Psalm 122 is our text tonight. It's the third in a series of
15 psalms that are linked together with a common
inscription. They come in sequence in the canon, starting
with Psalm 120, and concluding with Psalm 134. It's clear
that these psalms go together by inspired design, because all
15 of them are labeled "A Song of Ascents," or "A Song of
degrees." And these are the only fifteen psalms in the entire
psalter that carry that label. It's clear that they go together.
Most commentators believe this was a collection of short
choruses that were sung by pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem
for the annual feasts. Both the style and the content of these
psalms seem to support that theory. These are songs for
pilgrims to sing along the way. Like the choruses we used to
sing on the bus on the way to camp, they are all short and
easy to memorize.
There are nine verses in our psalm (Psalm 122). Four of
the fifteen pilgrim psalms expressly identify David as the
author, and this is one of them.
Tonight I want to start with just a simple reading of the
text. Psalm 122:
A Song of Ascents. Of David. I was glad when they said to
me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!"
Psalm 122 2
2 Our feet have been standing within your gates, O
Jerusalem!
3 Jerusalem--built as a city that is bound firmly together,
4 to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was
decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
5 There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the
house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! "May they be secure
who love you!
7 Peace be within your walls and security within your
towers!"
8 For my brothers and companions' sake I will say, "Peace
be within you!"
9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will
seek your good.
First of all, let's look a little more closely at that
superscription: "A Song of Ascents." The word "ascents," we
believe, refers to the upward journey every pilgrim had to
make when traveling to Jerusalem from anywhere else in
Israel. "Songs for an uphill journey."
Of these fifteen pilgrim psalms, only three (120, 127, 130)
contain no reference to Zion, or the city of Jerusalem. This
psalm zeroes in on Jerusalem in a particular way.
I mentioned that only four of the pilgrim psalms are
attributed to David, and this is the first of those. In fact, the
psalms of ascent appear to be ordered in two groups of
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seven. Each group of seven contains two of David's psalms.
And then dead in the center is Psalm 127, which is attributed
to Solomon.
Now, the fact that this psalm was written by David is
intriguing and unexpected. If all you had were the words of
this psalm without a superscription, you would never think to
attribute it to David, and I'll show you why in a few minutes.
First, let me say that the opening sentence of this psalm is
the first Bible verse I ever memorized. I learned it when I
was about 6 or 7 years old in a Methodist Church in Wichita,
Kansas during summer Vacation Bible School. (Here's an
intersting point of trivia: Tom Patton went to that same
church in Wichita. He was a few years behind me. But his
dad was the Sunday School teacher in my parent's class. If
his mom taught Vacation Bible School, I would have been
one of the brats in her class, but I don't remember for sure.)
That was 55 years ago. I may be the only person in this room
who remembers anything that we learned in Vacation Bible
School 55 years ago. But I do remember a few things clearly.
We made little model church buildings out of wooden
popsicle sticks, and we memorized this verseCand the theme
of VBS that year was Church. We were taught the
importance of weekly church attendance, and we were
lectured on the importance of remembering the Sabbath Day
to keep it holy. (That was back in the day when there were
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still a few Methodists who cared about keeping anything
holy. Methodists like that are harder to find nowadays.) We
were also told that the church building is God's house and
told we need to respect it as a sacred place. (Today I might
quibble with that, but those ladies meant well.)
Anyway we memorized this verse: "I was glad when they
said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD."
And the Methodist VBS ladies said that's how David felt
about going to church, and we should be glad, tooCbecause
Sunday School is a glad place, with glad stories to hear, and
really cool flannel-board illustrations, and pictures to color,
and little churches made of popsicle sticksCall to make us
glad. And to this day when I hear this psalm, I think about
vacation Bible School and how glad I was when we got out.
But I didn't really understand the gospel, and I didn't
come to full faith in Christ, until I was 17 years old, about a
month before I graduated from high school.
That was in 1971. It was four years after the Six-Day
War, which took place in June of 1967. So four years before
I was saved, the modern nation of Israel had gained control
of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza strip, the West Bank, and
(most important) the city of Jerusalem. The Middle East was
in the news daily at the time, and evangelical Christians were
obsessed with trying to interpret Bible prophecy in light of
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current events. Hal Lindsey's book The Late, Great Planet
Earth was a multi-million-copy best-seller.
