Songs for the Road. And you will sing your hearts will rejoice as when people go up to the mountain of the Lord. Isaiah 30:29

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1 JAN/FEB 2014 Songs for the Road And you will sing your hearts will rejoice as when people go up to the mountain of the Lord. Isaiah 30:29 Selwyn Hughes Revised and updated by Mick Brooks : Ian Sewter CWR Dated text previously published as Every Day with Jesus: The Songs of Ascents (January/February 1996) by CWR. This edition revised and updated for 2014 by Mick Brooks. CWR, Waverley Abbey House, Waverley Lane, Farnham, Surrey GU9 8EP, UK Tel: mail@cwr.org.uk Registered Charity No Registered Limited Company No All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of CWR. Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. International Bible Society. Other versions used: Phillips: J.B. Phillips The New Testament in Modern English, 1960, 1972, J.B. Phillips, Fount Paperbacks; TLB: The Living Bible, 1971, 1994, Tyndale House Publishers; Moffatt: The Moffatt Translation of the Bible, 1987, Hodder & Stoughton Acknowledgements: Selwyn Hughes wishes to acknowledge the help he has received in preparing this edition from Eugene Peterson s book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (formatio) and thoughts from the NIV Bible. Cover image: Getty/Iconica/Superstudio Quiet Time image: sxc.hu/colinbroug Printed in England by Linney Print Every Day with Jesus is available in large print from CWR. It is also available on audio and DAISY in the UK and Eire for the sole use of those with a visual impairment worse than N12, or who are registered blind. For details please contact Torch Trust for the Blind, Tel: Torch Trust for the Blind, Torch House, Torch Way, Northampton Road, Market Harborough LE16 9HL.

Why is it that I can remember words to tunes and songs from 45 years ago, yet still forget my pin number, the names of my children and what I had for breakfast yesterday?

2 A word of ıntroduction I find the whole subject of memory intriguing, fascinating, and occasionally bewildering. Memories are incredible: they can paint our past with rose coloured glasses or with a fretfulness that is more frightening than the reality. Why is it that I can remember words to tunes and songs from 45 years ago, yet still forget my pin number, the names of my children and what I had for breakfast yesterday? Scripture regularly prompts us to remember. Remembering to remember is of vital importance on a personal level, (the prodigal son was prompted to action when he remembered his Father s goodness: even my father s servants eat better than this ) and on a national level. This year in the UK and across Europe there promises to be much activity to mark the centenary of the First World War.The British Prime Minister recently stated: remembrance must be the hallmark of our commemorations. One of the reasons we struggle when faced with new or difficult situations and circumstances is that we often fail to remember the goodness of God in the past. God, in His wisdom, gave the children of Israel songs to sing: songs for their journey, songs we can still sing today, songs to remind us of God s past faithfulness and love which gives us strength to face not only today but also whatever is ahead. Let s learn these songs together at the beginning of this New Year. Have a God filled year, Mick Brooks, Consulting Editor Free small group resources to accompany this issue can be found at The EDWJ Facebook community is growing! To join the conversation visit

3 Songs for the road For reading & meditation Mark 10:32 45 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way... (v32) Together we stand on the threshold of another new year. What do the next 365 days hold for us? How can we prepare ourselves for the journey through the year? I know of no better way than by focusing on that section of the book of Psalms known as the Songs of Ascents. These songs, fifteen in number (Psa ), are thought by scholars to have been sung by Hebrew pilgrims as they made their way to Jerusalem to attend the three great festivals of worship the Feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. We know from the Gospel of Luke that Jesus at the age of twelve went up to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover (Luke 2:41 42), and a similar phrase is used in our reading today: they were on their way up to Jerusalem. I wonder how many of you reading these lines on this first day of a new year will identify with the disciples and the people in this passage who were astonished and afraid. Are you feeling apprehensive as you set your feet on the road that leads into the New Year? Does the prospect of the unexpected and the unknown fill your heart with trepidation? Then I think I have an answer for you. Learn to sing with me the fifteen psalms of the Songs of Ascents and you will find your fears are quietened and your feet become firm and steady. These songs for the road, as Eugene Peterson calls them, are a song book and a guidebook combined. They not only lift the flagging spirit but provide direction when the path is dark and unclear. Let s learn to sing them well. Wed 1 Jan 2 Chron. 6:1 11; Eph. 5: Why is Jerusalem special? 2. What did Paul encourage? Father, on this the first day of a new journey I put my hand firmly in Yours. Help me travel the new road not with a sigh but with a song. Teach me to sing well, with an ear for the lyrics as well as the tune. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.

