The End Is The Journey

It’s about the journey, not the destination. This is good advice for a road trip, or life itself in a very general sense. Don’t get so caught up with where you are going that you miss the merit of the present moment 

Of course, if I am on my way to Walmart to buy groceries, then my trip is about the destination, and the traffic during the journey is just getting in the way. Or if I am going to my parents’ house, the drive over has its own beauty, but at some point, I do actually want to arrive at their house. 

If life is just about the journey – the people we meet and the lessons we learn – then we wonder if the journey is worth it, burdened with pain and vanity as it is. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes understood this well. 

Thankfully, there is more to life than a short journey through a big and broken world. This is what the Psalms of Ascent teach us – in particular the last psalm in the series. Psalm 134 comes at the culmination of the pilgrimage and it shows us not only the end of the journey but also the end to which we are to live our pilgrim lives. 

“Now bless the LORD all you servants of the LORD…lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the LORD.” 

Psalm 134:1-2

For the believers of the Old Testament, the rocky roads of their pilgrimage brought them to Jerusalem; to the temple. There in the temple, surrounded by the sights and symbols that reminded them of the LORD and of his presence, they broke out in praise. 

Our own pilgrimage of faith, along equally rocky roads, will one day end in the New Jerusalem; in the presence of the LORD. And we will break out in praise together with the multitude (Revelation 7:9). We will give God the glory, the honor, and the fame that he deserves. 

This is the purpose for which we undertake the journey – to bless the LORD. But we do not merely bless, or praise, the LORD at the journey’s end, as if the journey itself means nothing. Rather, every step of the journey we are meant to do what we will be doing when we arrive. That is to say, we are meant to “bless the LORD” as we make our way along the dusty, sometimes dangerous paths of life. 

It is not always easy. We will be tempted to forget God or to give him second place in our lives. We will be tempted to complain when we stub our toes and get anxious when the dark night approaches. We will want to scuttle past our needy neighbour and fast-forward to the end. But that is not what the journey is about. 

The journey is meant to teach us and prepare us for eternity. If we cannot bless the LORD in the nitty-gritty of life under the sun, what makes us think we will be prepared to bless the LORD forever and ever once the journey is over? 

So, the end is the journey. The chief end of man – to “glorify God” – is the point of the pilgrimage. Have I learned that? And did I remember it today?