That's what was happening when I became a Christian.
And I sought and found (not far from my home) a fellowship
of believers who loved the Word of God and affirmed the
gospel, and I joined them and was baptized. (The interesting
thing is that my new church's building was a very simple,
plain structure, and it kind of reminded me of that little
popsicle-stick model I made as a kindergartner.) But this was
a Bible-believing congregation, a teaching church. No fun 'n'
games, and no elaborate liturgies, but their Sunday services
consisted of a few songs and a sermon.
As a teenager, I didn't really fit the demographic of that
church, but I was hungry to learn and glad to go, and I loved
the fellowship of other believers. And the opening words of
this psalm took on new meaning for me. "I was glad when
they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the LORD!'"
The pastor and the people of that church helped get me
established and learning as a new Christian, so I will forever
be grateful for the encouragement I got there, and I hesitate
to say anything critical about the ministry of that church. But
one thing about the teaching I heard there was not as helpful
to me as it might have been: the sermon every single week
was a message on Bible prophecy and current events. That
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was literally the only thing that pastor ever preached to us
about.
And this psalm was often quotedCespecially verse 6:
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love
thee." My teachers in those days were all old-school Scofield
dispensationalists who made such a hard-line dichotomy
between Israel and the church that they ended up, in effect,
acting as if large portions of Scripture simply don't pertain to
Christians at all. (They seemed to simply write off much of
the Old Testament, because they said it pertained to Israel,
not the church.)
They pointed out that in this psalm David wasn't talking
about going to church. This psalm is about Jerusalem.
Furthermore, they said, the message of this psalm is
prophetic. "The house of the LORD" in verse 1 is a reference to
the Millennial Temple. They said the key to this psalm is
verse 6, which encourages us to hope and pray for the
triumph of modern Israel over their enemies. So the message
of this psalm is political and prophetic, they saidCrelevant to
us only because it sheds light on events in the middle east
and tells us how to respond to the political situation there.
Now, I know that some of you guys who are seminary
students will instantly see the problems with that
interpretation. In some ways, that's even worse than the VBS
ladies' interpretation.
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Both interpretations are problematic for similar reasons:
David isn't writing about the church; he didn't even know
about the church, because according to Ephesians 3:1-11 and
Colossians 1:26, the church was a mystery (a truth that was
kept concealed) until the time of the apostles. Furthermore,
this isn't about the modern state of Israel and the political
problems in that city today, because David knew nothing
about that, eitherCand there's no hint in the psalm itself that
this is talking about the Millennial Kingdom.
So what is the alternative? I think some of our
seminarians might look at this psalm and say: You've got to
be careful not to go beyond the surface of a literal
interpretation. All that ultimately matters is the human
author's intent and experience, so let's keep our
understanding and application of the text within those limits.
And since David was writing about the city of Jerusalem in
his own time, they might conclude that this psalm looks no
deeper and no further ahead than that. It is a celebration of
worship the way it was done in Old Testament Israel before
the kingdom divided, and therefore it doesn't really pertain to
the church or the kingdom.
In my judgment that interpretation may be the worst of
the three, because it evacuates any meaningful application
from this psalm for you and me. Since we know that "All
Scripture is . . . profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
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correction, and for training in righteousness . . . [to equip us]
for every good work"Cwe have to read this with the
understanding that it means to teach us some truth or
principle that we can apply in the same way David did. If we
treat this psalm as nothing more than a piece of historical
trivia, I don't think we're doing justice to the Word of God.
In other words, I think all three of those interpretations
miss the real point of this psalm. (The VBS ladies who said
that this is all about the importance of church attendance; the
old-school dispensationalists who said no, it's really talking
about the Millennial kingdom; and the strict literalists who
say it's only about David's personal experience as he went to
the Tabernacle to worship. All of them miss the boat.)
Perhaps the way to say it is that all three are partly right
but mostly wrong. This psalm is not a celebration of earthly
Jerusalem, or the church, or the Millennial Kingdom per se.
It is a celebration of worshipCpublic worship, not one's own
private meditations. David is writing about the gladness
associated with worship when the people of God gather
together to worship in unison. So the psalm teaches
principles that apply to Old Testament Israel, the New
Testament church, and the millennial kingdom alike.
