Today we come to the end of the Psalms of Ascent.
Here are some final thoughts from Eugene Peterson on the last three….
Psalm 132—Obedience—“How he swore to the Lord”
Christians tramp well-worn paths: obedience has a
history.
That history is important for without it we are
at the mercy of whims. Memory is a data bank we use to evaluate our position
and make decisions. With a biblical memory we have two thousand years of
experience from which to make the off-the cuff responses that are required each
day in the life of faith. If we are going to live adequately and maturely as
the people of God, we need more data to work from than our own experience can
give us….
A Christian who stays put is no better than a
statue. A person who leaps about constantly is under suspicion of being not a
man but a jumping jack. What we require is obedience—the strength to stand and
the willingness to leap, and the sense to know when to do which. Which is
exactly what we get when an accurate memory of God’s ways is combined with a
lively hope in his promises.
Psalm 133—Community—Like the precious oil upon the head”
There are Christians, of course, who never put
their names down on a membership list; there are Christians who refuse to
respond to the call to worship each Sunday; there are Christians who say, “I
love God but I hate the church.” But they are members all the same, whether
they like it or not, whether they acknowledge it or not. For God never makes
private, secret salvation deals with people. His relationships with us are
personal, true: intimate, yes; but private, no. We are a family in Christ. When
we become Christians, we are among brothers and sisters in faith. No Christian
is an only child….
As we come to declare our love for God we must
face the unlovely and lovely fellow sinners whom God loves and commands us to
love….
Another common way to avoid community is to turn
the church into an institution. In this way people are treated not on the basis
of personal relationships but in terms of impersonal functions. Goals are set
that will catch the imagination of the largest numbers of people; structures
are developed that will accomplish the goal through planning and organization.
Organizational planning and institutional goals become the criteria by which
the community is defined and evaluated. In the process the church becomes less
and less a community, that is, people who pay attention to each other,
(“brothers living together”), and more and more a collectivism of “contributing
units.”
“No recorded cultural system has ever had enough
different expectations to match all the children who were born within it.”
Margaret Mead
A Community of faith flourishes when we view each
other with this expectancy, wondering what God will do today in this one, in
that one. When we are in a community with those Christ loves and redeems, we
are constantly finding out new things about them. They are new persons each
morning, endless in their possibilities. We explore the fascinating depths of
their friendship, share the secrets of their quest. It is impossible to be
bored in such a community, impossible to feel alienated among such people.
Psalm 134—Blessing—“Lift up your hands”
Glorify. Enjoy. There are other things involved
in Christian discipleship. The Psalms of Ascents have shown some of them. But
it is extremely important to know the one thing that overrides everything else.
The main thing is not work for the Lord; it is not suffering in the name of the
Lord; it is not witnessing to the Lord; it is not teaching Sunday school for
the Lord; it is not being responsible for the sake of the Lord in the
community; it is not keeping the Ten Commandments; not loving your neighbor;
not observing the golden rule. “The chief end of man is to glorify God and
enjoy him forever.” Or, in the vocabulary of Psalm 134, “Bless the Lord.”
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