It is evident Adonai, that the principle of reaping what we sow is a universal one and is applicable to all dimensions of life. You taught from the Mount while You were on the earth that the one who mourned was blessed for they would be comforted. Your servants can testify that though for weeks, nay months, they sowed in tears; they soon reaped with songs of joy. They sowed with pleading for help to walk righteous before Thee. They sowed with cries that sincerely expressed to You how eager they were to live pleasing in Your sight. They came to You in their weakness. They cried when they stumbled and mourned when they grieved You. This discipline went on for months, with intermittent breaks so that they would not grow weary. Yet all the time their eyes were on Thee for they knew that the God in whom they had put their hope was faithful. Right enough, at the proper time, after refining them as gold purified in fire, they came out rejoicing at Thy faithfulness and now testify how good and gracious and wonderful You are.
Song of Ascents comprises of a collection of 15 psalms from Psalm 120 to 134. While there are a number of suggestions as to what the phrase, “Song of Ascents” could mean, one thought is that these psalms were sung by Israel as they went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the three annual feasts that the Lord had commanded (Lev. 23; Ex. 23:14).
We have concluded the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread which started on the 15th day of the first month of the Biblical calendar (or on the evening of March 30, 2018). During this seven day feast, Israel went up to Jerusalem singing these Songs of Ascent. The next feast is Shavuot (or Pentecost) which is 50 days from First-fruits. (This year it falls on May 20, 2018.)
From the day of First-fruits, which was the day our Lord rose from the dead, we have completed 48 days of counting up to the fifty days to Shavuot (Lev. 23:15-16), and are now on the 49th day (completing seven Sabbaths). At sunset this evening will begin the Feast of Weeks. During this counting we reminded ourselves that after our Lord Yeshua rose again, He revealed Himself to His disciples and many others for 40 of these 50 days. Having seen the Lord ascend into heaven, the disciples tarried in Jerusalem just as He instructed them. At the Feast of Weeks, when all Israel was to gather in Jerusalem according to the command of God. While Yeshua told them that they would receive the Holy Spirit “not many days from now”, could they have imagined that this glorious promise of the Father would be granted to them on the day of the Feast of Weeks? I wonder if they knew that God was to fulfil one more of His promises on His appointed ‘Moedim’, just as He did on His other three appointed days of Passover (in Yeshua’s death); the Feast of Unleavened Bread (in Yeshua’s burial) and in First-fruits (Yeshua’s resurrection).
My purpose of posting a verse from these psalms each day (during these days between the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) which in Greek is called Pentecost) is so that we too—if you are a son (or daughter) of Israel, even though you once may have been a Gentile but now through the great grace shown to us by the Father and through the blood of the Messiah Yeshua—can pilgrim into the presence of the Most High God (for we are the temple of God and the Holy Spirit dwells in us) singing these psalms to Him who sits on the throne (in heaven and in our hearts).
Join with me then O son of Israel and let us exalt the name of our God together as we pilgrim on His appointed feast days just as He commanded.
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