Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (Phil 4:8)

Many of you will have heard of the recent death of the Christian author John Stott. Perhaps you have read some of his many books. He has written many helpful commentaries, books on ethics, and many helpful essays on various topics. There is no doubt that much of his writings have been and will continue to serve as a great help to Christians seeking to understand God’s Word.

But perhaps there is one book you are not familiar with, because at first glance it does not seem to be a book on theology, biblical interpretation or life application. It is a bird about bird-watching.

John Stott was an avid bird-watcher. But this is nonetheless a bird-book with a difference. This book about what he’s learned from birds about the Christian life. In it he describes what he’s learned about the Christian life in the Bible but which he has seen illustrated in the life of birds.

In the introduction to the book, he whimsically calls it “ornitheology”—not ornithology (or, the study of birds). By calling it ornitheology he is speaking of ‘learning about God from the study of birds’.

What’s he doing? He’s doing exactly what Paul is commending in Phil 4:8 – focusing his mind on that which is true and lovely, and commendable and honourable – not only in God’s Word, but everywhere. This is what we need to do in every area of life.

The young person faced with the tendency to think of themselves in terms of how others might see them (Am I prettier? Am I dressed well enough, better? Am I more popular?) begins to ask ‘What do I want my heavenly Father to see?’ and then meditates on what is true and noble, just and pure, lovely… praiseworthy.

A businessman in dealing with humanity often at its most unpleasant face of greed – how does he avoid its corrosive influence on his life as it wears and wearies his soul, and how he deals with people? How do you battle that unless you settle your affections on the things that really matter, what is true and honourable, and just and pure, and lovely … praiseworthy?

God calls us to the cultivation of godly desires and affections by pointing our desires to that which is true and right and good. In so doing you will desire and enjoy something far better than what was being offered to you from the world and sinful nature.

Living for God isn’t like walking on a tightrope without a safety net, while a breathless crowd sits below just waiting for you to fall!

In Psalm 125 David is emphasizing the safety of being right with God, despite what might be happening in your life or what others might be trying to make you do with your life!

But in the light of that he also emphasises the faithfulness of the people of God. In fact it is a distinguishing reality of the true believer, that they will remain faithful, being encouraged by the reality of God’s active presence and God’s timely interventions in our defence, as He fulfils His purpose of doing good to His people.  They are faithful, even under pressure, because they know God and trust God.

Those who trust in the LORD re like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and forever. (Psa 125:1-2)

This Psalm asks us, What do you trust in? But it also asks, What difference does that make to your life? When is it not a good time to be asking ourselves those questions?

John Maxwell tells about a small town in Maine, USA that was proposed for the site of a great hydro-electric plant. A dam would be built across the river and the town submerged.

When the project was announced, the people were given many months to arrange their affairs and relocate.

During those months, a curious thing happened. All improvements ceased. No painting was done. No repairs were made on the buildings, roads, or sidewalks. Day by day the whole town got shabbier and shabbier. A long time before the waters came, the town looked uncared for and abandoned, even though the people had not yet moved away.

One citizen explained: “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.” That town was cursed with hopelessness because it had no future.

But believers remain faithful in following Christ knowing that they have a future, a future secured by God, declared in His Word. Faith is the defining characteristic of the people of God. The object of our trust is who makes all the difference.

In Psalm 46:5 we read, “God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.”

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” (1 Samuel 7:12)

Rocks in your head? Isn’t that a derogatory statement, a form of ridicule to indicate that someone is crazy?

Yet here is Samuel setting up a big solitary stone in the ground that would serve as a constant reminder to the people of Israel of a great victory God had given them over a treacherous enemy that vastly outnumbered them. An enemy which had caught them at a most vulnerable moment – they were not standing ready for war, but were engaged around the altar in worship, offering sacrifices of repentance.

He called that rock ‘Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us”’, a name which testified to the Lord’s presence with them all the way ‘to this place,’ or ‘to this hour.’ Though previously the faith of the people had been found lacking as they resorted to presumption in taking the ark into battle against the Philistines and suffered great defeat (chapter 4), now as they repented and looked to Him with faith in the overwhelming danger they saw His victory.

