And please be seated. This morning we have another Psalm text in Psalm 122, Psalm 122, you can find on page 517 in your Pew Bible. Before we read our Psalm this morning, let us go to the Lord together in prayer. We wish you pray with me, please.
Oh Father, we ask that you would open our eyes that we may see wondrous things from your law. And God, that you would reveal yourself in your word this day. Oh God, that you would dwell richly within us by your spirit and that you would indeed be opening our eyes and on stopping our ears and renewing our minds and soaking the flames of our affections and renewing our wills, oh God, that we might seek you and know you and worship you and love you and honor you this day. And so Father, we pray that you would bless us.
Lord, be with me. We're grant the unction from on high. Lord, do you use the words of a sinner that I am for your glory and for your praise? Lord, would you be known this day?
In Christ name I pray. Amen. This is God's word from Psalm 122, Psalm 122. Indeed, God's word, let us give you here.
A song of a sense of David. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates of Jerusalem. Jerusalem built as a city that is bound firmly together 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.
Their thrones for judgment were set the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they be secure who love you. Peace be within your walls and security within your towers.
For my brothers and companion's sake, I will say peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. For the grass withers and the flower falls, the word of our God stands forever and ever. Thanks be to God.
This morning we turn our attention to a psalm of a sense. We consider the number of psalms of the past few weeks. We've considered what the Christian does in the face of adversity while we cry out to the Lord. We've considered the hope of the Christian.
The hope of the peace that our righteousness is Christ. This morning I want to consider, this question is, well, what do we do as Christians? What is our calling as Christians? And I think Psalm 122 gives us some direction.
This morning we find before us a psalm of a sin. This is a mini collection of texts in the Psalter that would have had a specific use in the life of the Hebrew. Turned a sin to these psalms had a way of both geographically and spiritually leading the Jewish heart and mind upward. Not only as faithful Hebrews would travel up the mountain Jerusalem for feasts and festivals, they would go up.
But also looking upwards, so to speak, unto the Lord. These songs would be sung in anticipation of worship, which was centralized in Jerusalem in the temple, the place where the glory of the Lord dwelled in the holy of holy, where the political priests went about the work of worship and offerings and sacrifices and like. And we know this to be a shadow of what God would do in Christ in Jerusalem. But nonetheless, this was a place of worship.
In Jerusalem, literally the city of peace, peace with God, was found in Jerusalem. And yet today where Solomon's temple stood in Jerusalem, even having been renovated under Herod, stands the dome of the rock, which is a mosque of great significance to Muslims. The wailing wall is what remains as a lasting token of the second temple constructed after returning from exile and destroyed around 70 AD, or 70 AD. One commentator notes that Jerusalem knows little peace as Christian sects haggle over shrines, and as Arab and Jew are at each other's throats.
Jesus foretold the destruction of the temple. And since that hour Jerusalem has known no peace and the presence of God of the temple has only been a distant memory. And this really raises the question for you and for me. If peace is not found in the temple any longer, then where?
What does the worship of the temple, or in Jerusalem, have to do with the worship of the church? And as David considers the worship of Jerusalem here in Psalm 122, I hope that we, you and I, might see that David's attitudes towards worship might be ours, that we might search out peace where it may be found in Christ, and that we may see that our call in command is still to look up in worship and rejoice that peace with God is granted to us perfectly and eternally through Jesus Christ. This beloved is what informs our worship. And this is partly one among the infinite reasons why we worship God.
And so in light of this, I want to consider the attitude of our worship this morning. Specifically, I want to consider David's delight, David's devotion and David's desire. First David's delight is being together. David's delight is being together.
In these opening verses of a song of ascent, a song which God's people again would have sung as they ventured up to Jerusalem for various feasts and festivals, David gives us some indication just as to why he is known as a man after God's own heart. He says, I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Quite simply, David's delight was in worshiping God. David's delight was in worshiping God, and surely David has every reason to worship the Lord, doesn't he?
David trusted in the Lord and was delivered from the hands of Absalom in Psalm 3. David knew the mercy and grace of God in the face of his own sin against Bathsheba and Uriah in Psalm 51. David knew the love and care of the Lord, even from the womb we read in Psalm 139. David had every reason, every which way, to worship the Lord.
