WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.519 Psalm 122, a song of ascents of David. 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:21.940 I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. 00:00:23.559 --> 00:00:26.719 Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:39.340 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. 00:00:40.619 --> 00:00:42.679 To give thanks to the name of the Lord. 00:00:44.599 --> 00:00:49.219 There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. 00:00:51.019 --> 00:00:52.840 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:55.480 May they be secure who love you. 00:00:56.339 --> 00:00:59.419 Peace be within your walls and security within your towers. 00:01:00.219 --> 00:01:05.060 For my brothers and companions' sake, I will say, peace be within you. 00:01:05.739 --> 00:01:10.939 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:27.359 Last week I was driving back from New York, as you guys know, and I was reminded of just how much I loved that last stretch on Mass Pike coming in toward Boston on I-90 East. 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:38.280 You guys know that, I don't know if you've driven that lake, but you're driving past, you see that Star Market overpass around Newtonville. 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:47.439 As you're going under that, you know you're approaching Boston, and then soon you can expect to see the beautiful, towering skyline of Boston. 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:57.840 And then it feels so welcoming and hospitable compared to the interminable wilderness that is the highway from New York to Boston. 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:04.920 And that sense of coming home after a long pilgrim journey is kind of like what's in view here in Psalm 122. 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:12.780 It's written from the point of view of a pilgrim who's arriving to worship in Jerusalem. 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:23.780 It says of David in the superscription, which could mean that David wrote it, or it could mean that it is written maybe in the style or in reflecting on the life of David. 00:02:23.780 --> 00:02:35.719 If it was written by David, then perhaps he penned it during or shortly after the move of the capital of God's people to Jerusalem. 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:44.560 And then, or maybe as he was preparing for the construction of the temple in 1 Samuel 7. 00:02:45.259 --> 00:02:47.759 And the psalm is divided into three sections. 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:52.960 In verses 1 to 2, we see the introduction to the psalm. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:58.300 It's where the pilgrim is kind of approaching Jerusalem, or he's just within Jerusalem, approaching the temple. 00:02:58.820 --> 00:03:00.420 So he speaks of the gates of Jerusalem. 00:03:00.980 --> 00:03:06.120 And then in verses 3 to 5, he is beholding Jerusalem, and he speaks of the city of Jerusalem. 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:11.620 And then finally, in verses 6 to 9, he speaks of praying for Jerusalem, for the peace of Jerusalem. 00:03:11.740 --> 00:03:14.560 So the gates of Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem, the peace of Jerusalem. 00:03:15.420 --> 00:03:18.100 So let's look at verses 1 to 2 first. 00:03:18.099 --> 00:03:23.759 The main point of the whole thing is that we should seek the peace of the city of God from which God rules. 00:03:25.159 --> 00:03:26.939 And it says in verses 1 to 2, 00:03:26.939 --> 00:03:40.819 So the pilgrims within the gates of Jerusalem and his heart dwelling up with joy and gratification, 00:03:41.060 --> 00:03:46.419 he had been anticipating this stay ever since some people had suggested to him, 00:03:46.419 --> 00:03:47.879 Hey, let us go to the house of the Lord. 00:03:49.679 --> 00:03:54.119 And because that's where the dwelling place of God is. 00:03:54.339 --> 00:03:57.379 And he longed to be in the presence of God, to worship God. 00:03:57.699 --> 00:03:59.419 That's where the ark of God rested. 00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:05.419 Even before the construction of the temple, there was the tabernacle holding the ark there. 00:04:05.419 --> 00:04:13.579 And I know a pastor who, I think he says this every Sunday. 00:04:13.739 --> 00:04:15.939 He's like, Sunday is my favorite day of the week. 00:04:16.819 --> 00:04:21.979 And it's like, do we have that kind of anticipation for a gathering as the people of God? 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:23.479 Just like this pilgrim does. 00:04:24.139 --> 00:04:33.060 And I was reading a book this week that told this story about Martin Lloyd-Jones that I just loved. 00:04:33.060 --> 00:04:35.280 And Martin Lloyd-Jones was a pastor. 00:04:36.420 --> 00:04:38.780 Who knows about Martin Lloyd-Jones? 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:42.280 Martin Lloyd-Jones was really a spiritual giant. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:48.199 And he's the one that wrote the book Spiritual Depression, which is probably one of his most popular books. 00:04:48.860 --> 00:04:52.899 And he was a pastor at Westminster Chapel during World War II. 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:57.360 And so Westminster Chapel is a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:58.980 So he's living in the capital. 00:04:58.980 --> 00:05:05.700 And it's the era of Hitler and Churchill, right, and FDR. 00:05:05.939 --> 00:05:07.360 It's these larger than life figures. 00:05:07.819 --> 00:05:10.759 And here is this pastor in Westminster Chapel. 