Throughout the generations the lesson this stone declared was clear

Even when they weren’t physically passing the stone Ebenezer its reality was implanted in their memory to serve as a daily reminder, a touchstone of grace calling them to trust in God’s presence and grace.

Rocks in your head? Yes, in effect that is what believers are to have, and that without being crazy. Far from it! In Psalm 124 the call goes out, a cry from the priests in Jerusalem and the echo of which is heard by the pilgrim as they travel to Jerusalem, “Let Israel now say…”

As Israel looked back over their nation’s history, as individual believers looked over their personal history, they would and should see the many evidences of God’s gracious help and victory, that He was alongside them on the way. Every year as they gathered did they not have more accounts to declare? An ever expanding exaltation of praise to lift up? A renewed cause to speak to themselves and one another in admonition to trust in God?

As we gather Sunday after Sunday, do not we?  Are you setting up rocks in your head? Are you engaging in an every expanding exaltation of praise, thanksgiving to God and of admonition to self and others?

“Remember my chains” (Col 4:18)

Paul in writing to the Colossians in a prayer request marked by its own brevity and simplicity actually highlights the deep anguish of a believer’s heart under the hand of persecution.

He does not rebel against it but lets us know that he feels it. It is not a light or easy thing. He does not diminish the realities of suffering whether emotional or physical. Surely in this we can also relate, knowing to some degree the reality of physical pain and hardship from time to time.

On so doing Paul indicates that he needs the support, not simply of God’s people, but of the Lord Himself. By asking them to join him at the throne of grace Paul is not simply asking for their encouragement, but for the Lord’s mercy. That is the believer’s priority as well as need.

As the same time Paul is drawing their attention away from himself to the Lord. That is ever the way of those who know the mercy of the Lord. Is is not about Paul, or any believer, but the Lord. He is looking to the Lord, and calling us to also.

How then do we pray for our persecuted brethren?

• That they may look beyond the immediate reality of suffering, lifting their eyes unto the Lord, as in Psalm 123:2
• That they might know the Lord’s gracious mercy, whether in intervention leading to deliverance, or intervention of sustaining and supporting grace (Psalm 123: 3,4; Matt 5: 10-12)
• That they are not being called upon to endure anything that is unique to them – but shared among the brethren in various ways and across time (1 Cor 10:13)
• That they might be sure that they did not deserve the suffering but that being faithful to Christ brought it. (1 Peter 2:20-21; 3:13ff)
• That they may know the joy of the “Blessedness” which Jesus pronounced, including of their reward in heaven (Matt 5: 10-12)
• But also that they might lift their eyes above their circumstances to the Lord’s glory, and be enabled to use even such a time for His glory (1 Cor 10:31)

“Remember the prisoners as if chained with them – those who are mistreated – since you yourselves are in the body also” (Hebrews 13:3)

As he came from his mother’s womb, naked  shall he return, to go as he came; and he shall take nothing from his labour which he may carry away in his hand. (Ecclesiastes 5:15)

While the ‘Preacher’ is speaking of the vanity of living to amass wealth, possessions and property, the principle can be applied to other areas of life too. The simple reality is that we cannot take them with us when we die.

It therefore asks what you have lived for? What fruit did your existence produce? How are you going to spend your remaining days?

Christians have a different view of life a view that operates on the basis of faith. they see that these things have a place for our life and enjoyment in this world, and we believe that God has given them to us to use for His glory. They understand a different controlling call in life: “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys…” ( Matthew 6:20)

Unlike the person in Ecclesiastes 5:15 Christians take a fruit and profit of the labour of their soul with them. It is safely deposited and stored with and by their Father who is in heaven.

Indeed, it suggests to we who are believers the need to regularly undergo a reality check to our lives. Is our life fulfilling its purpose?

Have we progressed in our spiritual lives, making good use of the means of grace God has given us? All the Bible texts we have read, sermons we have heard, fellowship and worship we have enjoyed, Lord’s Suppers we have partaken of … can we look back on our lives with thankfulness and joy to see that we have matured spiritually in Christ, that we are now stronger in resisting sin, repressing selfishness, and to deny self and not our God?

What have you become? But also, What have you done?

