Reflection: Journeys

June 21, 2026

Weldon Valley Presbyterian Church

10 AM

Journeys

OT Psalm 121

Psalm 121 is a Pilgrim Psalm.  

Psalm 121 is part of a smaller songbook within the book of Psalms.  A songbook called the Songs of Ascents, including Psalms 120 to Psalm 134, used particularly by the Jews during pilgrimages to Jerusalem.  Every good Jew would make at least one great pilgrimage in his or her lifetime.  Some would go to all three yearly. 

Jesus would have sung these Psalms traveling with his family that time when they left him behind with the elders.  Picture Jesus walking next to his father, for it was the men who taught their sons faith, how to trust, how to be men.  Joseph’s arm is around his son, they sing these songs together as they, along with the whole caravan, walk through the mountain paths.   They didn’t have all those fancy trailers I saw coming from Jackson Lake/

If only we had the original tune. 

1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

This opening line is a question.  There are two voices in this Psalm.  Here is the voice of the young boy, likely a son asking his father.  He is about to begin his first pilgrimage.   He has his bag on his back.  Walking stick in hand.  Impatiently tossing a few rocks to skittle across the dirt.  He looks up from the familiar valley toward the distant and rugged mountains that separate him from his destination.  He’s uncertain.  He’s apprehensive of what the next days will bring.   If he were honest, he’d say he was scared.  The hills aren’t the source of help, the hills are the reason to be afraid. 

Anybody setting out somewhere new has a good reason to be worried.

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience,

but shouts in our pains:  it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." 

--The Problem of Pain, by CS Lewis

Hey God,you know, our hearing isn’t so bad.  You don’t have to shout all the time.

Then there that tired pastoral platitude:  “God doesn’t give you anymore than you can handle.”

Gee, God – thanks for the confidence. We could use a little less of your confidence in us if you please…

A useful motto inlaid into the tile of Princeton Seminary’s student union:

Politely translated:  "Don't let [them] grind you down".

The worried young boy’s question deserves an answer.  Now comes the second voice.  His father, who has been there, has something to tell him, if the son is ready to listen.

2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

Dad can’t promise all will be well, all will be successful, but he can assure his boy.  He knows it’s not safe.  Whatever is safe?  Life is flat tires, disappointments, falling trees, wrenched knees, broken trusts, car crashes, losing on the playing field.

My son, I can’t promise safety.  Dad can only share what he’s experienced.  He can only give a personal testimony, for he knows:   “my experience cannot be yours.” 

We all have to discover these things and best them, as best we can, by ourselves.   The biggest challenge is crossing that threshold in the first place, trusting yourself, trusting God.   The first step.  Then the next.   That’s enough.

As Frodo said to his friends as they set out on their journey: “Come on, Sam. Remember what Bilbo used to say: "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might be swept off to."  [p. 83, Fellowship of the Ring]. 

