The Church And Her Pilgrims

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"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

    'May those who love you be secure.

May there be peace within your walls

    and security within your citadels.'"

Psalm 122:6-7

Main Readings: Psalm 122-123 & Ephesians 2

Supporting Readings: Hebrews11 & Hebrews 12

Sometimes we speak about places we’ve loved as though we’re there right now – ‘I can feel the warm sand feels between my toes now’. Thatkind of thing.

Sometimes we speak in the present tense about something in the past because it conveys in a more vivid way the exquisite nature of that experience.

Psalm 122 may have been included in this group of psalms with a similar purpose – at least the first half of it.

This Psalm invites us to stand with an exiled pilgrim whose heart is inanother place – in Jerusalem!

The Psalm is all about Jerusalem; you can see that because of its prominence in nearly every verse.

Verses 2, 3 and 6 explicitly mention the city. And when verse 4 starts with ‘That is where’, it’s referring to the Jerusalem of verse 3.

When verse 5 starts with ‘There stand the thrones for judgment’ it refers to the ‘there’ of verse 3.

When verse 7 appeals for ‘peace within your walls’ the ‘your’ refers to the Jerusalem of verse 6.

When verse 8 says ‘peace be within you’, the ‘you’ is the Jerusalem of verse 6.

And the same in verse 9 – ‘I will seek your prosperity’. That’s the Jerusalem of verse 6 also.

And since verse 9 refers to the ‘house of the Lord our God’ in that city, then verse 1 must also allude to Jerusalem because it too speaks of the ‘house of the Lord’.

So, Jerusalem is in every verse of the Psalm. Why? Well becauseJerusalem is THE city where the temple was situated. And the templeis where God was situated.

God had revealed himself uniquely to Isreal out of all the nations on earth. In fact, it was God who had made Israel to be a nation – a nation for his own possession.

He had set his love on that people group. He had said about them: ‘they will be my people, and I will be their God’. He had put it in the heart of his chosen king – King David – to build for him a temple where he would dwell in the midst of his chosen people.

However, it wasn’t David God had chosen to actually build the temple, it was David’s son, Solomon.

A magnificent building in which God presenced himself.

Think of it!

The universe cannot contain God; he is so vast. And yet he chose to make his presence known in a building, in a city called Jerusalem, on a hill, in the country of Israel. Amazing condescension on God’s part for the sake of his people.

But, as is the case with human beings, unbelief and rebellion had destroyed the relationship between this people and their God. And the temple had been destroyed as a consequence. And the people had been taken captive into exile.

So, for the faithful pilgrim in exile, the yearning of his heart is for the presence of his God.

That’s why Jerusalem is etched all over this Psalm. He wants to be where God is. He wants to return to the land where God dwells. To the city where the temple of God and the presence of God can be felt. He’s a worshipper who wants to be closer to God.

And we can know that’s the case from verse 1 because he says, ‘I rejoiced with those who said to me “Let us go to the house of the Lord”’.

Nothing thrills the heart of this man, David, more than the thought of going to the place where God is.

And we would surely add, and not alone!

It thrills him that others say to him ‘let’s go’.

‘Together, let’s go and satisfy our souls in our God because nothing thrills our souls like him’.

And so, I want to ask, are our hearts like this?

But before I can ask that question, I need to show you how I can ask that question.

I am not a Jew. I have no share in the national privileges and promises that established Jerusalem as the city of God or the temple as his dwelling place.

The likelihood is, neither do you.

So how can I ask the question of you, ‘does your heart yearn the way David’s heart yearns for God, in the house of God?’

The answer is: I can because of what Jesus’ apostles do with the temple image in the New Testament, under the New Covenant.

David is an Old Covenant guy. We are New Covenant people. What does the temple look like in the new covenant?

Ephesians 2:21-22 tell us: ‘In him [that is in Christ Jesus] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit’.

So, the people who belong to Jesus - by faith in him; that how you belong to him - collectively, are the New covenant temple – a dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

So, my question is fine because there are a new people of God – not based on ethnicity, but on faith in Jesus – who are the temple of God.

And when a group of those people join together and express that temple in a local setting – like we are this morning – then we are seeing a New covenant expression of verse 1 in action.

