Songs of Ascent and a Poem for Ascension Day

Over the last few weeks I have been doing little chats on Facebook Live, in which I have been reading excerpts from Henri Nouwen's excellent book, Turn my mourning into Dancing, and also sharing whatsoever thoughts that I have discovered or come across through Sermon's or online chat. 

On Monday this week, I was having my own little celebration, as it has been four years since I became a UK citizen. I mentioned on Monday, that as it was going to be Ascension Day on Thursday, I was going to spend the next few days reading some of the "Songs of Ascent" from the Book of Psalms - these are Psalms 120 - 134, that the people of Israel would regard as their songbook as they made their way up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts of Passover, and Shavuot (Pentecost) and other High Holy Days. 

I do not know if they had specific Psalms relating to whichever feast it was they were making their way to Jerusalem to celebrate, but suffice to say there are many of them and so given I only had three day to do, and thus only three Psalms I started with one I am very familiar with at the start of this section Psalm 121.

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

1I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

2My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

3He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber;

4indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

5The Lord watches over you—

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7The Lord will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

8the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

On Tuesday morning I was not feeling well and so as you can imagine my Facebook broadcast did not happen, so instead I decided to write this blog.  I still felt there is something of value I could share with you.  I did think about what Psalm I wanted to share and it was Psalm 124 that was going to be my Song of Ascent for Tuesday:

Psalm 124

A song of ascents. Of David.

1If the Lord had not been on our side—

let Israel say—

2if the Lord had not been on our side

when people attacked us,

3they would have swallowed us alive

when their anger flared against us;

4the flood would have engulfed us,

the torrent would have swept over us,

5the raging waters

would have swept us away.

6Praise be to the Lord,

who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

7We have escaped like a bird

from the fowler’s snare;

the snare has been broken,

and we have escaped.

8Our help is in the name of the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

 That last verse, Ps 124:8 caught my attention for a number of reasons.

It was the word HELP it appears in Psalm 121 that I read on the Monday but also in another Psalm I have written about in the past, Psalm 46. Verse 1 says:1God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." 

So I looked into it a bit deeper.   עֶ֭זְרֵנוּ ez-re-nu 

I was reminded about the story of Eben-ezer, You can read the full account in 1 Samuel 7:2-14. But in summary, after a victory by the Israelites over their enemy, he Philistine's, Samuel laid a stone and called that stone Eben-ezer, which means stone of help, saying "Thus far has the Lord helped us.. the interesting thing, to me, about this place was that not long previously, those Philistine's had in that very same place knocked back the Israelites. So it was both a place of defeat and victory. You can read about the defeat in 1 Samuel 4.  Yet Samuel still acknowledged that God had helped them there.   I also, note that in that place, was a place of returning of the Israelites to the Lord, where they tasted and repented of their idolatry.  It could be that, although this battle happened before the writer of Psalm 124, David, was on the scene, he will have heard about Eben-ezer from his brothers, and the victory they witnessed. Maybe, Psalm 124 was written with that in mind. He could have been thinking about his own encounter with the Philistines and in particular the gigantic man, Goliath.

I share a link to a hymn that mentions Eben-ezer, Fount of every blessing.

I was also struck by the rest of that verse eight of the hundred and twenty fourth Psalm, where it says, our Help is in the name of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. The reading from Acts 17, where Paul addressed the people in the marketplace in Athens. He said he noticed that they were a religious people and had statues for the many different deities,  and even one shrine to "the unknown God"
He said that he would speak to them about this God, because this God was the (one and only) creator of heaven and earth, and in whom we "Live and move and have our being" as, Paul noted some of their own poets had acknowledged.

Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day, the day we think about Jesus rising up into the clouds to return to "The Heavens".  Well, I share with you a poem I have written for Ascension Day:

The moment had to come,
The time when His visit was over, 

They thought it had all been over, over a month before,

When they saw him hanging dead on a wooden cross 

However, Jesus work is not yet done,

There would be the amazing surprise,

For Mary in the garden, 

For Cleophas on the road, 

For Thomas in the locked room, 
and for many others' eyes. 

Jesus met them by the lakeside 
And in those familiar spots, 

Jesus touched and spoke healing to Peter 
And restored trust and love,

And reminded each and everyone, 

That in and through us, 
His work is not yet done.

On that day, just before He went, 

He gave us this command:

Go and make disciples of all nations - 
Everyone's included!

Baptise them in the name of the Father 
And of the Son 
And of the Holy Spirit,

Teach them everything you know - 

but go, 
Go, and keep on going, 

For I, will always be with you

And I will always be where you are going to, 

Even to the end of Time. 

Then as the disciples watched,

Jesus went up, 
Up and kept on going up, 
Into the sky, 

Until He was no longer visible to their natural eye.

Poem is written by me, just now, so it's ©John Fairlamb 2020