As a pastor, I’m constantly amazed at the excuses people have for not going to church. So I read with interest this week how someone parodied many of those excuses by coming up with a similar list of excuses that people could give for not washing their hands:
1) I was forced to wash as a child.
2) People who wash are hypocrites – they think they’re cleaner than others.
3) There are so many kinds of soap, I could never decide which was right.
4) I used to wash, but it got boring.
5) I wash only on Christmas or Easter.
6) None of my friends wash.
7) I’ll start washing when I’m older.
8) I really don’t have time.
9) The bathroom isn’t warm enough.
10) People who make soap are only after your money.
I pray that all of you are here this morning because you genuinely enjoy gathering together with your fellow Christ followers in order to worship God together.
This morning we’ll look at the third of the fifteen Psalms of Ascent that provide us with a great framework for our upward journey to become mature disciples of Jesus. We began two weeks ago with Psalm 120 that pointed out the importance of beginning our journey with repentance – choosing to say “no” to the lies of the world and “yes” to the truth of God. Then last week, in Psalm 121, we focused on the need to trust God on our journey and turn to Him for our help.
This week, in Psalm 122, we’re going to see the importance of corporate worship in our quest to become mature disciples of Jesus. Let’s begin as we’ve done each week by reading the Psalm out loud together:
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, O 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.
There 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 companions' sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your good.
Psalm 122:1-9 (ESV)
Last week, we began by identifying the key word in that Psalm - “keep/keeper”. So let’s begin again by seeing if we can’t identify the predominant theme of this Psalm. This is going to be a bit harder since we can’t just look for one word, but also all the other times in the Psalm where this key idea is referred to by the pronouns “you” and “your”. So take a minute to red through the Psalm again and see if you can identify the main theme. [Wait for answers. If needed, give a clue: It’s a place]
That’s right – this entire Psalm revolves around Jerusalem. So it seems prudent for us to take a few minutes to determine why Jerusalem was so important to the Psalmist and his fellow Hebrew pilgrims.
Significance of Jerusalem:
• It was the place where God chose to manifest His presence
If you look at the superscription at the beginning of this Psalm, you’ll notice that its authorship is attributed to David. Some commentators have disputed his authorship, arguing that since the phrase “the house of the Lord” is used in verse 1 that David could not have written it because the temple was not yet built.
However, that same phrase is used at least nine other times in the Old Testament prior to the time that the temple was built during Solomon’s reign. That particular phrase is consistently used throughout the Old Testament to refer to the place where God chose to manifest His presence. Initially that place was the tabernacle, wherever it happened to be. Later that place was the temple in Jerusalem.
In 2 Samuel 6, we read the account of how David had the Ark of the Covenant brought to Jerusalem where it was placed in the tent that David had erected as a resting place for it, thus making Jerusalem the location of the “house of the Lord”. Verse 1 of this Psalm, where David proclaims that he was glad when he was invited to go to the house of the Lord certainly brings to mind the way that David celebrated when the Ark was brought to Jerusalem, dancing before the Lord with all his might.
Now obviously God has never been limited to just being present in one place at any one time. But the tent, and later the temple, in Jerusalem was the place where He chose to reveal Himself to His people and to manifest His presence:
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:34 (ESV)
…the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God [the temple].
2 Chronicles 5:13-14 (ESV)
The idea that Jerusalem was the place where God chose to manifest His presence leads directly to the second reason that Jerusalem was so significant:
• It was the place where Israel was commanded to worship
The twelve tribes that made up the commonwealth of Israel were located throughout Palestine. But three times a year, all of the able bodied males were commanded to make the journey to Jerusalem to come before the presence of God so that they could worship Him there. The initial command was given prior to Jerusalem becoming the permanent home of the tabernacle and temple:
Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD.
Exodus 23:14-17 (ESV)
So originally, the men would travel to wherever the tabernacle was located. Since the tabernacle was portable, that location would often change from feast to feat. But once David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, that became the permanent location to which the Hebrew pilgrims would travel in order to worship God. That practice continued through the time of Jesus and until the destruction of the temple in AD 70. What is really interesting is that Zechariah reveals that during the earthly millennial reign of Jesus, all will be required to go to Jerusalem once a year to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (also known as the Feast of Booths):
Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.
Zechariah 14:16 (ESV)
This idea of a specific place for corporate worship is confirmed in this Psalm by the fact that all the tribes of Israel travel to Jerusalem to worship.