So, I do ask the question: ‘do our hearts yearn like David for a communal experience of the living God?’

Can you say, ‘I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘let us go to the house of the Lord’ today?

One because your heart was on fire to meet with the living God. And two, because there were others who were saying to you ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’.

How good is our God?

He is absolutely all our souls need to be satisfied completely – that’s how good.

So, our souls can know this morning that there is no one more worthy of our soul’s delight – like the Psalmist has – than God.

And we can know that there is no one better to be excited about him with than his very own people.

There should be a skip in our step as we come to church Sunday by Sunday and as we meet during the week to worship God. We want to encounter him, don’t we? Together?

David did. And I think God says to us this morning: ‘want this, all of you. Want to encounter me and want to encounter me together!’

Well, no sooner is the idea in their minds and the joy in their hearts, than they have moved themselves to the very gates of the city.

Their feet are standing, in verse 2, in the gates of the city.

The city gates signify access to God.

Here they are! They didn’t just dream about doing it, they were moved to go. And they moved themselves to be there, at the very threshold of God’s presence.

A real heart’s desire always creates a movement of the will.

I mean think about anything that you do. All of it starts with a motivation in the heart.

Even if there are aspects of what you need to do that you don’t like, the heart is powerful and can override those negative connotations, having set itself on the prize.

And the promise of the prize is enough to move the will.

If we love God, enough – if we want to be where he is enough – we will move ourselves to where he is.

We will be found amongst his people – our feet on the very threshold of this community encounter with our own God and saviour.

You know, I was perplexed by verse 3 until I spent some time looking hard at it. Sometimes you have to do that with God’s word.

To me it read like this at first: ‘Jerusalem is a city like a city that is closely compacted together’.

And I just thought to myself: why wouldn’t David just say, ‘Jerusalem is a compact city?’

I couldn’t understand the reason for the simile.

But then I thought hard about the together-ness of verses 1 and 2. ‘Let us go up’ and ‘Our feet are standing’. And I thought: what if the city closely compacted together is not a statement about the buildings, but a statement about its people?

And what if it’s more than that even? What if it’s a statement about how the people relate to each other in this city?

And that’s what I think David is saying.

He’s saying Jerusalem is charactised by a people who are unified. That’s what I think he means by ‘compacted together’.

In the very next verse, he speaks of the tribes of Israel going up to Jerusalem to praise the name of the Lord.

They are gathered, as it were, under one banner. They have onepurpose. They are the very opposite of the dispersed pilgrims in exile who are no longer joined together.

The very peace David will pray for in verses 6-9 is the kind that comes when there is unity amongst the people.

Here’s the New Testament, ‘For he himself [that’s Jesus] is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…his purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility’.

God’s New Covenant people are a closely compacted people because the Lord Jesus has come and broken down all the dividing walls of hostility that could possibly exist between them.

Ephesians speaks to the biggest obstacle of all – ethnicity.

But if Jesus broke down the biggest wall, he surely broke down the others too!

Class, political persuasion, education, upward mobility, employment, interests - it’s weird what people will allow to get between them!

But nothing should get between us, because Jesus has torn all those things down. He’s united us in one superior, over-riding reality: in himself!

And that means, that with eyes fixed on him, there just shouldn’t be any awkwardness between us. We should be a unified; tightly knit; unusually open; free group of God’s very own people.

The tribes, then, of Israel hold in tension two realities. The reality of their desire – they want to go to the Lord.

And the reality of God’s revelation. He will have them come to him butin the way that he has ordained – ‘according to the statute given to Israel’ verse 4 says.

God is holy and set apart from sinners. He dwells in unapproachable light, the scriptures say.

So, when the tribes of the Lord come, they come in accordance with the revealed way.

Hebrews sheds light on the way for us to come, ‘Through Jesus weoffer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that openly profess his name’.

Our worship shouldn’t be in accordance with our own ideas; it should be according to God’s decree.

That’s the kind acceptable worship God has ordained.

It comes through Jesus and through him only.

And it is in both Spirit and in Truth, Jesus said.

A worship that is all Spirit but not tethered to the truth of who God is, is not acceptable worship.

Worship that is all Truth but is not led by the Spirit is not acceptableworship.

Worship has to be in the name of Jesus, led by the Spirit of Jesus, and informed by God’s Word then.