And don't we? If you've ever heard the old adage, Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Well, there's something of that, and David's delight and joy concerning worship, especially as these Psalms will be sung again on the pilgrimages up to Jerusalem by faithful Jewish observers to these feasts and festivals. Time had passed since the last time they had gathered together for worship, and so here there's a returning and consequently rejoicing.
There's a longing that leads to his delight and the Lord would be his greatest joy. But what's the source of David's desire to worship? Well, it's his having been gripped by the grace of God that leads him longingly to praise the Lord's name. In fact, there's a direct correlation between his recognition that he needs the Lord and his delight in worshiping him.
For his delight is so deeply rooted in his recognition that he is a sinner and that he is in need of God's grace. The same is for you and me. Our delight in worship will in some ways be proportionate to our recognition that we need the Lord, that we need his mercy, that we need his grace day after day after day. And if we believe that there is no one who is righteous, no not one, and that he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God, well, what other response is there, but as the Westminster divine's put it to glorify God and to enjoy him forever as we worship.
Yet David gives us two clues here, and these first two verses that adorn his love for worship. They adorn his words for worship. First David delights in the call to worship. One of the most beautiful aspects of a traditional order of service is this back and forth call and response, like a conversation between God and the congregation.
For David recognizes something that we find all in the scriptures, that we can only worship God if we've been called to do so, if we have been so invited. In fact, were it not for the grace of God, none of us could worship him in spirit and truth. In fact, none of us would worship him in spirit and truth. Whereas one of my professors would say, were it not for the grace of God, he would say, come, come, come, and we would say no, no, no.
So it is a great grace from our God to call us to worship, and it's what you are reminded of every Lord's day morning, that it's God who calls his people. Back when I served in Dylan, we had a time for children, and we kicked off our time every Sunday morning by reciting Psalm 95, and we had hand motions. I'm not gonna do the hand motions for you this morning, but we did have hand motions to this. So come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hands.
Is this not a continual reminder that it's God in his infinite mercy and grace that calls us, and invites us to worship him? Or the author of Hebrews says, therefore, brother, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us, through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we had a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean, and from an evil conscience in our bodies washed with pure water. Below it is God's grace to us, not only to invite us to worship him, but to command it. In fact, it's the call that demands an answer, a call that demands an answer.
God's calling us to worship is not just merely a grace-filled invitation, but it's also a grace-filled expectation. For the Christian, when God calls us to worship him, we should respond. And so that's what we do each Sunday. God calls us from his word, and we respond in songs of praise.
God speaks to us in his word, and we respond with prayer. God speaks to us by the way of the Spirit through the preaching of the word, and we respond with all a man or other things. In fact, God even has the final word, doesn't he? An assured blessing for God's people by way of an addiction.
You see, it's no wonder that David aware of his own sin and the grace of God with delight at the prospect of worshiping. And so should we, at this gracious invitation, the expectation of sinners like you and me to come under the Lord by the Spirit to praise his name. However, there's still something telling of David's joy here in Psalm 122. He not only delights in the call to worship, the invitation to worship for no one simply walks into the presence of the Lord, but secondly, he delights in the opportunity to worship together with God's people.
He delights in the opportunity to worship together with God's people. And what a glorious thought we share with David. This, what a glorious thought we share with David. For he knows the promise is not just for himself, but for his people.
That David's joy is not merely emotional or nostalgic. He's not reliving days gone by or caught up in some previous experience. But the King of the nation, the tribes, even those that were far off and brought near, were called to worship the Lord together. And so when we gather together, we come, yes, as individuals saved by the grace of God in Christ, our sins individually nailed to the cross with Christ.
But we come as that continuation of true Israel, God's people, and we join our hearts and voices together to worship the King of the ages, our everlasting God, who was the same yesterday, today, and forever. We look around, we see what we have in common together, right? Men, what we all have in common. Men, women, children, made of the image of God, born in sin, but saved by glorious Savior.
We're able to confess that we're not alone. We're able to bear one another's burdens, like bricks or stones, bear the weight of a structure. And in the truest sense, we come in the blood of Christ, approaching the throne through the veil again, as the author of Hebrews said. And so we should not neglect meeting together as is the habit of some, but encourage one another all the more as we see the day drawing near.
