Setting: Pilgrimage to offer sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem was a strenuous journey, especially for Jews coming from abroad. The ‘psalms of ascent’, 120 to 134 were composed specially for these occasions to teach the pilgrims and their children about our ultimate destination and the road of faith that leads there.
120: Striving for peace
While believers throughout their pilgrimage on this side of heaven must contend with falsehood and opposition to the gospel, they do so longing for unity with all their heart.
The believer looks to God for help and trusts in Him for protection in such perilous conflicts.
122: Godly influence
The secret of genuine godly influence is not power or money, but the eagerness of God’s people to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of brotherly love with thankful prayers to God.
123: A servant heart
Greatness in God’s kingdom is not measured by how much we work or give, but whether we humble ourselves and submit to God in how we pursue unity, conscious of our own need for mercy and that of our own community.
124: Salvation from the snare of religious pride
Salvation is about being saved from pride, and believers learn to wholeheartedly attribute it to God’s mercy alone: Since nothing undermines unity more than religious pride, this is what God prioritized to vanquish and root out by how He designed the gospel.
125: Preservation in the faith
Set free and already ‘seated with Christ’ in the heavenly Zion, pilgrims on their way to that destination do already experience genuine unity with fellow pilgrims and thereby learn how it differs from unanimity that unites the enemies of true faith.
126: Rejoicing in God
Knowing of the joy of the saints who walked this earth before us, believers are heartbroken over how they fall short. Out of this brokenness, they sow in tears and set their hope on God alone and pray that He will bring us all into that same unity.
127: How the builders may build in vain
Christians are warned that those who seek to unite a community by themselves labor in vain, because all lasting unity depends entirely on the work of God within them through their faith in His promises of blessing.
128: Blessed children
God’s blessing is for all who walk in His way, i.e. by faith in Christ, also for their children.
129: Enduring the adversaries of God’s city
By suffering unjust treatment, Christians are trained to regard such conflicts as God’s discipline for those he loves. Believers suffer the unity of the wicked, but will not bless it, praying instead to God for deliverance and that truth may prevail and that falsehood be exposed.
130: Forgiveness and the hope of reconciliation
Receiving mercy and daily forgiveness from God sets Christians free to forgive those who offend them and to not cease to hope for reconciliation.
131: Proper assurance of salvation
Christians abandon the attempt to make themselves good, recognizing it is beyond human powers. Trusting instead in the promised grace of God, the believer can address even conflict from a place of rest and peace.
132: The true city of God
Christians strive for unity not in their own name, but on behalf of Christ as his co-workers: Hearing and believing God’s promise which he made in Bethlehem (v6) pointed already the faith of OT pilgrims to the promised Son of David as God’s only true ‘dwelling place’. The earthly Jerusalem is only a footstool, a destination where they gather at His feet to become united as one priesthood clothed with His righteousness.
133: Unity flowing from union with Christ
Through genuine faith, people gain an interest in genuinely Christian unity. For only by this faith they know the Holy Spirit as its source and have a taste for such unity to behold and cherish its goodness.
134: True worship
Only now, i.e. only after the instructions by the preceding songs, a call is issued to raise all hands united in worship and to minister together as one man day and night.
Bibletogetherblog 