SERMON FOR SUNDAY THE 23rd AUGUST 2026

Psalm 121, in ancient Israel, was one of the “songs of ascents,” where the pilgrims are about to reach the end goal destination of the pilgrimage.

When we think of some of the current day pilgrimages such as the Compostela de Santiago, Spain, or St. Columba’s way bicycling pilgrimage from coast to coast in Scotland and ending on the island of Iona. The pilgrims are not monks, but people wanting to reflect and change their lives. They want to see some other aspect of life beyond the everyday life. Perhaps the most interesting is that pilgrimages involve discomfort and some pain, reflection and perseverance and accomplishment.  We are more often accustomed to leisure and taking it easy, whereas pilgrimages weave through landscapes that are beautiful and difficult to walk (at parts) and the endurance or effort is important toward helping the mind and soul.

Ultimately, pilgrimages are seeking some kind of spiritual connection that can be so absent in driven workplaces or commercial fulfilment, where the focus is the accumulation of the next best thing.  While this is part of life, it only addresses material need and doesn’t speak to the spiritual aspect of sensing that there might be something more to life.

Some find connection and identification in the pilgrimage to AFL matches and the legends created on field. There is friendship and connection.

Spiritual pilgrimage does this also and then it asks something different on a personal level. Pilgrimages speak to connection with the world and creation. For the religious pilgrims, it is about connection to God.  For others it is about finding spirituality in other ways that where they describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. That is why many individuals practice meditation or feel a connection to nature without joining a church or faith

In Psalm 121, the mood is that of festival and party and praise to that which deserves celebration – life’s events and the spiritual acknowledgement of God who is to be celebrated.

The song of ascent, is acknowledging that God is not somewhere in the clouds but in the fabric of life, among us.

We find in the Gospel passage set for today in Matthew Chapter 14 that Jesus puts the disciples on the spot and asks them, “Who do you say I am?”  They tell what others think – like Elijah or Jeremiah and some of the greats in Jewish history.  However, Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?”  It is a direct question to them and it is Peter who declares that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is God’s Son.  That declaration is derived from a place of observance, of knowing on a personal level that Jesus is more than any prophet and is the presence of God with them.

We discover that such a declaration is found over time and through not giving up in the search. It is a statement from a deeper place and an opening of Peter to God.

Whatever we believe today or value, do we dig deeper to the source of whatever moves us?  The values, the ideals, the principles, the belief in the greater good possible in humanity.

Spirituality is more than just religion.  I say that as religion can be moving through creeds, doctrines and liturgies and missing that these are meant in some way or other to point us in the direction to God.

We hear in this Psalm that, for the pilgrims, it is more than words and comes from a place of paying respect to the Maker, the Creator, to God.

We sometimes don’t tend to not look for meaning until trouble knocks on the doors of our lives. Crisis either turns us away from the notion of a greater being or turns us toward a greater truth. The Psalmist says, God is there as the pilgrims look to the hills.

The Psalmist is not talking about other shrines to other gods that were so often on the hill tops.  The Psalmist is looking up at the high mountains, wondering where help will come from and the answer is real help comes directly from God, not from the hills or idols around them.

Protection

The hopes of the Psalmist are so often reflected in the hopes of people in wider society. A place where we are protected from the dangers that exist in life. That is why insurance companies thrive as we attempt to protect what we have and those we want to protect.

There is a wide thinking that we are better placed if we just manage our lives and the notion of there being a God is not helpful. Ask anyone who is going through a difficulty and they may say different as people often reach out to the heavens.

John Lennon imagined a world without God or heaven and this was his path toward a better place. Underlying that belief is that rules and regulations in the Bible are prohibitive and weigh people down.

In saying this, there are many philosophies that wish to discard frameworks of religious rules often end up with being even more limiting rules and regulations.

There is the assumption that without God, that we determine better ways forward for people and are therefore protected more. We sometimes see a bit of this thinking in the hope of putting protections in life to seek to address all scenarios in life.

However, the Psalmist speaks of God’s protection in a positive way. The Psalmist hopes that the world will be a better place and while this is the sentiment of the Psalmist, it is a wish that this would be the case – that people would be fully protected in life. We wish this and pray this, though it doesn’t always happen.  Instead, the Psalmist speaks to the protection that God gives in a different sense than just a rescue ladder.  The Psalmist doesn’t circumnavigate times where God seems absent, though acknowledges firmly that God does not abandon people. In this way we are protected by God who cares for the troubles that we endure in life.

When we look at the ways that God protects us we find there are a number of ways.

God protects us through unseen spiritual guards, wise detours, and the preservation of our souls, guarding us from ultimate harm even when physical pain or hardship occurs in a broken world.  God’s protection is seen in spiritual and unseen ways like guarding the soul: Protection in this way is a preserving of our inner life and eternal destiny rather than just stopping temporary physical distress.

There is God’s intervention also.  The unseen intervention of blocking dangers, delays, or accidents before you even realize they were headed your way and guarding faith: sustaining belief so that hardships and trials do not destroy your relationship with God. We see God’s protection most of all as a comforting presence: Providing inner peace and calm so you can sleep without deep fear or panic. Giving wisdom and discernment: Guiding our choices to help avoid destructive habits or harmful environments.

The action of God is found in humanity

Throughout the Bible, we find that where God wants a better world even when it seems that the world beats to a different drum.

One of the others readings today is the baby Moses being rescued in the middle of great evil. How amazing that God moved the heart of an Egyptian princess who took Moses in and raised him at great risk to herself.

Not just an Israelite, but a wider world where God is found in the helping humankind. There are stories that don’t always make the headlines that speak of faith and rescue in the most unlikely of circumstances. Read some of the acts of faith in the middle of the Second World War and how God was at work in the difficult times. There are many stories and dramatic rescues that resulted through people who acted upon the direction of God and showed great faith.The Bible is a story of God’s salvation that continues, though like the pilgrims we need to incline our thoughts to actively seek God and recognize that God is to be found and can find us if we but listen.  To worship God is to recognize that God is greater than the sum of who we are.

Lastly, what is Psalmist celebrating?
The Psalmist says in Psalm 121, ‘I will look to the mountains and beyond the mountains … for my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

One of the traps we have in life is to place too much store on how important we are in our own right rather than using the gifts we have to do good for each other.

The Psalmist says, who of us don’t need God’s help?

If God made all of this, the ground I walk on, the gravity that holds me in place, the breath I just took, the mountains, oceans, amoeba and eagles, this great God most clearly is able to help.

Whatever our belief or persuasion today, this Psalm commends what the writer has found to be true. That we can trust God in our lives. We are still here, by the grace of God — and so we can take hope in God.