I hope you’ve noticed that every time we’ve gone looking for a New covenant corresponding reality this morning, we’ve found Jesus Christ. And we just found him there again in acceptable worship.

And that shouldn’t surprise us, because nothing of what we are, or what we do, is anything without Jesus Christ is it?

It’s not surprising either - because of the link between Jesus and king David - that king David is found linked to the worship of the Oldcovenant people.

In verse 5 you can see that in Jerusalem ‘stand thrones for judgment’ and they belong to the ‘house of David’.

The promised Messiah was always anticipated as David’s son.

And indeed, Jesus was David’s son by human decent.

But Jesus pointed out to the pharisees once, that Psalm 110 provesthat, even though Jesus is David’s son, David is actually Jesus’ son by a greater measure – by spiritual lineage.

Jesus is greater than all – even greater than Israel’s very own greatKing David.

So, just as we encounter Jesus every time we look at the church, we shouldn’t be surprised that we encounter king David when we read of Jerusalem – even though Jerusalem had many other kings.

God made a covenant promise with the people to give them an everlasting king in the line of their great king David.

And God has made an everlasting covenant with us, his holy New Covenant people, in the blood of Jesus, that Jesus will be oureverlasting king. He is ascended and sat at the right hand of God – enthroned for grace and for judgment.

Well, I think, from the curator’s perspective, all those glorious aspects of worship in the city of God are expressions of desire on the part of the exiled pilgrim.

Such strong desires, that they are spoken of in the first person, and in the present tense.

But the reality of verse 6 sits in contrast with the glorious desire of verse 5. Because Jerusalem needs prayer – and it needs it badly.

Jerusalem is not, presently (from the perspective of the pilgrim), a city at peace as it should be. As its glory days were.

It’s a city ransacked, with walls broken down, left for the destitute, and emptied by exile. Where God no longer dwells.

It’s not that God is defeated of course! The pilgrim doesn’t think that– or else why would he call out for prayer?

What is prayer, except a whole-hearted dependence on God to do that which only he can do? Who can restore Jerusalem’s glory? Only Godcan. ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ says the pilgrim.

The pilgrim wants those who love Jerusalem – like those of verse 1 – to be secure. They’re scattered in far flung places – ‘make them secure O Lord!’ ‘They belong to you’. ‘You’re not an unfaithful God’. ‘Remember them and secure them’.

And for Jerusalem itself, ‘O lord, let there be peace within her walls and security within her citidels’, verse 7.

How can it be that Jerusalem can simultaneously be this gloriousreality and this heap of ruins?

Well, in the same way that the New Testament can talk about the church – and indeed individual Christians – as being simultaneouslysaved and in the process of being saved.

One looks glorious and the other looks patchy.

It's because, when Jesus died for the church and for her individual people, he made them positionally spotless; righteous; acceptable – to God!

But there is also a process from cross to Christ whereby sins are battled with and overcome – and sometimes not. There is a growing up into the position we have been given.

A growing where holiness is strived for with varying degrees of fervour. Where faith rises and falls.

And sometimes the condition of the church looks very bad!

Positionally it’s secure! But experientially it’s often insecure. Positionally it’s at peace. But experientially it’s often in turmoil.

In this state, we should expect the church to be striving for peace and unity and living in the reality of its security, but we should expectit’s experience to be periodically unstable, ununified and lacking a sense of security – something you’ll have all felt at one time or another I know.

To the degree that our eyes are fixed on Jesus we will not be shakenby this kind of instability which characterises both the church and individual believers.

What we should want though, for each other and for the church, is as a close a walk as possible in the truth of the positional reality that Christ has really given us.

So, the Psalmist teaches us to pray for the peace of the church. Andto pray for the security of those who love Christ’s church – her people.

With the Psalmist say, ‘For the sake of my family [Christ’s church isour family] and friends [these are our friends] I will say “peace be within you”’.

And, with the Psalmist say, ‘For the sake of the house of the Lord our God [which the church is], I will seek your prosperity’.

And, when we say that we must mean it. We must care so much about God’s house, that we will do all in our power to seek its prosperity.

What will you do to promote the prosperity of this church?

That’s doesn’t only mean give your money. Yes, the church needsmoney and we’re commanded by God to give it.