Specifically, this is a psalm about the joys of worship, and
its message is that the very essence of heaven is brought to
earth when the people of God gather to worship Him with
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their collective praise. The historical features of the text
aren't nearly as significant as the eternal principles it
celebrates.
But let's not skip over the historical context of this psalm
to get to those principles. Here's a brief introduction to the
history of this psalm:
I mentioned that it's a little surprising to read in the
superscription that this is a psalm of David. Here's why:
Three times in the psalm Jerusalem is mentioned by name
(vv. 2, 3, and 6). In David's time, Jerusalem was still in its
infancy as the heart and capital city of the nation, and it is
usually referred to as "the city of David." The location is first
mentioned all the way back in Genesis. Mt. Moriah (which is
the place where the Temple was located) is where Abraham
took Isaac to sacrifice himCand God intervened by
supplying a substitute sacrifice. The town that existed at that
location in those days was called "Salem," and that's where
Abraham met Melchizedek in Genesis 14.
The first use of the name Jerusalem is found in the book
of Joshua, where you find that name used about ten times,
and most of them mention "Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem."
He was a Jebusite, and in Joshua 15:8, Jerusalem is referred
to as "the southern shoulder of the Jebusite." Then in Joshua
18:28, the city is called "Jebus." Immediately the writer
makes clear that he is talking about Jerusalem. Judges 19:10
Psalm 122 10
uses the same expression: "Jebus (that is, Jerusalem)." So this
town was home to the Jebusites, and they called it "Jebus."
Even though this city was part of the land allocated for the
tribe of Benjamin, the Jebusites continued to live there and
call the city Jebus right up through the time of David. Judges
1:21 says, "The people of Benjamin did not drive out the
Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived
with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day."
David finally conquered Jebus almost immediately after
he was made king. He is finally installed as king in Saul's
place in 1 Chronicles 11:3, and then two verses later he
conquers Jebus.
It could not have been much of a battle. The whole thing
is described in about three verses in 1 Chronicles 11:4-7:
"David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is, Jebus, where the
Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land. The inhabitants of
Jebus said to David, 'You will not come in here.' Nevertheless,
David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David." So
David took possession of that region, and the Jebusites more
or less disappear from biblical history after that. I gather
most of them became proselytes and intermarried with the
Israelites.
In any case, Jerusalem still did not take on its full
significance until David had the ark of the covenant brought
there, and that became the permanent resting-place of the
ark.
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Remember the disastrous history of the ark. At the end of
Joshua's conquests, the Tabernacle was permanently erected
at Shiloh, and the ark was kept there. But then on that final,
disastrous day of Eli's life, someone got the bright idea of
taking the ark into battle against the PhilistinesCas if the ark
were some kind of good-luck charm. The Philistines won
that battle and captured the ark. But they couldn't handle the
plagues the ark brought them, so they sent it back to Israel,
and it rested at Kiriath-jearim for all of king Saul's reign. In
all it was there for a century or more, and then David decided
to bring it to Mt. Zion. Zion, of course, is one of the chief
hills in Jerusalem. And sometimes in Scripture, the city is
referred to by that name: Zion.
But in those days it was generally known as "the city of
David." The name Jerusalem wasn't widely used until after
Solomon built the city into one of the true wonders of the
world.
But remember: throughout David's lifetime, there was no
permanent Temple. Second Samuel 7:1-2: "Now when the
king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all
his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet,
'See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in
a tent.'" He wanted to build a permanent Temple, but the
Lord said no, and the ark remained in that tent on Mount
Moriah until Solomon built the first Jewish Temple after
David died.
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So that's why it's surprising to learn that this psalm was
written by David. When he refers to "the house of the LORD"
in the first and last verses of this psalm, he is not talking
about an ornate Temple, but a makeshift tabernacle. And
when he refers to Jerusalem (v. 2) "built as a city that is bound
firmly together," he is envisioning the city not as it was then
but as it would be eventually. He is looking past the present
realities and describing a more perfect ideal.
And that is consistent with how Scripture speaks of
Jerusalem. The true ideal is not a dusty city on a rocky ridge.
In fact, the ultimate biblical ideal represented by the city of
Jerusalem is never fully described until Revelation 21:2,
which speaks of "the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down
out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband."
