NEW SERIES: Songs of Ascents
TEXT: Psalm 120
MESSAGE: “Made For Another World”

Q: Do you ever feel like you don’t fit in?

“Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise…If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Lewis continues, “…I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.” — C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

TEXT: Psalm 120

“The conjecture that it heads a collection designed for the feast of Tabernacles, and in particular for the one in the year 445 bc, when the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt after the exile, is something more than guesswork. We know that Ezra, as religious leader of the restored community, gave public readings of the law of Moses daily throughout the festival. It would be entirely appropriate for the temple musicians to compile a new fifteen-psalm liturgy for the occasion, the ‘Songs of Ascents’.” — Michael Wilcock

Q: What truths can we learn from today’s text about resilience when we don’t fit in this world? We learn how to find…(1. Comfort in distress 2. Hope for deliverance 3. Endurance in the struggle)

Comfort in distress (v. 1)
“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.”

Hope for deliverance (v. 2-4)
“Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. 3 What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? 4 A warrior’s sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!”

“Dissatisfaction with the brokenness of our world is an essential component to a pilgrim’s journey. It stirs us to get up from where we are and seek a better way. We aren’t called simply to flee from the lies of our culture. We are called to flee to God.” — She Reads Truth

“This is the picture the psalm leaves with us: praying amid trouble, garrisoned within divine care. There is no reason to think that 3, 4 were actually spoken to the opponent. As Proverbs 20:22; Romans 12:19 command, the trouble is taken to the Lord and left there but in the certainty of what will happen: arrows (4) directed with a warrior’s skill must find their mark: the punishment will fall where it is deserved…But, leaving all such action to the Lord, the psalmist meanwhile lives in a world which cannot give peace…” — Alec Motyer
Endurance in the struggle (v. 5-7)

“Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! 6 Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. 7 I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!”

“Now the singer’s special situation as an alien comes to light, and with it the motivation of these slanders, which is simply resentment of one way of life against its opposite. This little passage is a classic comment on…the incompatibility of light and darkness which no amount of goodwill, short of capitulation or conversion can solve. The New Testament counsels the Christian in this context against two opposite errors: on the one hand, compromise (2 Corinthians 6:14; 1 John 2:15) and on the other, animosity (Romans 12:14-21).” — Derek Kidner

“…the distress of Psalm 120:1 parallels that of the disheartened remnant in Judah, and that of Nehemiah in Persia when he heard of it, in Nehemiah 1:3–4. Like the psalmist, he turned to the Lord in prayer. When he went up to join them, he found that he and they were in the thick of Psalm 120, living among the tents of Kedar with a vengeance, people of peace assailed by the deceitful tongues of those who were for war. Later songs also seem to reflect his narrative. Such a background to the Songs of Ascents helps us to sing and pray them as New Testament people in an equivalent situation. We may use them individually, like pilgrims who have been far from God and want to come back to him. But we may also use them like a company of the redeemed, brought out of captivity, building the city of God among people who reckon the world is theirs. They resent our intrusion into what they see as their territory, and consider us undesirable aliens. If they cannot remove us they aim at least to neutralize us. In a sense we are aliens, as the New Testament clearly teaches, and as the Psalter has periodically reminded us. But where we are, there is Jerusalem; and even if it is surrounded by the tents of Kedar, this is where we stay, and this is where we build.” — Michael Wilcock

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Psalm 118:22

“When the first Temple was constructed, it was built by a remarkable set of circumstances.[1] The traditions of the Elders of Israel, describe an extraordinary event. When the stones for the first Temple were being cut, they were numbered and shipped to the site where the Temple would be assembled. The Cornerstone inadvertently arrived at the temple mount without a number being assigned to it. The workers at the Temple site didn’t know where this strangely cut stone was supposed to be placed. It had an unusual shape, so the workers assumed that it was sent to the construction site by mistake. The builders cast the foundation stone over the side of the temple mount retaining wall and let it roll into the weeds below. [2] As the work continues, many of the workers would stumble over this important stone, not realizing what it was for. Later on, when it was time to install the Chief Cornerstone in its place, this important stone could not be found. Realizing that the stone that the builders had rejected was in fact the Chief Cornerstone, they remembered that they had cast this precious stone aside. The builders went down into the weeds and brought the Cornerstone back to the temple site, and placed it where it belonged.” — James Montgomery Boice

TAKEAWAYS: How can we keep going?

Find your true home in God
“I give painful evidence every day. I experience it in predictable and unpredictable moments. I guess I should know better, but I am often caught off guard. There is an insatiable longing inside of me, a thirst that never seems to be quenched. This deep hunger doesn’t go away no matter how busy I get or how hard I work to be distracted. I long for Justice, Love, Hope, Peace, Perfection, Satisfaction, Mercy, Contentment, Rest, Harmony, Joy, and none of these longings ever gets fully satisfied. And so in my quest for more I am faced with the incontrovertible daily evidence that this simply is not all that there is and the sure truth that I was hardwired for another world.” — Paul Tripp

Leave the final results to God
“In a world filled with people who rebel against the divine King, it is inevitable that believers of all ages will face situations in which their convictions will be challenged…all of us who are Christians need to personally commit ourselves to living God’s way regardless of the temptation to live otherwise.” — Chuck Swindoll

Keep going by the power of God
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” — Romans 1:16

“When Jesus talked about the “Stone” the builders rejected, the people knew exactly what He was referring to. When Christ, the Stone, presented Himself to the builders – the political and religious leaders of Israel — they had no place for Him in their building plans. They threw Him aside as useless. But following His death, He was raised from the dead and given the place of honor by the Father. He was made the chief cornerstone in God’s building. God is constructing his church, made of all peoples, nations, and languages who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. It is a holy nation, a people separated to God for His own.”
— Jean Priestap

“This Jesus s the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” — Acts 4:11-12