• It was the place where people could come to find justice
At first glance, verse 5 almost seems to be out of place here. What do the thrones of the house of David, which were for the purpose of judgment, have to do with the journey to Jerusalem to worship God?
There are two things in view here. First, Jerusalem was the seat of the Davidic kingdom and if someone was unable to obtain justice in their local towns, they could appeal to the king’s court in Jerusalem. Since it was such a long journey to get to Jerusalem for most of these Hebrew pilgrims, it seems likely that they would seek justice in Jerusalem while they were already there to worship.
But there is also a reference here to the covenant that God had made with David to one day install one of his descendents as a permanent ruler who would rule with perfect justice and righteousness. Jeremiah describes that covenant:
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
Jeremiah 23:5 (ESV)
God fulfilled that promise in Jesus, but the complete fulfillment still awaits His return to this earth. At His second coming, Jesus will make things right by judging the ungodly and rewarding the godly and by establishing a physical, just rule here on this earth and ultimately an eternal rule in the New Jerusalem.
Even though Jerusalem was extremely important to the Hebrew pilgrims for the reasons we have mentioned, certainly Jerusalem doesn’t have that same significance for us today. So how can we take what we’ve learned from this Psalm and apply it to our lives today? Let me suggest three…
Current day applications:
• God chooses to manifest His presence in the church
Although God’s presence has never been limited any one place, in Old Testament times God chose to reveal Himself to His people in the tabernacle and later the temple. But when Paul addressed the crowds in Athens, he made it clear that God does not dwell in any man-made structure:
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man…
Acts 17:24-25 (ESV)
So since that is the case, where does God live? Many of us are probably familiar with these words of Paul:
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)
Paul is obviously writing to believers here and he declares that God’s Spirit dwells in those who have entered into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus. But what is difficult to see in the English is that all the pronouns are plural. So we could accurately read this:
Do y’all not know that y’all are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in y’all?
In other words, there is clearly a corporate aspect of God’s dwelling among His people. While it is true that God dwells in the life of each individual believer, the consistent focus in the New Testament is on the way He dwells within the entire body of Christ, which we call the church. We see this idea of the dwelling of God among the corporate body even more clearly in Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus:
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV)
Paul is clearly addressing the church as an entire body and not just individual believers. And all of these Christ followers are being built together into one body where God makes His permanent home by His Spirit.
Peter also confirms this idea that the church is the place where God manifests His presence:
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:4-5 (ESV)
It requires many stones to build a house out of stone. It’s not possible to build a house out of just one stone. And the same is true spiritually. If we want to build a spiritual house for God, it takes many stones in order to do that.
• The place we are to worship is among fellow Christ followers
Israel was commanded to worship in Jerusalem because that is where God manifest his presence. So if God chooses to manifest His presence in the church today, then that is where we need to worship.
This week someone posted a picture of a church building on Facebook and many people added comments like “That’s a beautiful church” or “God’s house”. But the church is never a building. The church consists of the people who have been called out by God and who have responded to that call by placing their faith in Jesus Christ alone as the way to have a relationship with God.
While there is certainly a personal aspect of our worship, the Bible consistently shows that our worship is only complete when it is carried out among fellow Christ followers. The writer of Hebrews stressed the importance of our corporate gatherings like this:
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And 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.
Hebrews 10:23-25 (ESV)
It’s just not possible to stir one another up to good works or to encourage one another unless we’re spending time with each other. We need to be like the Psalmist who was glad when others invited him to go and worship God together. And it’s not just enough for us to do that for an hour or so on Sunday morning each week. One of the reasons that the early church grew so fast is that the believers were constantly worshiping God together:
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Acts 2:46-47 (ESV)
I understand that in our culture it’s just not possible for us to spend all of our time together as a body. But if we’re going to develop into mature disciples of Jesus, one of the key elements in that process has to be spending time with fellow believers worshipping God.
That’s why we try to provide you with as many opportunities as we can to gather together with other believers during the week. And I’m really grateful for those who are making the time each week to be with other believers so that they can mature in their relationship with Jesus. I’m grateful for a group of women who get to church at 8:00 every Sunday morning so that they can be discipled. I’m grateful for a group of men who get up before dark on Monday mornings so that they can be here to study God’s Word together. I’m thankful for the women who meet at Billie’s house every Wednesday afternoon for Bible study or gather at Susan Hawthorne’s house every Thursday for prayer. I’m thankful for those who gather over the internet on Thursday evenings and even for the group of Night Owls that meet at some ungodly hour each week late at night. I’m grateful for the people from this body who make time to get together and focus on God and His Word.
