A Call to Arise
Songs of Ascents Part II

by Mark Waters

he Lord created man to be with Him where He is in the highest heights. It is God’s plan that man would be His dwelling place, His place of rest. God would rest in man, and man would rest in God. Psalms 121 is the second of fifteen Psalms of Ascent. In Psalms 120, there is a preoccupation with self. Notice in that Psalm all the personal pronouns; “I cried, he heard me, Deliver me, woe is me, I sojourn,” etc. The believer is taken up with himself. He is yearning for rest. But his focus is in the wrong place. Man will never find rest as long as his eyes are focused on himself. For man to rise, something must happen in his heart. He must discover that God has a way in which He will lift man to Himself. Psalms 121 reflects this way.

In this Psalm, a change has come to the believer. Notice the predominate pronouns found in this chapter. The believer is no longer focused on himself. Instead he is preoccupied with the Lord. The pronouns used in this chapter speak of the Lord. The believer’s heart is overtaken with a vision of the Lord. He has come to see the Lord in a fresh way. Light has broken into the darkness of his heart. He cries in verses one and two; “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth.” The writer goes on with a heart arrested with the awesome greatness of this one who dwells in the heavens…”He will not suffer, He that keepeth thee, He that keepeth Israel, The Lord is thy keeper, The Lord is thy shade, The Lord shall preserve thee,” etc.

"It is the revelation of Christ that delivers us and lifts us up, emancipating us out of the lowlands into the heights with our Heavenly Priest"

These Psalms of Ascent as a whole reveal to us God’s desire for us to arise into the high place in fellowship and union with Him. This second Psalm of ascent unveils the means by which God lifts us up. God’s means of lifting us up is to reveal His Son in us. When the Lord Himself is revealed in our hearts, a change occurs. We cannot remain the same. John says in 1 John 3:2, that “we are the sons of God, and that it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear (when we see him by revelation) we shall be like him for we shall see Him as He is.” The unveiling of the Son to the heart is God’s means of bringing change. There is no other way.

The Apostle Paul is a wonderful example of this. He sums up all the change that has taken place in Him into one thing; “God revealed His Son in me.” Before this Paul was an avid legalist. He hated Jesus and thought Him to be an imposter. He loved Moses and the Law and in his own eyes walked in it perfectly. Paul was a man filled up with himself. He lived before God in his own strength. There was no argument that could have brought Paul out of this life style he lived. He lived out his relationship with God out of his own strength and zeal. What could bring him out of this? What would lift him up out of deception and self strength on to redemption’s ground? How would God deliver him?

The Lord did not reach down from heaven and take him by His hand to lift him to higher ground. We would like the Lord to do that, but that is not God’s way. God brings us up by opening our eyes to behold His Son in a fresh way.

If there is one thing the church needs, it is the release of the Spirit of Revelation again. If the church could see the Lord again in a fresh way, tremendous changes would ensue. As with Paul, it is Christ who will lift us up and set us free. The writer of this Psalm sees the heavenly Christ, and in seeing Him, he begins to arise. It is the revelation of Christ that delivers us and lifts us up, emancipating us out of the lowlands into the heights with our Heavenly Priest. It is just Jesus we need to know. Nothing stays the same when we see Him. If the church sees Him by the Spirit of revelation in the heart, all will be well again.

Let us join with the writer of Psalm 121 and ask God to pour out the Spirit of Revelation in the full knowledge of the Son to the church again. Let’s express with the Psalmist, the emancipated heart, that’s seeing by revelation God’s Son- our Heavenly Priest - Christ Jesus.