What moral influence have we shown, what influence for good? Is your family and society the better because of your faith and life in Jesus Christ? What works in the name of Christ have you done – of compassion, and especially of the gospel and the Kingdom? Has your vocation and calling been the scene of serving Christ in this world?

In Revelation 14:13 the Spirit says of saints who die in the Lord, “their works follow them”. What blessed truth! Hae we so lived and so worked that this will be said of us? Or has your time and energies in the world as well as in the church and Christian company been fritted away?

‘My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, and my soul  which You have redeemed.’ (Psalm 71:23)

Problems cloud our vision and prevent praise, It is said that on one occasion, the Cleveland Orchestra were playing the overture to The Magic Flute by Mozart when the house lights went out due to a power-failure. The orchestra kept playing and managed to reach the end - perfectly, or so the audience felt as they gave generous applause. Sometime in out relationship with God it feels as thought the lights have gone out (Isaiah 50:10). We should know God so well that we are able to sing His praise in the dark!

Every time you are tempted yo wonder as to the goodness of God, think of the cross. Where was the light when Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ ( Matthew 27:46). There was darkness all around, as the context makes clear,but far greater was the darkness within His own soul. You must admit, the idea that God’s Son should be abandoned in this way is astonishing. Think of the nakedness, the terrible pain, the spit of the soldiers in His face, the smell of sweat and blood and the mocking crowd. The storm grew and the crowds thinned, and Jesus was heard to cry to His Father. And heaven was silent!

Heaven accused Jesus of lust and lying … covetousness and crime … greed and godlessness! It is not that Jesus was guilty of any of these things – He was sinless ( Matthew 27:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:19). but heaven accused Him in our place: ‘For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him’ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Where was God’s love in all this? It was there all along. God punished every one of our sins to the full that day so that He might never have to do so again. He punished His Son, so that we might never have to suffer. That’s how much He loved us. If that doesn’t make you want to stand up and sing God’s praise, nothing will!

- Derek Thomas, ‘Help for Hurting Christians – Reflections on the Psalms’, pg. 95

Now what is the answer which the cross of Christ gives to this inquiry? We know the answer which paganism would give; it would point the inquirer to the Ganges and tell him, That is the way to heaven. We know the answer which Rome would give; it would tell him to repeat his prayers to the virgin. . . . But what is the answer which the cross gives to his inquiry?

It will be said, perhaps, that as the guardian of sound morality, the cross instructs such a man to reform his life and break his habits of morality, the cross instructs such a man to reform his life and break off his habits of outward sin. . . . But this does not satisfy him. It does not quiet his fears nor silence the thunders of divine vengeance nor relieve him of his burden nor fill his heart with peace. His morality is rotten at the core. . . .

It is not a system of outward observances nor anything in which a self-righteous spirit may boast. It is simply a spiritual faith in Jesus Christ, in distinction from everything else and in opposition to that righteousness which is by the deeds of the law.There is but this one way. . . . It is to love jesus Christ and to trust in him. This is what the cross tells the inquiring sinner to do. It is as though he who hung upon it said to the inquirer, ‘I must have your cheerful consent to the method of salvation which I have accomplished. I require the entire surrender of your immortal spirit, polluted and condemned as it is, into my hands, for all that it needs. No longer go about to establish a righteousness of your own by deeds of the law, but rather feel that you have no righteousness and receive my salvation as it is testified to a dying world. This do, and you shall live. You shall have an interest in that great atonement which was made for all your sins, you shall be delivered from the curse of the law by that blood which not only answers every charge and covers every sin but powerfully pleads on behalf of those who from the heart renounce all other helpers and confide in me as their Saviour!’

-  Gardiner Spring, 1785 – 1873, The Attraction of the Cross (language updated)

Can you sense the stirring emotions felt by the pilgrims as they came to Jerusalem, and into the courts of the temple? The anticipated entering, intensifying as they got closer, and then the great enthusiasm as they stood within the precincts of grace and met with brethren whom they perhaps had not seen since the last time they were all together.

In this Psalm David, as the typical pilgrim, describes something of the excitement of those godly emotions with reference to coming up to and standing within the place where God has revealed His presence.

But running throughout the Psalm as a unifying theme is not worship but that he is not alone in that worship, He is encouraged in it, supported in, together with the other believers in the worship of God.