That, of course, speaks of an eternal realityC"the city that
has foundations, whose designer and builder is God." That's
what Hebrews 11:10 says Abraham looked forward to by
faith. And I'm convinced David (together with you and me
and every redeemed person of all ages) likewise has looked
forward by faith toward that great, glorified, heavenly city. It
represents the central district and in essence the capital city
of heaven. "The holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven." It will stand at the very nexus of the new heaven
and new earth. It is the place where we will spend eternity.
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That's what the earthly city of Jerusalem symbolized to
David. It's what the church represents for you and me. And
the millennial kingdom will be the finest earthly symbol of
that same eternal reality. Heaven.
Do you get that? What Jerusalem was to David, the
church is to you and me. It is the dwelling-place of God. It is
a living, breathing, holy convocation of God's people, who
gather to worship Him in unison. It is the very same
fellowship of saints that will one day culminate in a heavenly
convocation. It is a place of safety from the evils of a
decadent world. It is a place where God's authority is
acknowledged and submitted to with gladness. It is an oasis
of divine grace in a desert of corruption. It is quite literally a
foretaste of glory divine.
That's what the church is to you and me.
JerusalemCespecially the Temple worshipChad a similar
meaning to David, and to every other Old Testament saint
who came after David.
So the divinely-ordained point of this psalm is not so
much about the geographical location (Jerusalem). It's about
the worship that drew these pilgrims to Jerusalem in the first
place. And that's what makes this psalm significant to us.
Here's what I believe this psalm is about: David is saying
that public worship with the people of God is a living,
breathing sample of the best delights of heaven and the New
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Jerusalem. When we gather for worship, we ought to sense
the glory and gladness of heaven. And if you don't, you need
to reorient your heart to worship in spirit and in truth.
Here, from our psalm, are five blessings of heaven's glory
that we can enjoy on earth whenever we worship in company
with God's people:
1. THE PRAISE OF GOD
Verse 1: "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the
house of the LORD!'" What is David going to the house of the
Lord for? Verse 4: "to give thanks to the name of the LORD."
See: the point he is making is about the worship, not the
location. "The house of the LORD" in Jerusalem at that point
was just a tent. That's where the ark was kept. But we know,
of course, that God is omnipresent. He doesn't physically
"dwell" in any one place. The ark was merely a holy symbol
of the Lord's presence. So the tabernacle was in that sense
the special habitation of God's glory.
In a similar way, the churchCnot the building, but the
assembly of saintsCis where God dwells today, in the Person
of the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 3:16: "Do you not know
that you [collectively; the pronoun is plural: you the church]
are God's temple and . . . God's Spirit dwells in you." In
Matthew 18:20 Jesus said, "Where two or three are gathered in
my name, there am I among them." (I realize the context has to
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do with church discipline and that's the primary application,
but the principle applies to worship as well.)
Psalm 22:3 says God "inhabit[s] the praises of" His people.
Or as it is translated in most modern versions, He is "holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel."
So when we come together to worship as a body, we are
coming to the place where God is enthroned. And if (like
David) we are men and women after God's own heart, the
very thought of offering praise to God should make us glad.
Praise will be our primary activity and chief source of
delight in heaven. If you think the happiness of heaven is
grounded in an endless game of golf or some kind of angelic
amusement-park atmosphere, you need to mature in your
understanding of heaven. The greatest joy in heavenCthe
centerpiece of it allCwill be the unspeakable glory of God.
God's full glory will be on permanent display, and you will
be able to see it with an unhindered view: examine it, and
bask in it, and reflect it in all its perfection. You will be able
to stand in the resplendence of that glory without any sense
of guilt or shame. You will have a pure love for God that
exceeds any love you have ever known. And the natural,
inevitable, joyous response of your heart will be pure
worship. And everything else that you think brings you
delight now will suddenly seem very dull and
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commonplaceCbecause (after all) worship is the thing you
were created for in the first place.
What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify
God, and to enjoy him for ever. And trust me: when you are
finally able to do that with a glorified mind and a pure heart,
completely free from the guilt and corruption of sin, that will
be the purest delight you have ever known.
And for the believer, we have an opportunity to taste that
delightCa kind of preview of heavenCevery time we gather
for public worship. The difference between David and most
of us is that he had trained his heart to relish that
privilegeCand to him, worship was a pure delight. That's
why David was truly "a man after [God's] own heart."
