Psalm 122

Thanks so much for joining us this morning for Coffee and Devotions. It's so good to have you. Today we are at Psalm 122. This is where every day we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2020, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Well, why don't we go ahead and we'll have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into this beautiful psalm.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the blessing it is to sit at your feet and to hear from you. Please turn our hearts towards your word and mold our hearts to be like what we are supposed to be here. In Jesus' name, amen.
Here we go, Psalm 122. Once again, this is a song of ascents, a song of ascent of David. I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
May they prosper who love you peace be within your walls prosperity within your palaces For the sake of my brethren and companions. I will now say peace be within you Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. Well, we need to ask ourselves a what is this about B? What's the best verse to summarize us and see what are we called to do in response to this? Well, this is a psalm of David This is a psalm where David is honestly praying as the king. He's singing as the king. And what is his heart's desire here? Verses 1 and 2.
Jerusalem as David the house of the Lord at this time remember this is a psalm of David this isn't the house of the temple that his son Solomon would build but the tabernacle itself that had been erected there and set up there in Jerusalem And you remember the great pomp and stance and the wonder of what it was like for David to rejoice so much so that some people say it got a little bit inappropriate, undignified. You know, his daughter, or his wife, Michael, sure thought so, where he became so... enthusiastic, let's put it that way, that he took off his clothes and was dancing. Now, I'm not the one who thinks that he was totally, you know, in his birthday suit, but he sure was excited and he was dancing. He was so excited. And then he goes on talking about Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, right? This is where the tribes of the Lord go up to the testimony of Israel. They knew. that there the thrones of judgment were, the thrones of David were, that they could go to the city of Jerusalem. And not only there was the house of God, but there they could also find justice. There they could also have peace within the tribes. There they could find national unity. There they could find shalom. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Finally, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who loves you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, peace be within you. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.
Well, there's an interesting, how does it apply to us in the New Covenant, right? Jerusalem, the temple's not there anymore. The thrones of David aren't there anymore. So how does this apply? Now, well, the New Testament tells us that we don't long for an earthly temple, but God has made a new temple where Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the apostles and the prophets are the foundation, and the people are the living stones built upon one another.
So what do you do when you go to church? Are you happy to see God's people? Do you go to church and know that you're going to sit at the very throne of God? That you get to go sit at Jesus' feet? That you get to worship with God's people that justice and righteousness and a true national identity is found in Jesus Christ? Do we rejoice? Do we rejoice in Him?
What would you underline in your Bible as the best verse to summarize this? What would you underline there to say, this is the verse I think this is about? Let me know down in the comments. What would you underline in your Bible to get at this? There's a tune in the book of Psalms for worship that goes like this. I was filled with joy and gladness when I heard them say to me, let us make our pilgrim's journey in the Lord's house we will see. I'd encourage you. Pick this up. Go to the Psalter.org. You can find it. And this is a great psalm. When I am outside waiting for the people of God to show up so I can shake their hands and say good morning and welcome them each Sunday morning, I turn to that psalm. I sing that psalm and I remind myself I'm glad.
I'm glad to hear them saying to the Lord's house, let us go. Let's go ahead and pray now. Father, we thank you so much that you have tabernacled with us, that you have loved us, that you have cared for us, that you are our God, and that we are part of a living temple. Lord, we pray that you might fix our eyes on Jesus, the cornerstone of our faith, and that you would let us love one another up, that we would speak words of encouragement to one another to build up your temple, and to see it adorned with holiness. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may God bless you the rest of this day. May you continue to enjoy God and his people. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.