There is a deep sense of belonging, of belonging to Gad and as a result of belonging to and among God’s people of God. And because he belongs among such a glorious people he is thankful for them and concerned about them.

The great desire of his heart is for “peace” – which in the hebrew mind speaks not of absence of war or trouble, but of well-being of soul – and that even in the midst of trouble and difficulties. Here his heart is lifted above himself and his needs to God and the manifestation of His glory among His people.

Christians don’t have a sacred city here or a Temple. Since Christ has come God’s people can worship Him in Christ anywhere (John 4:19-24) Paul in 1 Cor 3:16 echoes this when he declares that the church (“you” here is plural!) is described as the temple of the Holy Spirit.

We need each other to express our worship. It is in corporate worship that we most clearly foretaste the glories of heaven and feeds the desire for its continued overflow.

As we come together into this house where we worship the Lord together as his people Sunday after Sunday is this the reality that grips you? The joy, the sense of belonging, the appreciation of the peace of God, the fellowship of God’s people and above all the privilege as a people to worship the God who is the giver and protector of peace.

A high view of God demands a high view of His Church. An awareness of His free grace demands a longing for its full manifestation in the Church.

This week we continue to consider and unite in the Songs for the Road (Psalms 120 – 134).

As Psalm 120 declared the supreme motivation in the believer’s life of longing to be with God and know the blessings of His love and fellowship, Psalm 121 speaks of the confidence with which he sets out as being kept safe by the power of God.

In both Psalms his eye is on the LORD. As His truth and blessings stand in complete contrast to all that the world presents and offers, so His power to secure us and bring us into the fullness of those blessings is greater than any that could be brought against us.

As we think of this consider the following illustration from ‘The Biblical Treasury’:

A number of years ago a Captain regularly sailed a ship from Liverpool to New York, and on one voyage he had all his family with him on board.

One Night, when all were quietly asleep, there arose a sudden squall of wind, which came sweeping over the waters until it struck the ship, and instantly threw her on her side, tumbling and crashing everything that was moveable, and awaking the passengers to an awareness that the were in imminent peril.

Everyone on board was alarmed and uneasy, and some spray from their berths and began to dress, that they might be ready for the worst.

The captain had a little girl on board, just 8 years old, who, of course, awoke with the rest.

“What’s the matter?” said the frightened child.

The told her a squall had struck the ship.

“Is father on deck?” said she.

“Yes; father’s on deck”

The little girl dropped herself on her pillow again without a fear, and in a few moments was sleeping as sweetly in spite of winds or waves.

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)

“Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:5)

The Psalms are for worship – and so they have been used through the years been a vital part not only of Jewish worship but of Christians in the Presbyterian Churches. They rightly hold a place in our worship here in SYPC.

But they are also Songs for Life, reflecting on all the situations, emotions, questions, desires, aspirations and delights of being the people of God in a fallen world.

They teach us how to think, pray, feel and do as well as to sing before out God in a way that pleases and honours Him, all the while assuring us that ‘we have permission and freedom granted us to lay open before Him our infirmities, which we would be ashamed to confess before men‘ (Calvin).

Athanasius referred to it as ‘an epitome of the whole Scriptures‘; Basil called it ‘a compendium of theology‘; Luther described it as ‘a little Bible‘; and Calvin said it was ‘an anatomy of all the parts of the soul … There is not an emotion which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented in a mirror.’

Over the next few weeks we will look at that small group of 15 Psalms from Psalm 120 – 134.

These bear the common heading of  ‘Songs of Ascent‘. They were apparently sung by the Jewish pilgrims on the way to the three major festivals of Israel held in the Temple at Jerusalem. The word ‘ascent’ not only describing the physically upward movement of Pilgrims as they came to the city situated in the mountains, but of the spiritual upward movement of the soul as they drew near to God in the displays of His grace and covenant love.

The Psalms were appropriate Songs for the Road for believing Israel, and continue to be for Christians today as we march to the heavenly Zion, gathering with one another through the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ to the praise of His glory. In this we find not so much God coming and walking with us but that we are walking with God on the road of life.

Join us over the next few weeks as we consider and unite in the Songs for the Road.