A Meditation with pictures.
My daughter, Jenny, used to really love rock climbing. If there was a climbing wall around, she could go up and down it all day. So when a climbing gym opened near where we lived in Florida, we all went and took the intro class so she could go climb there if she wanted to. If you don’t know, a climbing gym is basically a warehouse covered in the ultimate in climbing walls.
And in the class, you had to learn not just about climbing, but about belaying – how to hold the safety rope to protect another climber from falling. Climbing was always done in pairs – with one person as belayer. The rope is attached to the belayer’s waist and the belayer holds it with both hands – letting it out or taking it in – watchful and ready to tighten their grip and hold firm if needed. And one of the few things that stuck with me from that course was the phrase, “Belay on.” Before climbing, we were taught to ask it as a question, “Belay on?” – to confirm that the belayer was ready before we tackled the wall. And the belayer responded, “Belay on” or “on belay” – a shorthand way of saying, “I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall.”
And it struck me, reading and praying this psalm this week, that this is what it’s all about. This psalm is one often recited by pilgrims, or those setting out on a journey – but the psalm really recognizes all of life as a journey – a journey that is often up-hill.
Some versions use the word “hills” for what is up ahead on the road – which makes me think of peaceful rolling hills. And life can be like that – a gentle up and down.
But others use the word “mountains,” which brings to mind something steeper, more rugged, more difficult. If life is a journey, sometimes you have to climb some mountains along the way.
This psalm is part of a group called the “Psalms (or songs) of Ascents,” that have that phrase as a kind of subtitle before the psalm begins. But Psalm 121 is unique, because words of the subtitle in Hebrew are slightly different. Psalm 121 is subtitled “A Psalm for Ascents.” This is a song, a prayer, to sing while ascending, while going uphill, while climbing.
And so, as I read this psalm, I imagine coming up to a steep rock face, and knowing I need to go up and over it. Looking up, and wondering, “How am I going to make it? What happens if I slip? – From where will my help come?”
Rock or mountain climbing is hard, you feel the strain in your hands, your arms, your back, your legs, your ankles. It takes everything you have to make it up. And it’s unsettling. The hand and footholds are small, and sometimes not so secure. It’s easy to slip or lose your grip. And we can make mistakes as we climb – think we chosen a good, safe route to the top, only to find out it’s a dead end and we have to go back down a ways, retrace our steps, and find another way up.
It’s a risky business, climbing – and it some-times leaves us hanging off a cliff by the most slender of threads – but that is often the route God calls us to take.
But the promise of Psalm 121 is that as we climb, we do not do it alone. God is our belayer. The Lord holds the rope that keeps us safe as we climb. A foot may slip, but not because God wants that to happen. And if we fall, we won’t fall far, because the Lord will hold us fast. And when we reach the top, and rappel down the other side to continue our journey, God’s rope will guide our descent.
It’s a risky business, mountain climbing, but much, much riskier, life threatening even, if we try to do it alone.
Our culture may promote individualism and self-sufficiency, but sooner or later we all reach a point where we have to look up, and ask for help. But if we are willing to admit the need, to ask for help, the answer comes right away, “My help comes from the Lord.”
Belay on? Belay on. Amen.
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