But let me be honest. I’m also very concerned because I know that there are some of you here this morning that won’t spend time with anyone else in this body until next Sunday morning. And that breaks my heart, because I know that you can never get to where God wants you to be in His relationship with you on your own.
I know I’ve spent a long time on this one point, but it is so critical and so on my heart, that I want to really make sure we all understand just how important it is to be spending time with other believers.
I’ll be brief on the third and final current day application:
• The church is to be a safe place for hurting people
Jerusalem was a place where people could go to find justice. And the church needs to also be a place like that. It needs to be a place where hurting people can come and find compassion, not judgment; mercy and grace, not condemnation; and respect, not condescension.
Jesus said that He came to this earth to be a physician for those who were sick spiritually, and as His body, the church, we need to do the same right here where God has placed us.
There is just so much in this Psalm that we’ve only scratched the surface this morning. But let me close by just touching on one last topic that we’ll expand upon during the “Connections” time this morning. Although this Psalm is far from being a comprehensive teaching on worship, we do find…
Three essentials in corporate worship:
• Giving thanks to the name of the Lord
We see this clearly in verse 4. The reason that the Israel gathered in Jerusalem was for the purpose of giving thanks to the name of the Lord. So notice that first of all our primary focus when we gather to worship is to be upon God. But what does it mean to give thanks to the name of the Lord?
By now most of us know that names in Bible times were much more important than they are today when so many celebrities give strange names to their kids. For instance, the actor Rob Morrow is actually married to a woman named Debbon Ayer. So when they had a daughter it was no surprised that they named her Tu. But in Bible times, someone’s name usually indicated something about their character. So when we give thanks to the name of God, we are focusing on His character – who He is and what he has done.
My favorite definition of worship is the one from Louie Giglio in his book The Air I Breathe:
Worship is…
our response,
both personal and corporate,
to God –
for who He is!
and what He has done!
expressed in and by the things we say
and the way we live.
Once again there is much more there than we can cover this morning, but I just want you to note there the importance of corporate worship and the focus on God.
• Focusing on the truth of God
This principle flows out of the focus on justice and righteousness, which are two of the attributes of God’s character. One of the things that must be part of our corporate worship is a focus on God’s Word because that is where we are brought face to face with the truth about who God is and the truth of who we are. And through our exposure to His Word, God is able to sanctify us, which is just a fancy religious word that means to make us more like Jesus. Jesus confirmed the essential need for God’s Word in that process as He prayed for His followers shortly before His death on the cross.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
John 17:17 (ESV)
• Seeking what is best for the entire body
In verses 6 and 7, the Psalmist prays for peace and security for those who are in Jerusalem. But He is not praying this for His own benefit, but rather for the benefit of his brothers and companions.
Unfortunately this principle seems to be sorely missing in many of our churches today. Far too many people go to church focusing on “What’s in it for me?” And then when they don’t feel like they are being fed or their needs aren’t being met, they just leave one church and go to another church, where in most cases the same thing happens all over again after a while.
Perhaps we could actually learn a lot about what our corporate worship is to be like by reflecting on the words of Hall of Fame running back Gayle Sayers, who concluded his autobiography with these words:
The Lord is first, my friends are second, and I am third.
Obviously we do benefit personally from participating in corporate worship. But that should never be our motivation for being part of it. In fact, what I’ve observed over the years is that those who come worship because they genuinely are focused on first giving thanks to God and then focusing on what’s best for the entire body actually end up getting much more out of their worship experience than those who come focusing on themselves.
This morning, this Psalm is a call for all of us to honestly evaluate our own participation in the corporate worship of this local body of believers we call Thornydale Family Church. So let me pose a few questions that all of us need to honestly answer before God this morning:
• Do I find joy in being with my fellow Christ followers and am I willing to make the sacrifices needed to spend time with them?
• Do I help make TFC a safe place for hurting people?
• Do I come to worship for the purpose of giving or for the purpose of getting?
• Do I come to worship prepared to listen to God as He speaks through His Word and am I committed to adjusting my life to conform to His Word so that I can be more like Jesus?
• Do I seek what is best for the entire body or do I focus on my personal needs?
