ASCEND: Lent 2025 Experience

Week Two, Where our help comes from

Friend, we are continuing with our journey through Lent. Many use the weeks stretching from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday as a time to reflect, repent, and return to God in prayer.

In some traditions, people choose to fast on the forty weekdays that span the season, entering into the forty-day fast Jesus undertook in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-2). They might choose to take a break from chocolate, meat, social media, or some other indulgence. We often focus on the fasting. The heart behind this practice is to align ourselves with Jesus’ suffering as we approach Holy Week and Easter. We deprive ourselves to delve deeper into connection with God, but sometimes we get distracted by the fasting itself. At least I know I do.

What if Lent was less about fasting and more about feasting on the presence of God?

That’s my heart in creating this special devotional series on the theme Ascend. Let’s feast on the glory of God together and begin by reading the psalms.

The psalms of ascent or “Songs of Ascent,” sometimes referred to as the “Pilgrim Songs” are a special group of 15 psalms, including Psalm 120-134. This collection of psalms spans individual and corporate laments, songs of confidence, thanksgiving hymns, a song celebrating Zion, wisdom psalms, a royal psalm, and a psalm for worship. Four were written by King David, one by King Solomon, and 10 have anonymous authors.

These were songs that were familiar to the Jews and often sung during pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts of the Jewish faith (Deuteronomy 16:16). The city had a high elevation so the people who traveled there had to ascend to get there.

The Hebrew term for "ascent" is maʿalot which means "going up." Some believe there are 15 psalms of ascent to represent the 15 steps up to the temple in Jerusalem. One psalm specifically refers to the “going up” to Jerusalem (Psalm 122:4).

During Lent, we have the opportunity to reflect, to ascend with our hearts and minds to meet with our Heavenly Father. These themes we will traverse over the next 40 days all point to the journey of the Son Jesus from the wilderness to death on a cross to glorious resurrection. These psalms call us back into the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Friend, I am inviting you to carve out time with me this Lenten season to “go up” to God. I have learned when going on a journey it’s always good to have a companion. I am here to be your sherpa, your companion, your guide.

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