You’ll never land until you jump!

~~~

Or, you can decide never to set out on any journey – - sure, you can be a tamed, caged parakeet rather than an eagle.  If you want.  It’s safe.  No perils.  No chance to soar either. 

A man found a golden eagle’s egg and placed it under a brooding hen. The eaglet hatched with the chickens and grew to be like them. He clucked and cackled; scratched the earth for worms; flapped his wings and managed to fly a few feet in the air just like them. Years passed. One day, the eagle, now grown old, saw a magnificent bird above him in the sky. It glided in graceful majesty against the powerful wind, with scarcely a movement of its golden wings. Spellbound, the eagle asked, “Who’s that?”  

Said a hen:  “That’s the king of birds, the eagle.”  He belongs to the sky. We belong to ground —we’re chickens.” So the eagle lived and died a chicken for that’s what he thought he was.

We can stay put, stagnate, never try anything new, never make anything happen, content with mediocrity, with things as they are, and we can shrug that they’ll never get better. 

Did someone write into your High School yearbook:  “These were the best of days.  Let’s hope they never change.” 

Hope they will change, hope those weren’t your best days. 

It is not as if any of us really know what we’re getting into when we start off on something:  college, marriage, a new job, joining the church, moving to a new town.  But it makes all the difference what we bring to it. 

The magic word these days is:  ‘resilience.’   How resilient will you be?

A postscript:  There could also be here in this Psalm a theological left jab to the pagan jaw, or maybe a ‘Three Stooges’ tweak of the nose.  The hills, the high places, were also the home of the shrines of the pagan deities.  Will these help the young man?  No, they’re cheats and frauds, false hopes each and every one.  Why do we find false hopes, false saviors so attractive?

3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

This then is the father’s prayer for his son about to set forth on his first journey.  He prays that on those narrow mountain passes that he must cross, with the steep precipice to the side, his foot won’t slip.  Steady boy, steady.  Walk sure.  Stay alert.  Walk tall.

Because, yes, whichever path you take, it sure is slippery, loose, unpredictable.  Lots of slippery slopes:  credit card debt, affluenza, gambling, alcoholism, opioid abuse, the illusion that weapons make us safer, easy solutions which never are either solutions or easy, despair, broken relationships, slogan without substance, arrogant falsehoods, contentment with mediocrity in education or work performance.  Since when is excellence a goal instead of standard operating procedure?  The internet sure isn’t helping. 

There’s that teacher’s slogan from Norwegian elementary school educators who make their pupils get outside and play, saying: “there is no such thing as inclement weather, only inadequate clothing.’

If God is vigilant so ought we be vigilant.  Faith inspires confidence.  Confidence inspires courage.   Sure, we humans need to rest, sleep, recover.  Take a deep breath.  It can be all so emotional heading someplace unknown.   We can feel so vulnerable.  Though vulnerability keeps us more honest than hiding behind some mask, some wall.   Who can survive being so defensive all the time?

Emotional walls are tempting.  They also are useless.  Walls have a talent for either being tunneled under, lept over, or tumbling down. 

There’s an allusion here, a hint here of God as a shepherd guiding his flock through the mountains, with rod and staff.  We may get drowsy and stumble, even our trust and faith in ourselves may trip us up.   More likely:  we get distracted. 

Still: We claim a divine origination, divine destination, divine motivation. 

You, son, daughter of mine, are that precious and that valuable. 

5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

 Yes, this has been my experience, says Dad to son.  I’ve stood beneath divinity.   My keeper.  My keeper.  This I can say:  God is my keeper.  And God keeps you too, my beloved child.  It makes a difference this trust, it makes all the difference in how you walk, when you realize this.

When the blaring, burning, brutal sun beats down so hot you can’t bear it anymore, clouds have formed above to give a moment of pleasant shade.  Dehydration can kill.   

The moon too was viewed by the Hebrews with dread.  Full moons bringing out the kooks.  The lunar influence driving people mad, turning them into lunatics.   The moon also was worshipped by fools.  Another Three Stooges nose tweak of idol worship.

Yes, God shall preserve thy soul, my child.  I wish I could but I can’t promise God will preserve your skin or bones, but yes, your soul belongs to Him. 

8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

And then it is done.  The long trick is over, discovering that the real trick is how short it is.  You’ve arrived.  Wherever that will be. 

How quickly we become someone others don’t know.  Check out those pictures of you in younger years.  Did that person in that photo know then what stories awaited him, awaited her, what journeys he or she would take?

Yes, and just as God will walk with you to Jerusalem, your faith too will bring you back home across those mountains and all those perils. 

But now, you’ll no longer be the novice, no longer the rookie, no longer untested, untried, untouched;  you too will have scars.  

Then you’ll be able to answer your son when he asks how. 

Luke 11: 9-13

Here’s another story of another young boy.

90% of his younger years remain a mystery, but we can assume a few things about his growing up. 

He likely grew up much like any other boy.  Playing games with his friends.  Wrestling matches.  Seeing who could run faster.  Throwing stones. 

No doubt he had plenty of chores to do, working with dad when he became old enough, and when his younger brothers and sisters started getting born and demanding mom and grandma’s attention.

There alongside dad he learnt the family trade:  working with wood and stone, how to chisel and plane a yoke, how to fit a keystone in an arch. 

It is what you do for family.   You don’t abandon those who need you.   Jesus’ dad, Joseph:  he chose to be kind.  He chose to listen.  He chose the righteous path knowing that it wasn’t about him.  He chose to protect.  Real manhood.  What a gift, to have your sons and daughters respect you. 

You can tell by the stories Jesus later would tell how close he was to his father.  How much he respected his father.   Never do you hear him tell anything bad about fathers.   A Jewish boy learnt his faith from his father.  What did Jesus learn what it took to be a man?  How much he could bench press?  Or who he cared for?

In Nazareth, the boy grew up on the other side of the tracks.  Three miles away was the prosperous town of Sepphoris, high on hills, the beautiful and rich commercial center of Galilee with its theaters and markets, Roman villas and artwork.  It was destroyed by the Romans when Jesus was about 10 years old (6 AD) but was quickly rebuilt as the capital of Galilee for Herod Antipas.  The blue-collar tradesmen of Nazareth rebuilt it for the wealthy. 

Maybe Jesus and his father helped construct some of the villas and lay the tile, maybe even the mosaics we can see there today.

It helps me appreciate Jesus for him sharing his Dad with us. 

Perhaps what we can gather about Joseph is what Jesus says about fathers in his parables.

Listen please:  Luke 11: 9-13

9‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’