The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 79: Psalms of Ascent (2023)

Episode Date: March 20, 2023

Today, Fr. Mike points out how the boundaries of the land of Canaan in Numbers remind us that the Promised Land is not a nice idea, but a real tangible place. He also reveals that Psalm 120 begins the Psalms of Ascent, or the Psalms that people would pray as they went up to the Temple to worship. The readings are Numbers 34, Deuteronomy 33, and Psalm 120. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 79. We have only two days left, including today, until we're completed with the book of Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy

and moving on to the next time period, the conquest and judges. But today it is day 79. So we are reading today from Numbers chapter 34, Deuteronomy chapter 33. We'll also be praying Psalm 120. As always, I am reading from the Bible translation called the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. If you want to subscribe to this podcast, that would be a really good idea, and I would recommend it. You can just click subscribe, and you are subscribed. As I said, today is the second to last day until we are concluding this desert wanderings time period. It is day 79. We're reading today, as I said,

once again, this is the final blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy and this almost the very, very end of Numbers chapter 34, where we find out about the boundaries of the land of Canaan. We find out about the tribal leaders amongst the people of Israel, and we continue with our journey today. The book of Numbers chapter 34, boundaries of the land of Canaan. The Lord said to Moses, command the sons of Israel and say to them, when you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan in its full extent. Your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin along the side of Edom,

and your southern boundary shall be from the end of the salt sea on the east, and your boundary shall turn south of the ascent of Akrabim and cross to Zin, and its end shall be south of the ascent of Akrabim and cross to Zin, and its end shall be south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it shall go on to Hazar Adar and pass along to Asman, and the boundary shall turn from Asman to the brook of Egypt, and its termination shall be at the sea. For the western boundary you shall have the great sea and its coast. This shall be your western boundary. This shall be your northern boundary. From the great sea you shall coast. This shall be your western boundary. This shall be your northern boundary. From the great sea, you shall mark out your line to Mount Hor.

From Mount Hor, you shall mark it out to the entrance of Hamath. And the end of the boundary shall be at Zadad. Then the boundary shall extend to Ziphron, and its end shall be at Hazar-Anan. This shall be your northern boundary. You shall mark out your eastern boundary from Hazar-An. This shall be your northern boundary. You shall mark out your eastern boundary from Hazar-anan to Shepham, and the boundary shall go down from Shepham to Ribla on the east side of Ain, and the boundary shall go down and reach to the shoulder of the Sea of Chinareth on the east, and the boundary shall go down to the Jordan, and its end shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be

your land with its boundaries all round. Moses commanded the sons of Israel, saying, This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe. For the tribe of the sons of Reuben by the father's houses, and the tribe of the sons of Gad by their father's houses, have received their inheritance, and also the half- the half tribe of Manasseh. The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward toward the sunrise. Tribal leaders. The Lord said to Moses, These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance. Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. You shall take one leader of every

tribe to divide the land for inheritance. These are the names of the men. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. Of the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Amihud. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislan. Of the tribe of the sons of Dan, a leader. Buki, the son of Jogli. Of the sons of Joseph, of the tribe of the sons of Manasseh, a leader. Haniel, the son of Ephod. And of the tribe of the sons of Ephraim, a leader. Kimuel, the son of Shifton.

Of the tribes of the sons of Zebulun, a leader. Elizaphan, the son of Parnak, of the tribe of the sons of Issachar a leader, Paltiel the son of Azan, and of the tribe of the sons of Asher a leader, Ahihud the son of Shalomi, of the tribe of the sons of Naphtali a leader, Pedehel the son of Amihud. These are the men whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance for the sons of Israel in the land of Canaan. The book of Deuteronomy chapter 33, Moses's final blessing. This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death. He said, the Lord came from Sinai and dawned from