The psalms are filled with expressions of David's praise.
All you have to do to see what a high value David placed on
praise is read the psalms. He wrote psalms from the time he
was an adolescent herding sheep on the hillsides until he was
infirm and incapacitated by old age. Praise was his highest
honor and his favorite pastime.
We simply don't cultivate that perspective, and that is one
of the reasons the testimony of the church today is so weak.
When believers gather these days, too often it is not really to
worship God but merely to entertain one another. That's why
you have a proliferation of churches nowadays that play
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secular rock songs for the offertory and feature self-help
lectures instead of the preaching of God's Word.
Christians talk a lot about worship. There are more
"worship leaders" and "praise bands" in the evangelical
community today than there are men who are qualified to
preach God's Word with authority.
We tend to separate preaching from worship as if those
are two distinct activities. But true worship is the response of
an obedient heart to the truth of God and the holiness of His
nature. Worship is not that vibration that goes down your
spine when the guitar player does a really cool riff on the
praise tune, or that tingly feeling you get when a large
roomful of people are waving their arms and swaying to
music.
Worship is praise offered to God for who He is. It starts
with a recognition of His holiness and a glimpse of His
glory. It is a response to truthCnot an ethereal feeling of
some irrational emotion. It is a deeper, more lasting gladness
than any artificially-stimulated thrill that depends on the
crescendo of music or the mindless excitement of some
charismatic mass hysteria. Those things are not really
authentic worship at all.
Now, that's not to diminish the unique power of praise
when it is offered in unison in a holy convocation of God's
people. In fact, I think that's one of the key points David is
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making here: There is a particular gladness that comes when
we participate in true praise together. This is why we gather
as a congregation every week. It's not just to be taught. If that
were the point, we could listen to recorded lectures
independently of one another. But our combined voices of
praise when we assemble for worship is the very thing that
makes our public worship so heavenly. There is nothing on
earth that more resembles heaven than the gathering of
faithful people to unite their hearts and voices in unison for
worship.
And this is the point number two in our outlineCanother
heavenly blessing that David celebrates in this psalm:
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2. THE PEOPLE OF GOD
Notice the plural pronouns in the first two verses: "I was
glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."
Our feet are standing Within your gates, O Jerusalem." One of
the distinctive joys David is writing about here is the
corporate nature of this worship experience. He had spent
much of his youth alone on the hills tending sheep and
meditating on the truth of God in solitudeCand that's
certainly a good and valid exercise. But it cannot take the
place of fellowship and public worship with the multitude of
God's people. That is why the feasts were so important in
Israel. Verse 4: "The tribes go up, even the tribes of the
LORD--An ordinance for Israel--To give thanks to the name of the
LORD."
This is a fitting psalm to be included in this collection. I
don't think these fifteen psalms of ascent are necessarily
organized in the chronological order they are to be sung,
because this one seems to pertain to that moment just after
the pilgrims have entered the city gates, but before they
arrive at the Temple. "Our feet have been standing within your
gates, O Jerusalem!" Let's go to the house of the Lord. You
may be very near the end of a long, tiring journey, but for
any believer, the prospect of going to the Lord's house with
God's people will bring gladness. Again, it's the closest thing
to heaven on earth.
Remember these are psalms sung by pilgrims on their way to
Jerusalem for the feast
Suited for that time after
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Heaven will be full of peopleC"a great multitude that no
one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples
and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and
crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who
sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'" These are people who
will share our passion for God, our confidence in His Word,
our delight in His glory, and our love for one another.
By the way, love for one another is one of the distinctive
characteristics of a true believer: "We know that we have
passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren."
That's 1 John 3:14. The apostle goes on to say, "everyone who
loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love
does not know God, for God is love."
The people of God are bound together by the love of God
in a mysterious way that unbelievers can never understand or
appreciate. And when someone lacks that love for the
brethren, Scripture says that's a sign they aren't truly
Christians at all. I've thought of that a lot in recent years,
because there has been a proliferation of blogs and books by
people who call themselves "Christ-followers," but they can't
seem to stand the church. (And frankly, they don't seem to
follow Christ in any meaningful sense.) Other Christians
embarrass them: the church isn't cool enough, or
forward-thinking enough, or sophisticated enough. They
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constantly belittle believers whose faith is simple and
childlike.