00:05:11.700 --> 00:05:20.560 And when the war began, they never stopped meeting, even though they knew of the Germans' reputation of bombing densely populated areas. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:25.060 And they continued to worship. 00:05:25.280 --> 00:05:32.240 And one day, as they were worshiping on a Sunday morning, a bomb fell like a few yards from the church, shaking the building. 00:05:32.379 --> 00:05:35.160 And the plaster fell from the ceiling. 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:44.920 And one of the parishioners that were there later recalled that she thought that she was in heaven because all these brothers just were covered in white. 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:51.620 But Martin Lloyd-Jones was praying at the time. 00:05:51.940 --> 00:05:55.640 They called it the long prayer, which is the pastoral prayer that he did every Sunday. 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:58.500 And he didn't stop praying. 00:05:58.939 --> 00:06:00.219 He kept on praying. 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:06.800 And then he finished praying and then paused briefly to tell people, you could take cover under the gallery if you'd like. 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:14.120 And then after people were taking cover, he resumed the service, finished preaching, finished their service, and went on. 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:24.199 And so it's like a—and it's just such a powerful and defiant statement of the people of God. 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:26.379 This is the embassy of the kingdom of God. 00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:30.340 And no matter how the kingdoms of earth are shaking, we will not fail to meet. 00:06:30.459 --> 00:06:31.500 We will not fail to worship. 00:06:32.259 --> 00:06:36.639 And that's the kind of—it's the hope that they had. 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:39.439 And that's the hope and identity of a pilgrim. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:41.439 This is what we belong to. 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:43.680 This is who we are. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:50.160 It's—even when the world, as we know it, is falling apart, we have an unfailing, unwavering hope. 00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:58.920 So that's kind of this—what we see here of this pilgrim's joy in being within the gates of Jerusalem to gather with the worshipers at the gates of Jerusalem. 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:00.860 And then we see the city of Jerusalem. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:03.980 He beholds and marvels at it in verses 3 to 5. 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:08.319 In the covenant that God made with Abraham, he made three promises. 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:14.099 He made—he promised that he would give him a people, descendants, a people, a nation. 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:18.439 And he promised that he would give Abraham a place, a promised land. 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:22.560 And then thirdly, he promised that he would dwell with them, his presence. 00:07:22.740 --> 00:07:24.480 So a people, a place, and a presence. 00:07:24.659 --> 00:07:28.360 That's kind of the covenant that God makes with his people. 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:32.960 And we see all three of that here in verses 3 to 5. 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:38.420 So first, we see a place, Jerusalem, built as a city that is bound firmly together. 00:07:39.060 --> 00:07:45.580 This is the place that God's people call home, the dwelling place of God, where they worship God. 00:07:45.579 --> 00:07:53.359 It's described like an impregnable fortress, like it's bound firmly together, dwelling place of God on high. 00:07:54.519 --> 00:08:04.120 And the elevation of God's city, it represents the exaltation of God above all gods because God's name rests on it. 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:08.519 And then in verse 4, we see a people to which the tribes go up, it says, right? 00:08:08.579 --> 00:08:11.000 The tribes of the Lord as was decreed for Israel. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:15.220 And the word tribe recalls, of course, the sons of Jacob, sons of Israel. 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:22.220 And in Jeremiah 10, 16 and 51, 19, God calls Israel the tribe of his inheritance. 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:34.279 I mean, we use this word sometimes too, right, to refer to like, you know, theological tribes or political tribes or social tribes that people belong to. 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:38.299 Well, the people of God are God's tribe. 00:08:38.299 --> 00:08:42.879 He says, this is my tribe, the tribe of my inheritance, his chosen people. 00:08:43.419 --> 00:08:47.939 And they are, and Jerusalem is a city wherein the tribes of the Lord gather. 00:08:49.439 --> 00:08:56.439 And then they go to give thanks to the name of the Lord that refers to the presence of God among them, to rule among them. 00:08:56.919 --> 00:08:58.939 And verse 5 speaks of this ruling presence. 00:08:59.139 --> 00:09:02.259 Their thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:08.980 And Davidic kings rule in God's stead as his representatives to execute justice that God wants to see on earth. 00:09:09.620 --> 00:09:15.799 So we see Jerusalem is the place that God has set for his presence to dwell, wherein his people are to live and worship. 