A Devotion for a Pilgrim Song
- Psalm 121 NRSV
Dear friends,
It’s only the second week in the season of Lent and I can feel the long road stretching before us. This is something I struggle with nearly every year. The energy of Ash Wednesday coupled with the newness of disciplines and practices yet to be explored. It can make the first week almost exciting. A novel season unfolding before us.
Like newly begun exercise routines or New Year’s resolutions, the Lenten season can soon turn monotonous. The shiny newness rubbing thin and dull.
It can be easy to stop paying attention.
None of us in disaster recovery are strangers to the notion of traveling long distances. Consider the miles that your feet and vehicles have traversed since you began in this work. From client visits to LTRO meetings to team meetings, each of you have well-worn paths you could travel in your sleep
Or maybe you’ve been a traveler along other roads. Not physical, but an emotional journey. The coming and going of tense conversation with a family member. Maybe you’ve become accustomed to journeying the terrain of raising children or caring for aging parents or navigating health problems.
We’ve all covered a lot of ground, haven’t we? Sometimes it can feel like we might have nothing to show for it. Or perhaps the journey you’ve been on has been a lonely one, a single traveler on an empty uphill path.
Whether it’s the physical road you walk or the journey of life, it can be easy to feel alone in the miles we travel.
As I sat down to read the Scripture texts for the week. I found the perfect road trip song for the journey ahead. Psalm 121 is also called the “Song of Ascents.”
My favorite name for this Psalm is what pastor Eugene Peterson calls it:
“A Pilgrim Song.”
In ancient Israel, Psalm 121 would have been sung as a ritual for setting out on a journey, most likely to the temple. It would have been a reminder that the Lord traveled with the people on their journey, but also stayed with them always. That God is the God of comings and of goings.
I don’t know what the road before each of you looks like this second week of Lent. Perhaps it is a smooth road, God’s presence near and fresh.
Perhaps it is a road that feels pocked and rocky, God’s voice seeming distant and small.
Whatever road you walk, you do not walk it alone.
This journey of Lent that will lead us to the cross is a tough one, but it is one marked by God’s persistent presence and power.
As we take this pilgrimage, may our song be like that of Psalm 121, singing to the God of our comings and our goings.
Like the recent worship song says,
“In the morning, when I rise
Give me Jesus.”
May the road rise to meet you,
Chaplain Amy
Like newly begun exercise routines or New Year’s resolutions, the Lenten season can soon turn monotonous. The shiny newness rubbing thin and dull.
It can be easy to stop paying attention.
None of us in disaster recovery are strangers to the notion of traveling long distances. Consider the miles that your feet and vehicles have traversed since you began in this work. From client visits to LTRO meetings to team meetings, each of you have well-worn paths you could travel in your sleep
Or maybe you’ve been a traveler along other roads. Not physical, but an emotional journey. The coming and going of tense conversation with a family member. Maybe you’ve become accustomed to journeying the terrain of raising children or caring for aging parents or navigating health problems.
We’ve all covered a lot of ground, haven’t we? Sometimes it can feel like we might have nothing to show for it. Or perhaps the journey you’ve been on has been a lonely one, a single traveler on an empty uphill path.
Whether it’s the physical road you walk or the journey of life, it can be easy to feel alone in the miles we travel.
As I sat down to read the Scripture texts for the week. I found the perfect road trip song for the journey ahead. Psalm 121 is also called the “Song of Ascents.”
My favorite name for this Psalm is what pastor Eugene Peterson calls it:
“A Pilgrim Song.”
In ancient Israel, Psalm 121 would have been sung as a ritual for setting out on a journey, most likely to the temple. It would have been a reminder that the Lord traveled with the people on their journey, but also stayed with them always. That God is the God of comings and of goings.
I don’t know what the road before each of you looks like this second week of Lent. Perhaps it is a smooth road, God’s presence near and fresh.
Perhaps it is a road that feels pocked and rocky, God’s voice seeming distant and small.
Whatever road you walk, you do not walk it alone.
This journey of Lent that will lead us to the cross is a tough one, but it is one marked by God’s persistent presence and power.
As we take this pilgrimage, may our song be like that of Psalm 121, singing to the God of our comings and our goings.
Like the recent worship song says,
“In the morning, when I rise
Give me Jesus.”
May the road rise to meet you,
Chaplain Amy
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