4 Thurs 2 Jan Before looking in detail at the Songs of Ascents we pause to consider that everyone who travels the road of faith requires help and encouragement from time to time. We need cheering up when our spirits flag and direction when the way ahead is confusing and unclear. The Songs of Ascents provide us with some of the best spiritual encouragement I know. Eugene Peterson (on whose thoughts I am drawing heavily in this issue) suggests that there are two Biblical designations for the people of faith: disciple and pilgrim. Rom. 1:1 6; 1 Cor. 9: What comes from true faith? 2. What are the characteristics of a successful runner? Long obedience For reading & meditation Hebrews 12: let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (v1) We are disciples because we are apprenticed to a Master, Jesus, and pilgrims because we are people who spend our lives going somewhere going to God. However, he further suggests that religion today has been captured by a tourist mindset. We spend our time visiting attractive religious sites when we have adequate leisure, for instance when we make our weekly visit to church, and we occasionally dip into the Bible, go to see the newest Christian personality on the scene or investigate the latest blessing. Tourists want only the high points, but a Christian cannot come to maturity that way. Friedrich Nietzsche is quoted as saying: The essential thing in heaven and earth is... that there should be long obedience in the same direction. Long obedience in the same direction. Nietzsche said many strange things, but he seemed to be thinking clearly when he made this statement. Where can we go in Scripture to learn the art of long obedience? Many passages and verses, of course, but most effectively to the Songs of Ascents. O Father, forgive me if I approach the Christian life more as a tourist than a pilgrim. Prepare my heart now for the days that follow as I seek to understand and put into practice the art of long obedience. In Christ s Name I pray. Amen.

5 Disappointments For reading & meditation Psalm 120:1 7 I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me. (v1) We look now at the first of the fifteen psalms which comprise the Songs of Ascents. May I suggest, by the way, that even though we shall be exploring just a verse or two at a time, you read the whole of the psalm under consideration. This will mean that you read it repeatedly, but you will, I promise, benefit greatly from this spiritual exercise. Each of the psalms in the Songs of Ascents has a single focus. Often, one word can be used to summarise what each psalm is saying, and together they reveal to us the foundational aspects we need to understand what it means to have long obedience in the same direction. The psalmist begins by telling us he is in distress. Most likely, he has been the victim of lying and deceit (v2). His soul was in pain over what was going on in the world, yet he did not repress his feelings and pretend that he was not feeling the way he did. Many Christians think that admitting to pain and disappointment concerning the way things are is not christian, lets the side down and results in only negativity. If indulged in it can become that, Eccl. 2:1 23; 12:13 1. Describe the preacher s feelings. 2. What was his conclusion? but please note that to admit to something is not necessarily to indulge in it. We must not stay there but we must start there. Sometimes we have to be thoroughly disappointed with the way things are before we find the motivation to cast ourselves fully on the love and grace of God. This might seem a discordant note to strike as we embark on our journey, but the more keenly we allow ourselves to feel the disappointment that the world ultimately brings the more motivated we will be to join the journey of Christian discipleship. Fri 3 Jan Father, help me see that dissatisfaction with the world is the first step in preparing to set out on a new journey with You. The more disillusioned I am with the world the more my appetite is whetted for grace. I am grateful. Amen.