While we worship in the Spirit of God, and no longer need a temple made with hands, our worshiping God lifts our gaze and casts our hearts to the horizon, right? That day that is drawing near, when Christ will come again, restore his people together, establishing an everlasting kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth. And we cannot consider worshiping together today without recognizing that this today, this right now, is a foretaste and an appetizer of what is to come, an appetizer of what is to come. Not to make light of the coming future glory, but this is like that Sam's Club sample.
One of the things being in Northwest Arkansas is different in the land of Walmart, is that they always have samples. There's only a Saturday thing back in the Carolinas, but you know what it's like to walk through Sam's Club and have a taste of something that's more. It gives you a taste of the real thing. And so this is what this is for us.
It is an appetizer, it is a foretaste. It is a taste of the real thing to come. John writes in Revelation 21, and I saw no temple in the city. For its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is a lamb. By its light, will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and they will be no night there, and they will bring glory into it, the glory and the honor of the nations. You see, even right now, as we partake of worship together, as we rejoice in Christ by the Spirit, we have a clear taste of that day.
And God will be our God forever, and we will see Him face to face together. Secondly, we don't see this morning as that not only David's desire, but also David's devotion is being won. David's devotion is being won. David's concern is not just with the activity of Jerusalem's worship, but also with its state of being.
And as King David would surely be concerned with the unity and justice, verse five, throughout the land. In verses three through five, David sets forth the health of Jerusalem, but also the health of the church. And here's the thing with unity. There needs to be something that binds, or something that joins the tribes, or the nations, or the peoples together.
When I'm very step on my kids' toys that are left on the floor in my house, if I wanna repair it, I have to put something, there has to be something that glues it back together. A truck or a trailer requires a hitch, a picture in a wall require a nail, and here the tribes and the nations require God to bind them together. And so for David in Israel, for Jerusalem and the temple, this would be the place where unity dwelt. You know, another aspect or another psalm of a sense.
One of the ARP, my former denomination, which sing at the close of every Presbyterian city meeting, goes like this, it says, Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the dew of Herman, which falls on the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life evermore. And so David's comment about the city being bound up together isn't a remark about the city's management, or her order. But it's a qualitative statement about where Israel finds her union, how they are bound and connected together.
And here it is that you and I are reminded that the church is united in Christ. As he is the head, Paul tells us and uses the illustration of the body and its members, which are God's people, on which Christ is the head. What does this mean for you and me? Charles Spurgeon wrote that in a church, one of the most delightful conditions is the compactness of unity.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism. You see, a church should be one in creed, and one in heart, one in testimony, and one in service, one in aspiration and one in sympathy. They greatly injure our Jerusalem, who would build dividing walls within her. She needs compacting, not dividing.
And so I wonder that one of the greatest threats against the apostolic church was disunity. The accounts of the epistles and acts show us that there was false teaching, that there, whenever there was false teaching, there would be a rupture in the lives of the church together. Where there was pride or jealousy, there was disunity. Where there was grievous and underpinnant sin, there was a fracturing of the people together in Christ.
And so we must be careful that our lives together are found in Him. That as we pursue our lives together as a congregation, that Christ is our goal, and the Lord will continue to bind us together in Him. In fact, what David has in mind here is that the unity of Jerusalem and so the unity of the church is actually testimony to the law and glory of God. Now, I'm from South Carolina, and one of the things moving here to Northwest Arkansas is that I can't find sweet tea regularly in places.
And as a southerner, I can tell you that there are a few worse things when you ask for sweet tea, when you're delivered a cup of unsweetened tea, and packets of sugar. Because what happens is invariably, whenever you mix the sugar into the tea, it doesn't mix, it doesn't fold into, it doesn't dissolve into liquid. And what you get left with is something that's not very sweet and very gritty and granny when you get to the bottom. It would be absurdity to talk to you about the glory of sweet tea, and then hand you that.
But there's something going on here that we have to consider regarding the testimony of the church and the glory of God. Because what do we hold out to the world around us? What if we held out to the world around us, this view of the church that was filled with backbiting and infighting and a ruptured congregation? What would that say of our Lord who is our head?
What would that say about the power and the work of the gospel? What would that communicate about the loving mercy and grace of our Lord? Do you see that we offer testimony in our unity to the power of the Word and the power of the Spirit and the glory of our gathered worship together? I don't want you to understand me.
