Staircase!

April 27th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

The European Society of Cardiology’s Preventive Cardiology Conference, a scientific congress of the organization, is currently under way in Athens, Greece. Among the presentations was this: “Evaluating the Cardiovascular Benefits of Stair Climbing: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” by Dr. Sophie Paddock, from Norfolk, U.K.

Cardiovascular disease is largely preventable through actions like exercise. However, more than one in four adults worldwide do not meet recommended levels of physical activity. Stair climbing is a practical and easily accessible form of physical activity which is often overlooked. This study investigated whether climbing stairs, as a form of physical activity, could play a role in reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease and premature death.

Bottom line: Climb stairs. Live longer.

Said Dr. Paddock:

If you have the choice of taking the stairs or the lift, go for the stairs as it will help your heart.”

Yup. Good idea.

I have a better one, though. Spiritual health. And it, too, is related to staircases, but of a different kind. The biblical kind. Specifically, the psalmic kind! I refer to Psalms 120–134.

These fifteen psalms are commonly labeled the “Song of Ascents,” perhaps because of the references to the movement of a pilgrim to Jerusalem and Zion (located at an elevation). You can actually trace a movement, a narratival ascent, from Psalm 120–134.

It begins in desperate straits with the pilgrim living among wicked people:

Yahweh, rescue my soul!
Psalm 120:2

The pilgrim calls for help and begins his move to a new destination:

My help [comes] from Yahweh.
Psalm 121:2

He arrives in city of God and finds peace:

… the peace of Jerusalem …
Psalm 122:6

But he and his compatriots are still ridiculed and condemned, so they appeal to God:

Be gracious to us, Yahweh!
Psalm 123:3

And had it not been for the grace of God, they’d’ve been in big trouble:

Were it not Yahweh who was for us …
Psalm 124:1

But they, who trusted God, were protected by him:

[Like] Jerusalem: mountains surround it: so Yahweh surrounds His people
Psalm 125:2

Now God is restoring the pilgrims:

Restore, Yahweh, our restoration!
Psalm 126:4

Though consummation of restoration is still awaited, the blessing of Yahweh is already upon them:

May Yahweh bless you from Zion!
Psalm 128:5

Between these two psalms, Psalms 126 and 128, is Psalm 127 that depicts the humble pilgrim in his domicile, living his life faithfully, building a house and raising a family—protected by God (operating in Psalms 126 and 128):

If Yahweh himself does not build a house, in worthlessness the ones building labor on it.
Psalm 127:1

The protection of the righteous God destroys the wicked:

Yahweh … cut the ropes of the wicked.
Psalm 129:4

But then it is the sinfulness of humankind, that sinks them into depths that only God can extricate them from:

If You keep [track of] iniquities, Yah, Lord, who may stand?
Psalm 139:3

And that brings the psalmist to rest, content in the arms of a tender God:

Like a just-nursed one with[in] me [is] my soul.
Psalm 131:2

Now on to worship:

… let us worship at the stool of His feet.
Psalm 132:7

This commitment further enables blessing:

Yahweh commanded the blessing—life unto forever.
Psalm 134:3

And then they live happily forever in the presence of God:

Behold, bless Yahweh, all servants of Yahweh!
Psalm 134:1

What a story—an ascent into the arms of God—a stairway, in more ways than one, describing life and its glorious end!

SOURCE: Medical Xpress; European Society of Cardiology