There must have been years when faithful pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem with mixed feelings: joy at seeing the holy city and grief over the state of it. Some of us have similar mixed feelings about the church. Psalm 132 can help us in the same way it helped them.

On our journey to Jerusalem God brings us through dark valleys of humiliation. He has to, to help us deal with our pride. Psalm 131

You’re getting on a bit: near the journey’s end. Do you sometimes think, “My sin, my sin, how can I appear in the presence of God?” Maybe it's some specific sin — a dark secret from the past or maybe it's that ongoing sinfulness that you can't shake off. What should you do? Psalm 130 has the answer.

Psalm 129 is a good song for when people are trying to hold you back from your journey, but can a Christian pray for the destruction of his enemies?

It’s hard to put into words what it's like to be happy. The best way is to use picture language and that’s what whoever wrote Psalm 128 does. He gives you a picture of what God's idea of happiness is, and he tells you how to find it.

When you get to the end of your life will you have left anything of lasting value or will you just die and be forgotten? That’s what Psalm 127 is about. It will stir you up to ask questions. What am I building? What will I leave behind? What is the point of all this effort I am putting in? And it has three important things to say to you.

There have been high points in the church’s history: revivals, times of rapid growth, victories, triumphs. But look at the state of it now. Like a sailing ship becalmed it seems to be going nowhere. it looks like the world is winning. What are we to do? Psalm 126.

Psalm 125 is a good song for the days when it seems that everything is against you: those days when you just want to go back to bed and pull the blankets over you head.