Psalm 120

The first three Pilgrim Psalms (120-122) deal with issues at the outset of the journey.  They help us recognize basic truths at the beginning which will help bring us to a successful conclusion.

This Psalm may at first sound like just a bunch of griping.  But it is not.  The writer refers to 2 groups of people in v5: Meshech and Kedar.  And what is the connection between these two?  It is not geography. The people of Meshech were descendants of Noah's son Japheth, the Mosques, who lived in the wild mountain region between the Caspian and Black Seas.  The tents of Kedar refers to descendants of Ishmael, wandering tribes, whose "hand is against every man, and every man's hand against them."  One was north of Palestine, the latter south.  So we should assume that the writer did not actually live in these two places at once.

Rather the connection is moral.  These were both warring tribes, fierce barbarians.  Thus, we understand the Psalmist to say that living where he lived was like living in Meshech and Kedar.  And what were those places like? They were places of ...

1.             Distress, v1.

2.             Deceit, v2.

3.             Destruction, v3-4.

4.             Disagreement, v5-7.

Which is not to say that it was not...

5.             Deserved.

It's not that the Psalmist was better than those around him.  By birth he was in fact no different.  But something had happened.  The relationships and situations that once were normal, enjoyable, or tolerable he now found to be reason to cry for deliverance (v1f).

The point here is so simple when you think of pilgrimage.  We will never set out on a journey to the place where God dwells if we do not desire to leave the place where we dwell.  It is what we call holy dissatisfaction. 

We will never go to the store for groceries if we don't sense that the situation in the fridge is intolerable.  We will not seek additional training for our work unless we conclude that the current situation cannot continue.  To go anywhere we must be willing to leave where we are.  Nothing could be more simple.  And so it is in a journey to God.  It begins with being wholly dissatisfied with Meshech, the place I now dwell.

If you are still enamored with where you are now with God, you will never draw closer to Him.  Do you have holy dissatisfaction?

We cannot be at home in Meshech and love God at the same time.  The pilgrimage to God begins with a holy discontent towards Meshech.

But many people live as if they think it possible to be comfortable in the world, in Meshech, and committed to God at the same time.

Can we agree that the Bible says that loving Meshech while you love God is not an option?

Mt. 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

James 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Remember back in Psalm 73 the conclusion that the writer came to: earth has nothing I desire besides you (73:25-28).  And why this discontent?  Because Meshech and God are at odds.  This is not the world God created and pronounced good.  It is God's good world taken over in rebellion, taken over by its sinful selfish citizens.

This is the whole point of pilgrimage.  A pilgrim is one who realizes he is on a journey.  Any town he enters along the way cannot be his end because it is only along the way.  He must live as a stranger or alien (1 Peter 1:17; 2:11).

You may not like this but you cannot deny the truth of the simple fact that you cannot proceed to any destination unless you turn your back on your current location.

Listen to John Bunyon, the author of Pilgrim's Progress:

Remember, if the grace of God has taken hold of your soul, you belong to another world now.  You are actually a subject of another, more noble kingdom, the kingdom of God -- the kingdom of the gospel, of grace, of faith, righteousness, and the kingdom of the world to come.  You should work to live in this kingdom, rather than dragging the heavenly things God has given you through this world's dirt.  Instead, beat down your body's selfish urges, destroy your self-centered point of view, boost your mind up to the things that are above, and put into practice before everyone the blessed word of life.

We cannot love and hate Meshech at the same time any more than we can set out on a journey and stay home at the same time.