for a Christian. A relationship with God through Jesus should cause us to desire more of Jesus in our lives every day. And if such a desire wanes in our hearts, it would be right for us to investigate that in our hearts and seek God's rekindling of that desire. Where do you turn in the midst of hardship? Where do you run in times of need? The only place that we will find real hope is in our God. He gives peace in the midst of life's storms, and he offers you hope when you don't see any on the horizon. Trust in God. Look to God. Hope in God. Don't let the hardship in front of you overshadow the reality of who your God is. And if you do not know God, You are still in the camp of the deceitful and the liars that are mentioned here. That's not a good place to be. You have believed the lies of sin and you remain in them. This is the natural, normal state of man. You and I, we are all born in that state. We come into this world as sinners, separated from God. But if that is you today, you can turn to the Savior and find eternal life, peace, and hope. God calls for us to turn from our sin and trust the Savior, because the pilgrim's life, trusting in Him, is true life indeed. Father, thank you for the Word of God that we have had the privilege to study today and its power to change our lives. Thank you for the truths that are here that aren't just arbitrary, they aren't just nice thoughts, that these are life-altering truths. Lord, help us to see who you are and what you've done. Help us to see that you are our only hope, our only source of peace, our only source of life, the only strength to do what is right. Help us to cry out to you. Lord, may we as Christians feel the the pull of eternity and heaven a little more each day. Not because we're sick and tired of our temporal shells falling apart, but because we spend time with you, we get to know you, we love you more and more each day. May that kindle in us a desire to be with you. And Lord, would you convict us? but to share that with other people, to share with them the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Lord, would you do a mighty work in our hearts today. May we hate sin more this week and love you more because you are working in us to draw us to yourself. In your name we pray, amen.