But also, what about giving of ourselves to each other to help ensurethis church is as Godly as it can be? What about that?

God dwells in local churches where the people that constitute that church are Godly people – that’s what prosperity means here.

And that’s what we must aim to be.

Surely, God is exhorting us to that through the Psalmist this morning.

Verses 1-5 then are what we’re aiming for - even though we find ourselves in the position of the exiled pilgrim of verses 6-9.

It’s God’s will for us that we pray for our church like this, and long for it to be like that.

He uses that way of things to move us forward as a church, by his grace.

Well, if Psalm 122 finished with the exiled pilgrim praying to God, no longer encamped in Jerusalem. Then where is he? And the answer comes in Psalm 123. He’s in heaven.

Once again, like in Psalm 121, the Psalmist is looking up – lifting his eyes. But this time higher.

Before it was to the hills and mountains of Jerusalem. Now it’s to heaven itself.

David’s thrones were in Jerusalem, but God’s throne is in heaven. He is highly exalted – far above all earthly princes.

But not above Jesus.

Jesus is at God’s right hand, in heaven, now – also enthroned.

So, like the Pilgrim, we lift our eyes to our Saviour and our God enthroned in heaven.

Where does our help come from? It comes from there, doesn’t it?

It’s the same for us all – male of female – our eyes are lifted up to the one who is our master, our provider, our surety, our redeemer, our hope, our security, the desire of our hearts, our very satisfaction.

Like the eyes of slaves before their masters, are our eyes before our saviour and God, Jesus Christ.

We fix our eyes on him who alone can carry our load. Who alone can see us through this barren-wilderness-of-a-journey we’re on.

With the Psalmist we’re looking up to him with expectation. Patiently waiting on him. Seeking from him mercy for our situation.

This was the case when we were unbelievers wasn’t it?

We recognised our destitution. We recognised our hopelessness. And we sought the Lord – and he answered us – he delivered us from our sin – he showed us mercy and brought us out into a spacious place. He showed us his favour in the Lord Jesus, and we came into the light of his countenance.

We are in no less need of his mercy now than we were then.

Not because he has forgotten that he saved us. Not because we have sinned ourselves out of his favour.

But because we need grace in place of grace already given just to run this race to the end. If he stops giving us his grace, we won’t make it!

That’s why ongoing prayer is part and parcel of the Christian life. If we didn’t need any more grace for this journey, why would we pray?

In that case, we’d have everything we needed! No, we pray because we need more grace. We need his ever-present mercy. And we wait patiently on him.

‘Have mercy on us Lord’. ‘Have mercy on us!’ The Psalmist says.

How else can we contend with the contempt of the world? How else can we contend with the contempt of Satan?

The oppositions during exile were an overwhelming flood to the pilgrim, and they are to us too.

Ridicule from the arrogant. Contempt from the proud.

But we’ve got to ‘endure’. That’s the word the Psalmist uses.

And we don’t endure in our own strength. If we rely on that we perish.

We endure in the provision of the Lord – which David calls ‘God’s mercy’. And that provision will see us through. There is nothinglacking in it!

This is the last word. The message this morning is: the final, glorious, realised church experience 122:1-5 is not yet available to us. Just asthe glorious Jerusalem wasn’t yet available to the exiled pilgrim.

Like him we look with eyes of faith to the full and glorious reality of the church of Jesus Christ – spotless, sinless and secure which is coming when Jesus returns. We wait with eagerness for that.

Until then we are striving for as close to that reality as we can get in this age.

Sin so often mars the church. But Christ died for her, and she is worthloving, she is worth unifying around, she is worth praying for.

We want to make the church a vital and vibrant part of our ongoing Christian walk, because we have got to remember that we are exilesin this world. We are in the thick of it.

And we need to the Lord’s mercy 24/7, 365 days a year without rest.

So, our eyes are on him, and we fix our compass to that north star – who is Jesus – and we do not depart from him. We depend on him.

And we know this: that he has promised to impart mercy to us through the church - as broken as it often looks and feels.

And so, we should prize the church - as Christ prizes the church. Untilhe comes and sets all things to rights. As he most certainly will.

So, let’s love the church. Let’s love Christ who redeemed the church. Let’s love God who is the object of our worship.