This sermon explores the concept of "thin places" - special locations where individuals feel particularly close to God - and emphasizes the importance of seeking God in these places, using Psalm 122 as a guiding scripture.
The Seed family was at Forest Home a week ago. Forest Home is a Christian Camp 90 minutes from here in the San Bernardino Mountains. We’ve been going to Family Camp since Bryan and Amy were in elementary school. We love it there. It has mountains, a lake, a creek, a swimming pool, pine trees, oak trees, cabins, ziplines, fire pits, and all kinds of things for families to do together. We go here every summer, and we go together. We go to refresh and rest and reset our clocks for a new year of ministry. Every summer we go and hear from God and it is glorious! Every adult in our family hears from God there.
There are certain places where God speaks especially clearly. Do you have places like this? A favorite coffee shop, vacation spot, beachside bench, or country road are some examples that come to mind. The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is another place where it’s easy to hear from God and tens of thousands of people travel there annually. This room we worship in is a place where many of us hear from God… We return week after week with an expectation that God will move.
Every adult in our family hears from God there.
In the book of Exodus, God taught the Israelites to… Celebrate a festival in my honor three times a year. Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread…. Also observe the Festival of Harvest… and observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year…. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord. Exodus 23:14-17
So, for 1,000 years, the Jews from all over the nation gathered thrice a year in Jerusalem to pray and worship God. They would come from all over Israel. From every direction. They didn’t have radios, or iPods, or video games, or anything to occupy their minds while traveling, so, over time, they developed songs to sing their walk up the road. And since Jerusalem, at the top of Mt. Zion was sitting at 2,700 feet, they had to walk uphill to get there. So they called these songs, “The Psalms of Ascent.”
In all, there are 15 Psalms of Ascent. Psalms of praise and Psalms of lament are strewn randomly throughout the book of Psalms. But the Psalms of Ascent are all together in one clump, from Psalm 120-134. And our psalm, 122, is a song of triumph.
That’s what we’re going to find in Psalm 122. A triumph because trust was placed in the right person, in the right place, with the right people, for the right purposes.
Please open a Bible to Psalm 122. While you’re getting there, here’s the story: It’s getting towards the season of one of the feasts. The people are thinking about how hard life is. That’s Psalm 120. But they know there’s a place they’re about to go to where they can meet with God – a thin place. And that encounter is going to make all the difference. That’s Psalm 121.
So they start walking. And they walk, and they walk, and they walk, and they walk. From the north, the south, the east and the west, they come. They walk. They sing. And finally, they arrive. This is the story of Psalm 122.
David writes, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium
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