- Read Psalm 122 from the ESV.
- Read my Psalm 122 poem from A New Song.
I have often thought the best part of a vacation is the memory of it after it has passed. Coming in a close second is the anticipation of the vacation prior to any of the detailed planning gets started. But once the planning has begun it’s all downhill from there. You start to realize how much money the trip will take and the amount of travel time needed to get to and from the location spot, at which point the anxiety level grows. Then throw into that all the packing, preparation for the house maintenance and bills that will need to be taken care of while you are gone, and the actual busyness while on the vacation and then the actual vacation itself becomes a bit of a headache. There always seems to be some sense of needing to utilize every minute of vacation time as fully as possible and that brings with it its own set of anxiety-laden problems.
When I was fairly young our family went on two vacations to the same spot in two separate years. The first year we took our grandpa to Lake Kabinakagami in Northeastern Ontario to go fishing. The seven of us packed into a station wagon and drove 650 miles from Akron, Ohio through *ichigan across the border to Ontario, finally arriving at the thriving metropolis of Wawa. Once there we transferred all of our stuff, people included, into two small puddle-jumping airplanes that then flew us 120 miles across uninhabited terrain to land us directly on the lake. The trip up and the week of fishing was quite an adventure but we pretty much just fished for a whole week. My memories consist of watching black bears eat trash, black flies eat people, a lost ferret run through our cabin, and me inauspiciously discarding every piece of fish I was supposed to have eaten into the lake prior to making and eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to consume in secret so I didn’t starve. I do actually look back fondly on both of those vacations but I also know that during the week I was not that excited to be there. I think it had something to do with my not liking fish.
On the first trip to Lake Kabinakagami we were lived in a huge cabin with enough space for each of us to have had our own rooms, even though mom and dad didn’t think that would be best. Instead, they packed all four of us kids into one room where it turned into a pigsty with clothes and stuff all over the floor the entire week.
The second time we went we were not the only ones at the camp as we had been the first time and so our family was booked into a small two-bedroom cabin with barely enough room for any of us to move. If the second trip sounds like hell, well, it wasn’t, mainly because it had an end to it; but it was like purgatory (if you believe in such things). I try to look back now and think of some of the good times on that second trip, but I honestly can’t think of any; maybe the black bears ate the trash again…that’s always cool. Needless to say, heading back there wouldn’t be something I would be very excited about if it was suggested again. As I’ve said before, the memories are the best thing about a vacation.
But imagine if you were headed to a secure place that was beautiful and perfectly peaceful; I wonder if the calculus would be turned around a bit? I wonder if the best part of that trip would be the time actually spent at the location and not the memories?
This is what I believe the psalmist is describing in Psalm 122. The end goal of these Songs of Ascent is the temple in Jerusalem. They are heading up to the place where the name of the Lord dwells; the place that is the home of David’s throne of judgment. The psalmist wants all those who are beginning their journey to realize that this journey will be unlike any other journey they have ever taken or ever will take, for its destination is the House of the LORD. This is where every wicked man will be judged; it is where every repentant sinner will be redeemed; it is where the righteous man will be rewarded; it is where God pours out his steadfast love and mercy upon all of his people; and it is, in a word, heaven.
Read Psalm 122 (again), and take note of the fact that peace and security are mentioned five times in the last four verses. While most of us go on vacations to get away from troubles, we most likely find that our troubles are never completely left behind. But once at the destination of this trip, the final step of our ascent, we find that peace is the guaranteed norm. Peace is found in the presence of the LORD, and in his presence is where justice is completed and mercy employed. And even if we take the short view of things — seeing this ascent as merely the time we spend each day approaching the throne of God — peace is God promise to us when we are in his presence. But when we take the long view of this ascent — our final journey to his throne through our death — then God promises an eternity of perfect peace in the presence of our LORD. Thus making the goal of this journey the best part of our ascent.