6 Sat 4 Jan We said yesterday that the more disillusioned we are with the world, the more motivated we will often be to pursue God s way. If we are not willing to face the reality that we live in a fallen world, that the latest invention or nostrum is not going to bring us Utopia, that possessions ultimately fail to provide any lasting happiness, then we are not going to move along the rugged road of faith with a firm and steady tread. Commentaries use different words to summarise the message of this, the first of the Songs of Ascents, but Matt. 10:37 39; Phil. 3: What did Jesus explain? 2. What did Paul renounce? Before you can say Yes For reading & meditation Psalm 120:2 Save me, O Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues. (v2) the one I like best is renunciation. The psalmist seems to have made a decision to move away from the lies he has heard, and we too must make a similar decision. Like the psalmist we learn to recognise the lies we have been told by the world lies such as these: we are not responsible for the way we are; we can find happiness independently of God. So often the truth of God does not begin to dawn upon us until we realise that what we have assumed was the truth that we are the masters of our fate is in fact a lie. The difficulty is that it is painful to admit that we have been taken in by the world s lies but until we accept that we have, and confess it, we are not ready to move on into all that God has for us. If the psalmist was writing today he might have worded his prayer like this: Save me, O Lord, from the lies of those who think they know the answer to life, but don t. We must discover, as someone put it, that before we can say Yes to God we must first learn to say No to the world. Father, I would make the prayer of the psalmist my prayer also. Rescue me from those who represent the world to me in terms that are not entirely true. I turn from the untrue to the True. Help me dear Lord. In Jesus Name. Amen.

CWR Ministry Events Please pray for the team Date Event Place Presenter(s) Jan Mar Developing Pastoral Care (part 2) Waverley Abbey House Andy Peck and team 18 Jan

Feb Counselling Enquirers Event WAH 12 Feb Insight into Dementia PH Rosemary Hurtley 15 Feb Christians @ Work: WAH Beverley Shepherd Working with Myself 21 23 Feb Bible

our ongoing BA in Counselling programme at Waverley and Pilgrim Hall and our Certificate and Diploma of Christian Counselling and MA in Integrative Psychotherapy held at

7 CWR Ministry Events Please pray for the team Date Event Place Presenter(s) Jan Mar Developing Pastoral Care (part 2) Waverley Abbey House Andy Peck and team 18 Jan Insight into Anger WAH Chris Ledger 23 Jan Refreshing Your Spiritual Life WAH Andy Peck Jan January Bargain Break Pilgrim Hall 6 Feb Preachers Day WAH Andy Peck 8 Feb Counselling Enquirers Event WAH 12 Feb Insight into Dementia PH Rosemary Hurtley 15 Feb Work: WAH Beverley Shepherd Working with Myself Feb Bible Discovery Weekend: WAH Philip Greenslade The Cross Through the Eyes of Jesus 22 Feb Insight into Bereavement WAH Peter Jackson Please also pray for students and tutors on our ongoing BA in Counselling programme at Waverley and Pilgrim Hall and our Certificate and Diploma of Christian Counselling and MA in Integrative Psychotherapy held at London School of Theology. For further details and a full list of CWR s courses, phone +44 (0) or visit the CWR website at Pilgrim Hall:

8 Sun 5 Jan Clearly, the first of the Songs of Ascent is not a cheery little ditty, but it is where we start. The psalm makes the point that we live in a world where lies and deceit are commonplace, and the sooner we face that painful fact the better. This is not negativism, this is realism. In verses 3 and 4 the psalmist tells us that God has sharp arrows which He aims at those who persist in lying and deceitfulness. These verses have been paraphrased as: What will you get from Him, O crafty tongue, what punishment in full? Sharp arrows poured on you, and Matt. 3:1 12; Luke 13: What arrows did John the Baptist shoot? 2. How were Jesus arrows ones of truth and revelation? Vindictive-free For reading & meditation Psalm 120:3 4 He will punish you with a warrior s sharp arrows... (v4) burning coals! What is the psalmist saying here? And why such strong language? Doubtless the psalmist s persecutors had used forceful language (perhaps even oaths) to make their point and to impress others with the truth of what they said about him, but he reminds them that the strength of their vindictiveness will be met by the strength of the Almighty. As they have shot their arrows of vindictiveness at him so God will send His arrows of justice as their reward. We must always remember, however, that God s justice is designed to lead a person to repentance. How unlike God we are in this respect. Honesty compels me to admit that we rather enjoy seeing those who have hurt us going through some painful experiences themselves. The psalmist, I believe, prays for his persecutors not out of a spirit of vindictiveness but with the desire that through the pain of their reward they might be brought to the path of peace. How wonderful it would be if that same spirit was amongst us. My Father and my God, help me keep my spirit free of all vindictiveness. May I be like Your own Son, and say to all who hurt or disappoint me: Forgive them... for they know not what they do. In Jesus Name. Amen.