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:23.700 And so after beholding the city of Jerusalem, the psalmist exhorts us in verses 6 to 9 to seek and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 00:09:23.700 --> 00:09:32.860 There's an extended kind of wordplay slash, you know, alliteration in this last section that the translation can't quite capture. 00:09:33.180 --> 00:09:44.160 Because the word Jerusalem in verse 6, the word peace in verses 6, 7, and 8, word pray in verse 6, and word be secure in verse 6, all sound very similar in the Hebrew. 00:09:44.379 --> 00:09:47.640 It's all kind of, it all sounds like the Hebrew word for peace, which is shalom. 00:09:48.280 --> 00:09:50.600 Shalom, you know, Jerusalem, shalet. 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:52.820 It's like, it's like all like, that sounds like that. 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:54.659 So the effect is quite emphatic. 00:09:54.820 --> 00:10:02.200 It's saying that as the people of God, we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem so that the city might live up to its name. 00:10:02.700 --> 00:10:05.320 Jerusalem means city of peace, right? 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:11.600 And unfortunately, the peace of Jerusalem didn't last forever, as we know. 00:10:12.139 --> 00:10:18.040 People fell into idolatry and were consequently exiled from the city of God. 00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:31.139 And even more significantly, when Jesus was entering Jerusalem in Luke 19, verses 41 to 44, instead of being glad like this pilgrim and rejoicing like this pilgrim, he wept over it, says in verse 41. 00:10:31.839 --> 00:10:34.299 And this is what he said as he was weeping over Jerusalem. 00:10:34.299 --> 00:11:02.439 He wept because the people of the Lord rejected the Lord. 00:11:02.440 --> 00:11:07.680 Because the city of peace didn't recognize the one who came to bring peace, the prince of peace. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:11.020 And because they failed to recognize Jesus as the messianic king. 00:11:11.620 --> 00:11:14.120 And so as a result, Jerusalem was dashed to pieces. 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:24.780 And, but Jesus came in order to make that peace possible again, to that reconciliation with God possible again. 00:11:24.779 --> 00:11:30.439 And so he died on the cross for the sins of his people. 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:33.699 And Romans 5, 1-2 says that, 00:11:33.779 --> 00:11:39.620 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:11:40.100 --> 00:11:47.539 Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 00:11:47.539 --> 00:11:57.879 And so it's by believing in Jesus that we receive the peace that he paid for on the cross by paying the penalty for our sins. 00:11:58.459 --> 00:12:03.779 And that's how we appropriate the peace that's spoken of and that we are called to seek and pray for. 00:12:04.860 --> 00:12:09.139 And after that, Jesus basically becomes, he's the new temple. 00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:14.059 So he replaces the temple of a God that's destroyed. 00:12:14.059 --> 00:12:21.239 And all those who are in Christ become the temple of God and become the new Jerusalem. 00:12:22.019 --> 00:12:25.019 And that's the glorious vision we see in Revelation 21. 00:12:25.839 --> 00:12:26.539 When DeForest says, 00:12:26.619 --> 00:12:33.879 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 00:12:34.599 --> 00:12:42.000 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:45.820 prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. 00:12:46.460 --> 00:12:48.779 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:51.879 Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:55.500 He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. 00:12:55.960 --> 00:12:58.940 And God himself will be with them as their God. 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:03.419 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:08.700 Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. 00:13:08.700 --> 00:13:16.960 That's the ultimate fulfillment of the promise of a place of people and the presence of God among them. 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:21.640 And the new Jerusalem is not a place anymore. 00:13:22.520 --> 00:13:24.960 The new Jerusalem is called the bride. 00:13:26.040 --> 00:13:27.820 The new Jerusalem is the church. 00:13:28.400 --> 00:13:29.280 We are the church. 00:13:29.379 --> 00:13:30.840 We are the new Jerusalem. 00:13:30.840 --> 00:13:36.720 And so God dwells with us and dwells within us. 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:47.360 And that should actually, I think, make us even more eager than this pilgrim is to go to Jerusalem 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:53.139 and to be with the people of God, to gather with the dwelling place of God, 00:13:53.300 --> 00:13:58.980 to worship together and to seek the peace of God's people with God and with one another. 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:01.740 And then to extend that peace to others. 00:14:01.860 --> 00:14:03.420 That's what we do in passing of the peace, right? 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:06.320 We see peace with God, and then extend that peace to others. 00:14:07.180 --> 00:14:09.740 And that's the, yeah. 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:16.399 So hopefully we live out that identity as a pilgrim and as the city of God here on earth, 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:17.920 the embassy of God on earth. 00:14:17.920 --> 00:14:17.980 Thank you.