Now, on the one hand, it's true that Bible-believing
Christians can be a fairly unimpressive lot. Look around, and
"consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise
according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not
many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the
world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to
shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the
world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that
are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of
God."
But "We know that we have passed from death unto life,
because we love the brethren." We enjoy the fellowship of the
saints. Worshiping God together is a delight, even though
none of us is glorified yet.
I'm always wary of people who profess to be Christians
but don't go to church. Spurgeon called them "religious
gypsies." Churchless people. David, who before reaching
adulthood probably spent more time alone with God in quiet
meditation than most of us do in a lifetime, nevertheless
loved public worship and fellowship with the people of God.
It was a foretaste of heaven for him.
Here's a third feature of heaven we enjoy whenever we
gather with the people of God on earth:
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3. THE PROTECTION OF GOD
Verse 3: "Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact
together." The city of David was well-ordered and secure. It
had a perpetual spring that supplied sufficient water; the
lower city (where most of the people lived) was joined with
the upper city (where the tabernacle was situated). It was
encircled with hills that made it fairly easy to defend. Psalm
125, which we'll study in a few weeks, is all about this
feature of Jerusalem, and verse 2 of that psalm makes the
appropriate comparison: "As the mountains surround
Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people." The safety of
the city was a fitting picture of the even greater spiritual
security enjoyed by God's people.
That, again, is one of the benefits of our corporate
worship. There's a sanctifying influence in the gathering of
believers that you will not benefit from if you think watching
a church service on TV or streaming church on the Internet is
a valid substitute for real live participation in the public
worship of God's people. Hebrews 10:24-25: "Let us consider
how to stir up one another to love and good works, not
neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but
encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day
drawing near."
One of the great hedges of protection the Lord places
around us is the encouragement and accountability we get
from meeting regularly with God's people. Immediately after
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Hebrews 10 gives us that admonition ("Not [to forsake] the
assembling of ourselves together"), the very next verse is a
threat of judgment against those who sin willfully. Verse 26:
"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the
knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for
sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that
will consume the adversaries." It seems to me that whatever
deliberate sin the writer has in mind there at least in part
involves the sin of forsaking the assembly. And that has been
the pattern I have observed in the church. Those who
abandon the fellowship usually abandon the faith.
And so the fellowship and encouragement and worship
together with other saints offer spiritual protection. Those are
means by which the Lord keeps us firm in the faith, and
that's why the corporate assembly is an emblem of God's
perfect protection. By those means He keeps us spiritually
secure both on the way to glory, and throughout an eternity
of blessedness there.
The praise of God, the people of God, the protection of
God. Here's a fourth hallmark of heaven that we can enjoy in
the gathering of saints to worship:
Psalm 122 24
4. THE POWER OF GOD
Verse 5 (speaking, still of the city of Jerusalem): "There
thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of
David." When David brought the Ark to Jerusalem, for the
first time in Israel's history, the king's throne and the
priesthood were brought together permanently in one city.
Civil and spiritual authority were now centrally located side
by side. Kings and priests both dwelt in the same city.
Both the kingly and the priestly authority ruled as
delegates of God's own power. It is the precise power that is
embodied in the person of Christ, who is our Prophet, Priest,
and King. And believers under the New Covenant are all his
delegates in a royal priesthood. Listen to how Revelation
1:5-6 describes the benefits of our salvation. It says Christ
"loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and
has made us kings and priests to His God and Father."
So Christ, through His sacrifice, not only redeemed us
from the guilt and condemnation of our sinCwashing us
clean from our sins. But he also has made us joint heirs with
Him and co-regents with Him in heavenCpartakers of
immense spiritual blessings, including His authority as both
King and Priest. He has delegated power to us to function as
kings and priests. And therefore when our corporate worship
functions as God designed itCwhen we proclaim the truth of
God; sing His praises together; and minister to one another
A Foretaste of Glory Divine 25
through service and encouragementCGod's power is
channeled through. us and our praise is thereby magnified
accordingly. In other words, the very power of heaven flows
through the church and energizes the praise we offer God.
Furthermore, our worship itself is innately an expression
of our submission to God's power. To worship God as God is
to acknowledge Him as the source of all true authority, Lord
of the church, Judge of all the earth, and Sovereign over all
creation.