9 A wake-up call For reading & meditation Psalm 120:5 7 Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar! (v5) It is interesting, as Eugene Peterson highlights, that one of the first words in this psalm is distress and the last word is war. From start to finish the psalmist pours out his heart to God concerning the pain he feels at living in a world full of deceitfulness and lying. The reference he makes to Meshech and Kedar is designed to show how difficult it was for him to be living with people who acted more like foreigners than friends. The tribe of Meshech lived between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and Kedar were Arabian nomads. They typified barbarian society and represented the strange and the hostile. So the psalmist is implying that the people in his community treated him more like an outsider than one of themselves. I am a man of peace, he says, but those around me seem to be bent on hostility and combat. Paraphrased his words might read like this: I live in the midst of people who behave like barbarians. This complaint is made not simply to give vent to his feelings but to let his pain motivate him to move from confidence in people to confidence in God. His anguish penetrates through his despair and stimulates him to make a new beginning. The first word we need to remember then as we Matt. 2:13 23; Acts 8: What prodded Joseph to leave Israel and then return? 2. What prodded the believers to share the gospel further? set out on our journey into the New Year is renunciation. It is the wake-up call we need to get us moving. As we said yesterday, there is nothing joyful about this psalm but it gets our footsteps started. Having rejected the world and the lies it feeds us about life we turn more readily to the truth. The rejection is also an acceptance, the leaving and arriving, the No to the world a Yes to God. Mon 6 Jan Father, help me realise that I am called to be a pilgrim, not a tourist. I am on a path that leads away from the world, and upwards to You. I renounce all the world s false assumptions to follow the path of truth. Thank You my Father. Amen.

10 Tues 7 Jan It is not unusual when we say No to the world and Yes to God for a doubt to arise in our hearts as to whether or not God is able to keep us safe on the arduous journey that lies ahead. This is what the pilgrims sang about in the second of the Songs of Ascents. Commentators regard the psalm as conveying the same message as Philippians 4:7: And the peace of God... will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The keyword of Psalm 121 therefore is this: kept! Let s face it; travelling along the road of faith is not 2 Tim. 1:3 14; 1 Pet. 1: Of what was Paul convinced? 2. What shields us? Able to keep For reading & meditation Psalm 121: where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord... (vv1 2) always easy. Many Christians are surprised at the number of difficulties they encounter on the way. A fairly new Christian said to me on one occasion, I thought becoming a Christian meant floating to heaven on a bed of ease. But I have been rudely awakened. So what do we do when, on the walk of faith, we meet with some major difficulty or trip over some obstruction? Often when in trouble we scan the horizon hoping that someone will appear and come to our aid. However, the psalmist is illustrating the point that we do not look to the hills for help but to the God of the hills. This is not to say, of course, that the beauty of nature possesses no calming or healing influence it does. But it is powerless to heal by itself alone. The hills cannot answer back. The mountains cannot love or laugh or weep. The help we need when troubles come is not found in nature. It can be a wonderful bonus but never a substitute. When troubles come we have a hope so much higher and mightier than the hills. Our help comes from the Lord. O God, forgive me that so often I look around when I need help rather than looking up. Give me the attitude of the psalmist and all the pilgrims who have gone before me who looked not to creation but to the Creator. In Jesus Name. Amen.

The Ways of God. Teach me your way, O Lo r d, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

The Ways of God. Teach me your way, O Lo r d, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. SEP/OCT 2012 The Ways of God Teach me your way, O Lo r d, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. Psalm 86:11 Selwyn Hughes Revised and updated by Mick Brooks