Psalms of the Vacationer

By Stephen M. Crotts

The Psalms of Ascent, Psalms 120 through 134, are for the journey of life.

In Psalm 120 the poet is tired, jaded, and in a foul mood. In Psalm 121 the writer looks up from the world to the mountains, the places of God’s intervention—-Sinai, Carmel, Calvary.  Then in Psalm 122 he leaves his work, his village, to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  What he sees, what he does, his footsteps along the way to finding refreshment, are chronicled in the psalms that follow.

They are fascinating poetry. It’s all there, the sights and sounds of the journey—-birds, grass, flowers, sun, moon. The people with whom he treks along. In fact these are the songs the Jewish holidayers sang as they plodded from hamlet, village, and crossroad to Jerusalem.

I particularly like Psalm 122 as he waits to enter the great Temple on Mount Zion.  “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’”  Psalm 123 touches me deeply as he begins to worship.  And in Psalm 124 he remembers his history, how God has sustained him in all the trials of life.

He finds laughter again in Psalm 126. And in Psalm 131 he invites others to make the same journey with him.

The Psalms of Ascent are vacationers’ studies. They tell us how to avoid the extreme of joyless workaholism on one end and becoming “leisure lost” on the other extreme.

I call them a theology of leisure, what it is to periodically get away from it all so you can come home fresh and ready to get back to it all. Again, the ancient book, the Bible, is a book with remedies for our sin-lost lives. Into our confusion and fatigue of living faster and enjoying it less, it points the way.

Enjoy these poetic gems. And may you be found renewed in His worship.

The Reverend Stephen Crotts is pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Charlotte Court House, VA. He is also the director of the Carolina Study Center, Inc., a campus ministry, located in Chapel Hill, NC. Pastor Crotts may be reached at carolinastudycenter@msn.com.