God's praise, His people, His protection, His power.
Here's the fifth and final feature of heaven that is expressed
in the collective worship of the saintsCand this is the key
word in this whole psalm: peace.
5. THE PEACE OF GOD
Starting in verse 6, three successive verses employ the
word peace. And it's married to the word security, which we
have already talked about. Peace and protection. Verse 6:
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! "May they be secure who love
you!" Verse 7: "Peace be within your walls and security within
your towers!" Verse 8: "For my brothers and companions' sake
I will say, "Peace be within you!"
Now, obviously David had a keen interest in the peace
and safety of geo-political Jerusalem. Still, I think he is
looking beyond the issue of earthly, political, and civic
Psalm 122 26
peace. He is talking about a much deeper and more spiritual
brand of peace. And you see that in the final verse, where he
actually echoes the words of the first verse: "For the sake of
the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good."
That repeated phrase "the house of the LORD" becomes like
a set of parentheses that brackets the whole psalm and put it
in a clear context. That's a poetic device known as inclusio,
and it is a way of underlining the big-picture theme of the
psalm. It's one of the key signals that helps keep the focus of
this psalm as clear and precise as possible. This is not merely
about the city of Jerusalem per se, but the focus is "the house
of the LORD" in particular. This is one last reminder of the
central theme of the psalm. It's not a song about the
pilgrimage that brought us here. It's not about the destination,
either. Again: the governing theme of this psalm is the
collective worship of God's people. And therefore its truth
applies to us in the church age, and it will apply to those in
the kingdom ageCand it will apply to the saints in eternity
just as much and in the very same sense as David applied it
to himself. It's a celebration of worship as the means by
which we partake of heaven's finest delights.
And if you put them all together: The gladness and glory
we enjoy when we participate in God's praise; the joy that
goes hand in hand with our love for God's people; the
security we derive from God's protection; and the
A Foretaste of Glory Divine 27
blessedness of yielding to God's powerCall those things add
up to deep, authentic, lasting peace. And that is practically
the sum of all heavenly blessings.
Look once more at verse 6: "Pray for the peace of
Jerusalem." I've said already that I don't think that's a warrant
to pray for political peace in the modern state of Israel.
David is not expressing a wish for the leaders of the Knesset
to triumph over the Palestinians.
How should we pray for the peace of Jerusalem? What is
the significance of this prayer for us? Bear in mind that for
believers in David's generation, Jerusalem was the
designated place for sacrifices and offerings, the annual
feast-day gatherings, and the public worship of God's people
when the mass of believing Israelites came together in a holy
convocation. David was praying that God would safeguard
the city and the people so that their worship could take place
unhindered.
But the earthly city of Jerusalem doesn't have that
significance today. In fact, the worship that occurs there
today is all false worship. As Jesus told the woman at the
well: "Believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. . . . But
the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is
seeking such people to worship him."
Psalm 122 28
So you can look at it like this: This was an Old-Covenant
equivalent of the same prayer Jesus taught His disciples to
pray: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in
heaven." God's will is never more accomplished in heavenly
fashion than in the corporate gatherings of His people when
they offer Him true worship. And wherever that occurs, it is
fitting to pray for peace and the blessings of heaven.
You want one more proof that this is the proper
understanding of this psalm? Listen to how the writer of
Hebrews characterizes our worship in the New Covenant era.
Hebrews 12:22-24: "You have come to Mount Zion and to the
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of
the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge
of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to
Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled
blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." Our
worship on earth is a foretaste of heaven divine.
Let me close with this: If worshiping with the people of
God is a drudgery or a burden to youCif you have no earthly
idea why these are the very best features of heavenCthen
your heart is cold and need to examine yourself to see
whether you are in the faith. If you are a believer who once
delighted in worshiping with the company of the faithful, but
now you find it wearisome or tedious, you have left your
first love and you need to "Remember . . . from where you
A Foretaste of Glory Divine 29
have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first." Christ
died to atone for cold-hearted people who don't love God as
they should. He renews the hearts of the faithful, and if your
heart has been renewed in that fashion, you should know the
gladness David was writing about in this psalm.
All the best blessings of heaven are there when we gather
to offer worship: the praise of God, the people of God, the
protection of God, the power of God, and above all the peace
of God. May that peace be yours throughout this week.