Songs of the Great Ascent - Ever Blessing, Ever Blessed

Psalm 134

In the helpful book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson recounts the story of a group of men who accomplished everything they sought to do but were unable to enjoy the thrill of it. He writes:

       “Months of struggle, of strategy, of sacrifice all paid off in a landslide victory for President Richard Nixon in 1972. On election night his aide Charles Colson was in the place he had always wanted to be. The picture Colson draws of that night contains three figures: chief of staff H. R. Haldeman, arrogant and sullen; Nixon, restlessly gulping scotch; and Colson, feeling let down, deflated, ‘a deadness inside me.’ Three men at the power pinnacle of the world, and not a single note of joy discernible in the room. ‘If someone had peered in on us that night from some imaginary peephole in the ceiling of the President’s office, what a curious sight it would have been: a victorious President, grumbling over words he would grudgingly say to his fallen foe; his chief of staff angry, surly, and snarling; and the architect of his political strategy sitting in numbed stupor.’”

The experience is not uncommon. We work hard for something, get it and then find we don’t want it. We struggle for years to get to the top and find life there thoroughly boring. Reflecting on his life, Colson noted that “Being part of electing a President was the fondest ambition of my life. For three long years I had committed everything I had, every ounce of energy to Richard Nixon’s cause. Nothing else mattered. We had had no time together as a family, no social life, no vacations.” And then, like so many before him and many after him, having in his hands what he had set out to gain, he found he couldn’t enjoy it.

For some the goal is an academic degree; for others a career position; for some a certain standard of living; for some acquiring a possession, getting married, having a child, landing a job, visiting a country. “But having gotten what we had always wanted,” observes Peterson, “we find we have not gotten what we wanted at all. We are less fulfilled than ever, and are conscious only of ‘a deadness inside me.’”

This week we conclude the pilgrim songs, which began at Psalm 120 urging us to turn away from the world and turn toward God. The way is narrow and at times hard. The way of a disciple is, as Peterson described it, “a long obedience in the same direction.”

So, what happens when we get to where we are going? What happens at the end of faith? Psalm 134, the final Song of Ascents, tells us; it provides the evidence. “The way of discipleship that begins in an act of repentance concludes in a life of praise.”

Join us this Lord’s Day as we learn how the God of Scripture blesses this life of faith.

God bless you!

Pastor Wayne