A Pilgrim’s Journey
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A Pilgrim’s Journey

Believers have sung the Psalms for millennia, keeping devotional truths close to their hearts and tongues. Psalms 120, 121, and 122 were sung by Israelites journeying to Jerusalem for feasts—though they can serve as a refrain for Christians on our pilgrimage to heaven as well. Alistair Begg explores the realistic feelings of the psalmist: isolation, distress, and helplessness, along with the joy of being with God’s people in places of worship. God, the maker of all creation, watches over our journeys, able to protect and save.


Deliver Me, O Lord

A Song of Ascents.

1In my distress I called to the Lord,

and he answered me.

2Deliver me, O Lord,

from lying lips,

from a deceitful tongue.

3What shall be given to you,

and what more shall be done to you,

you deceitful tongue?

4A warrior's sharp arrows,

with glowing coals of the broom tree!

5Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech,

that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

6Too long have I had my dwelling

among those who hate peace.

7I am for peace,

but when I speak, they are for war!

My Help Comes from the Lord

A Song of Ascents.

1I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

2My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

3He will not let your foot be moved;

he who keeps you will not slumber.

4Behold, he who keeps Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

5The Lord is your keeper;

the Lord is your shade on your right hand.

6The sun shall not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7The Lord will keep you from all evil;

he will keep your life.

8The Lord will keep

your going out and your coming in

from this time forth and forevermore.

Let Us Go to the House of the Lord

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

1I was glad when they said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

2Our feet have been standing

within your gates, O Jerusalem!

3Jerusalem—built as a city

that is bound firmly together,

4to which the tribes go up,

the tribes of the Lord,

as was decreed for1 Israel,

to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

5There thrones for judgment were set,

the thrones of the house of David.

6Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

“May they be secure who love you!

7Peace be within your walls

and security within your towers!”

8For my brothers and companions' sake

I will say, “Peace be within you!”

9For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

I will seek your good.

Copyright © 2024, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.

Alistair Begg
Alistair Begg is Senior Pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Bible teacher on Truth For Life, which is heard on the radio and online around the world.