The church is filled with sinners. And shall we not be surprised when there is sin nor disunity? And we can say it to we're blue in the face. If you want to find a perfect church on earth, you're going to be looking into the Lord calls you home, the glory.
But the scripture is even warm of wolves who are out to devour and to divide the church. But the fact is we give out praise who loves us despite our sins, despite our failures to love what others we should. But as the Spirit works and that precious and treasured work of sanctification, growing in Christ's likeness to look more like Him, surely that will work itself out in loving one another in our long suffering, our forgiveness and our encouragement, bearing the fruit of the Spirit. And so part of the call here is to love one another, as those who are in love by Christ, that as we worship God and we extend love to each other, we hold out before a watching world, the glory of God to be at work within us.
For the unity of the church is a glorious thing. And it's a testimony to the Lord. And lastly here we need to consider David's desire, David's desire being at peace. David's desire is at peace with your fourth.
And it's clear from the text that this is at the forefront of David's mind. You see the word used three times in these three verses. And there's no doubt even from her very first mention in Genesis 14, Jerusalem has been about peace. Shalom, Salem, that's even part of her name.
You may remember the story, Abraham returns from rescuing a lot in there almost mystically appears, Melchizadek, the priest king, the king of Salem, king of peace. Who blesses Abraham and receives a tithe of Abraham's recent victory over the Canaanite kings who captured Lot. But this picture of peace from Melchizadek and for Jerusalem isn't just mere security or an absence of enemies or foes. It's not economic stability or prosperity.
You see, Jerusalem was a location of the mercy seat of God, or literally the place where mercy dwell, where it was. And it would be the priest's duty to oversee sacrifices of the people, and even the high priest who would make sacrifices on the day of atonement. But this all serves to remind the people of the covenant promises of God that there is peace between sin and holy glory to God. The pastor who helped make this a little more clear to me, he would continue to emphasize that when the scripture speak of a mercy seat, it wasn't referring to a chair or a throne where God would sit or his mercy would be localized, as if it were bound to a single coordinate.
But the idea of the seat is more akin to what you and I might know as a county seat or place or an area which exercises authority. And what this means is that it's not merely where mercy sat, but it was where the activity of mercy would take place. In the midst of God's people in Jerusalem and Zion is where mercy would be transacted. It's the difference between the king being approachable by the people and being with the people.
Or think of it this way, we know where our president lives, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest, Washington, DC, 200500. But we know he's there, at least at times, in the Oval Office, or wherever the president might congregate. But isn't there a major difference between knowing where the president resides in DC and the president walking into your place of business, wherever you might find yourself eating on a given day? Right if you're doorbell rang and there was the president with a security detail and all the black doubt behind it.
But at the point here is that Jerusalem was not just where God's mercy and peace was found, but it was where it was intimately with God's people, where peace was transacted with God's people, where he was present with his people. And so, beloved, you and I find peace this morning only because of our high priest, not by continual sacrifice. But by the once and for all sacrifice of the eternal spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, who takes away your sins. You see, I think for the church peace foreshadowed here in these final verses, give us a glimpse of the very hope of God's people through the Word of Christ.
Because there is not peace for us, if there is no peace with God. There is no peace for us, if there is no peace with God. And yet this morning we don't pray to Jerusalem, but we pray towards Christ, our great high priest was seated at the right hand of the Father, and who will come again to make and establish everlasting peace on earth. And so, the glory of our gathered worship is this work to which David delighted, being called to worship.
This work to which David devoted himself, unity, and this work that David desired, peace. Friends might this be our heart's desire as we worship all while that day is drawing near, when we will see our Savior face to face. For every Lord's day, the glory of our gathered worship is that we participate in half that glorious taste of heaven. So Lord's day, by Lord's day, we rejoice that we are one week closer to glory.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you, O God, that you would not only invite us to worship you, Lord, that you would even instruct us. You might even regulate your worship. The Father that might be given direction and how we might offer that which is pleasing in your sight and beautiful to your ears.
And so Lord, we pray that you would stir us up all the more, that we would love being bound together, or even here at Redeemer, to praise your glorious name. And so Father, we ask that you would grant us all power and perseverance at the church. O God, that you would call us to continually dwell in unity together, that we would rejoice that you have granted us peace. And Father, that others make look upon our fellowship, or they might glorify you and praise you.
Lord, we ask these things in Christ's precious name. Amen. Let's stand together and sing.