Syir upon us. He shone forth from Mount Paran. He came from the 10,000s of holy ones with flaming fire at his right hand. Yes, he loved his people. All those consecrated to him were in his hand. So they followed in your steps, receiving instruction from you, when Moses commanded us, as a law, as a possession for the assembly of Jacob. Thus the Lord became king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together. Let Reuben live and not die, nor let his men be few. And this he said of his father and mother, I regard them not. He disowned his brothers and ignored his children, for they observed your word and kept your covenant. They shall teach Jacob your ordinances and Israel your law. They shall put incense before you and

whole burnt offering upon your altar. Bless, O Lord, his substance and accept the work of his hands. Crush the loins of his adversaries, of those that hate him, that they rise not again. Of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the Lord, he dwells in safety by him. He encompasses him all the day long, and makes his dwelling between his shoulders. And of Joseph he said, Blessed by the Lord be his land, with the choicest gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that lies beneath, with the choicest fruits of the sun, and the rich yield of the months, with the finest produce of the ancient mountains, and the abundance of the everlasting hills, with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of him

that dwelt in the bush. Let these come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of his head, of him that is prince among his brothers. His firstling bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he shall push the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh. And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar in your tents. They shall call peoples to their mountain. There they offer right sacrifices, for they suck the affluence of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand. And of Gad, he said, Blessed be he who enlarges Gad. Gad lurks like a

lion, and he tears the arm and the crown of the head. He chose the best of the land for himself, for there a commander's portion was reserved. And he came to the head of the people. With Israel, he executed the commands and the just decrees of the Lord. And of Dan, he said, Dan is a lion's whelp that leaps forth from Bashan. And of Naphtali, he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor and full of the blessings of the Lord, possess the lake and the south. And of Asher, he said,

Blessed above sons be Asher, and let him be the favorite of his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil. Your bars shall be iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be. There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, and in his majesty through the skies. The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy. So Israel dwelt in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, in a land of grain and wine. Yes, his heavens dropped down

due. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph. Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their high places. Psalm 120, Prayer for Deliverance from Slanderers, a Song of Ascents In my distress I cry to the Lord, that he may answer me. Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you? And what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? A warrior's sharp arrows with glowing coals of the broom tree.

Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshach, that I dwell among the tents of Kadar. Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. Father in heaven, we thank you and we praise your name. We thank you for being with us on this journey. You are the one who initiated this journey, God. You're always the one who leads us. You're always the one who speaks first. You're the one who moves first.

You're the one who loves us first. All of our prayers to you, all of our listening to you, and all of our loving you back is simply a response to your initiative. So we just thank you. We thank you that if we're hearing these words, we know that you have chosen us because you've loved us. Lord God, you choose your people and you continue to guide them and fight for them. And we know that you continue to choose us as

messed up as we are, and you continue to love us and fight for us. Lord God, help us to love you back and help us to respond to your fighting for us by being the kind of people who are willing to not fight against you, but fight with you. Help us to love you well and the people around us well. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. So, so good. We have a couple things happening today. This is wrapping up. We're wrapping up with the book of Numbers. We're wrapping up the book of Deuteronomy. And so, at the end here, in Numbers chapter 34, we have the boundaries of the land of Canaan. And right, so it just says, okay, on the southern side, this is the boundary. On the eastern side,

this is the boundary, et cetera. And one of the things that reminds us of is the fact that the promised land is not some kind of abstract idea, right? I mean, maybe in modern times it's become kind of an abstract idea or it's a metaphor for something else. But in the ancient world, in the old covenant, for the Jewish people, it is a very specific thing. It is a tangible thing. The boundary lies from here to there to there to there, right?

And there's something really powerful about that for us. Because not only does it reveal to us that, it reminds us, I guess, of the fact that this is a true story. This is a historical reality. This is something that actually happened. This people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt for over 400 years. They were led through the wilderness for 40 years. And then they entered into this particular place and at this particular time and lived in this particular way. And one of

the things that we recognize in this is that Judaism, as well as Christianity, are historical religions, is that they happened at a time and a place to a certain people. And this is how God has interacted with them and on their behalf. And it just reminds us that to be spiritual, to have faith, is not divorced from our daily lives. It's not divorced from matter. It's not divorced from time or space. It is entrenched in time and space as well. And so it's like us, you know, as human beings, we are, what we believe as Christians is that as human beings, we are both matter and spirit. We're made of flesh and our souls, and we're not one or the other. We're both together.

