You have to work hard for good news, but it's worth the effort.

 I'm sure you can't imagine why today's news reminded me of an old Anne Murray song.

On top of the epi/pan/en-demic, inflation, ugly politics, the war in Ukraine I woke up this morning to embarrassing revelations in the world of religion that are way too close to home. You're right, Anne, "we sure could use a little good news today."

I've been following a DIY devotional plan this year. Part of it is reading through Psalms each month. From month to month I use a different translation. May is King James month. I know that the ancient Israelites didn't speak with a British accent but to an old guy who grew up on the KJV, it just sounds a little more Psalmish than the ESV, NASB, NIV, etc.

After my dose of bad news, I landed at Psalm 120 this morning. It is the first of fifteen "Psalms of Ascent," or as the KJV labels them, "Psalms of Degrees." As the Jewish pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem for the important feast days their journey was mostly uphill--they ascended by degrees. I quickly read through these traveling songs, this morning. As I walked and sang along with these Old Testament worshippers of God, I was carried along by the mental/spiritual journey they took as they slowly made the sandals-on-the-ground trip to Zion. 

Making a journey like this took a lot of commitment for a group of people who spent their days laboring hard in the field, shop, or home.  Why would they take time away from their occupation--one that required hard and constant work just to get by--and bear the expense, trouble, and risk of a trip to the Holy City? Psalm 120 gives the answer. The opening chorus of the travel songs begins in a minor key, "In my distress I cried unto the LORD." Like Isaiah at his moment of clarity (Isaiah 6:5) the Psalm writer/singer saw the evil that spewed from people's mouths. He was tired of the lies, and worse, I get the idea that the Psalm writer knew that he was not free of the falsehood epidemic. "Deliver my soul, oh Lord, from lying lips." Is he pleading to be delivered from the harm that the liars that surround him inflict? Certainly. Is he concerned that, like Isaiah realized, he too was a "man of unclean lips"? I think so. In the New Testament, we read, "Bad company corrupts good morals."

Toward the end of the Psalm, you can hear the weariness of the God-worshipper with being surrounded day after day by the lie-tellers and peace-opposers. Meshech and Kedar are addresses of places in the world--the place that the Apostle John says, "lies in the power of the evil one." They are representative of everywhere in the world. They are places not unlike where you and I live. The ancient Israelite heard it in the marketplace or the gate of the city, Anne Murray took the rubber band off of the paper, and you and I click on a website. It's the same--there is a serious lack of good news.

The discontent motivated the faithful of  Israel to make the dusty journey, as you travel with them, you can hear their songs change. Hope enters; there is joy. Where does one find help? "My help comes from the Lord." The distress is transformed into gladness as the pilgrims contemplate the stability that comes to those who worship the LORD. As the contemplation of communion with the God of truth and peace built toward a crescendo, someone broke out in song, singing the words the warrior king, David, had written,

I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. 

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 131:2–3, ESV)

I may pick up these wonderful songs again, soon, but for now, I leave you with David's words. "Hope in the Lord." That's good news we can all use.