ASCEND: Lent 2025 Experience

Week Six, Build the house

Join me as we enter into the sixth week of Lent. I hope you enjoy this intentional experience. I’ve created this special devotional series on the theme Ascend, inviting you to walk through the psalms with me.

The “Songs of Ascent,” are a group of 15 psalms, including Psalms 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. 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 seek, to confess, to wade through grief, and to ascend with our hearts and minds to meet with our Heavenly Father. The 40 days of Lent often 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 an adventure it’s always good to have a companion. I am here to sojourn alongside you. This week we will be reading Psalm 127 and 128 as we learn about building a house on God’s foundation.

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Read:

Read or listen to the following psalms and take some time to meditate on the verses this week. Consider reading these verses in a translation that you don't typically read to give you a fresh perspective. What is the Holy Spirit speaking to you about mercy through these verses?

Psalm 127: A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

¹ Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
² In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to^[a] those he loves.

³ Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
⁵ Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their opponents in court.

Psalm 128: A song of ascents.

¹ Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
who walk in obedience to him.
² You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
⁴ Yes, this will be the blessing
for the man who fears the Lord.

⁵ May the Lord bless you from Zion;
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
⁶ May you live to see your children’s children—
peace be on Israel (NIV).

Amen.

Learn:

On our route home from school each day, they’re building a slew of new condos and houses. We have been watching the process over many months. First, the foundations were laid. Then the frames of the houses were erected. Next, builders installed siding, drywall, windows, doors, and eventually roofs. Finally, the details go in like electrical, plumbing, flooring, and paint.

Watching this process of building has reminded me that we need to trust and depend on God to be the foreman of anything we build. Otherwise, we are leaning into self-sufficiency and seeking glory for ourselves.