And something is incredibly similar to the Judeo-Christian faith is it is intensely spiritual, but it's also very much intensely material, that it is heaven and earth united in some ways. And so the boundaries of the land of Canaan, we have the tribal leaders in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses' final blessing is so interesting because there are a number of times where you can kind of get a little sense of who is blessed a lot and who is not blessed a lot. As an example, the very first blessing is for Reuben, right? It's the tribe of Reuben. And it says, let Reuben live and not die, nor let his men be few. Like, okay, that is not a very powerful blessing. Let him live and not die. Because the next couple, you know, Judah, and we have the tribe of Levi and Joseph, like all of these other tribes are blessed in some pretty

powerful ways. And yet let Reuben live and not die, nor let his men be few is a little bit underwhelming, we'll say. But one of the things I want to highlight is the Psalms. And I don't often talk about the Psalms as we're praying through these, but we just prayed Psalm 120. And Psalm 120 marks the beginning of what it's called the Psalms of Ascent. The Psalms of Ascent are from Psalm 120 to 134. And these are the Psalms typically associated with the three major feasts in the life of the people of Israel, the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Weeks, or we call it Pentecost, or the Feast the people of Israel, the feast of Passover, the feast of weeks, or we call it Pentecost, or the feast of tabernacles, the feast of booths. Now, remember, the people of Israel had to go up to Jerusalem to worship in the temple at these three times of the year. And so as they

made pilgrimage, when they got to a certain place, they would begin praying these Psalms of Ascent, right? So there's two things to think about. Well, a couple of things to think about. One is Jerusalem is always considered up. Even if you're living in the north of Israel, you would still go up to Jerusalem because Jerusalem is situated in the hill country, right, it's on Mount Zion. And so you'd always go up to Jerusalem,

even if you're coming from the north. And so that Psalms of Ascent is, as you're journeying on your pilgrimage, you are going up. So Psalms of Ascent. So when we take our pilgrimages to Israel, to the Holy Land, one of the things that we'll do is we'll typically ride the bus. It's much easier than walking, I hear. We'll ride the bus from the Jordan River all the way up to Jerusalem. And as we take that bus ride, we'll pray the Psalms of Ascent. And it's this, it's again, it's a reminder of the fact that here for thousands of years, the people of Israel would journey and make this pilgrimage upwards to be able to worship

God in the temple in Jerusalem. And they pray those Psalms of Ascent as we are ascending. I've heard also, though, that it's not merely on the road necessarily. It's not merely on the trail leading up to Jerusalem where they would pray the Psalms of Ascent, but that there would be historically 15 steps leading up to, say, the second temple period. In the second temple period, there were maybe 15 steps, and on each one of these steps, pilgrims would stop on each step and they'd pray the one Psalm of Ascent for every step.

And so they ascend to the temple while praying through these Psalms of Ascent. And in all these, one of the things that I find just kind of fascinating is you'd think, okay, these are Psalms that you pray on your way up to being able to worship the Lord. In my mind, I would think, oh, they're all the same. And yet they're not all the same. Some of them are hymns. They are songs of joy. Some of them are laments. In fact, today, Psalm 120 is a lament. It's written, you know, songs written during times of distress and trouble and saying, okay, I'm leaving that behind me. They're psalms of thanksgiving. There are psalms of confidence.

There are prophetic psalms that contain divine statements or prophecies where God is the one speaking. There's wisdom psalms and there's royal psalms. In fact, one of the, I guess you might say, unofficial titles of this Psalm 120 today that we prayed is God's presence during distress. Today's Psalm 120 is one of those prayers that is a Psalm of lament, that God is truly present even in times of distress. So for the next number of days, we are going to be following all those Psalms and praying all

those Psalms of ascent. So from here on day 79, and we're beginning with Psalm 120, we'll continue praying until day 90 with Psalm 134. So we will be praying these prayers together with each other. And whenever we hit these Psalms of Ascent, just be reminded of the fact that they encompass all of the great joys and great trials of life, but they're all oriented towards journeying up to the temple of God, not only where his presence would abide, but also where he would be worshiped. He'd be worshiped as he had asked to be worshiped. And I think there's something about that that just

reminds us in good times and in bad, in times of distress, in times of joy, in times of trial, in times of thanksgiving, in times of blessing and wisdom and prophecy, that we are called to worship God. Because it is in worshiping God that we truly discover who we are. That in worshiping God, he doesn't get anything out of it, but he transforms us into a certain kind of person, a certain kind of people. And that is an incredible gift. So as we continue this journey, we continue to not only worship God, we also continue to pray for each other. And I hope you know by now, I hope you

believe me that I am praying for you every single day. And I know so many of you are praying for me. Let's not forget praying for each other as well, because my voice might be the one that you hear, but there is someone else whose ears are hearing these words and whose heart is being touched by these words that might need your prayers in a very powerful and very particular way today. So let's not forget each other as we continue this Bible in a Year journey. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.