Passage: Psalm 122 – A Prayer for Jerusalem
A song of ascents. Of David.
I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let’s go to the house of the Lord.”
2Our feet were standing
within your gates, Jerusalem —
3Jerusalem, built as a city should be,
solidly united,
4where the tribes, the Lord’s tribes, go up
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
(This is an ordinance for Israel.)
5There, thrones for judgment are placed,
thrones of the house of David.
6Pray for the well-being of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you be secure;
7may there be peace within your walls,
security within your fortresses.”
8Because of my brothers and friends,
I will say, “May peace be in you.”
9Because of the house of the Lord our God,
I will pursue your prosperity.
Introduction:
It’s amazing to see secular mediums (movies, books, etc.) unintentionally make references to gospel truths. A recent example of this comes from a movie called “Thor: Ragnarok”. In this movie, Thor experiences a great deal of character growth, but not before going through tremendous loss at the hands of his evil sister, Hela. She single-handedly, and extremely successfully invades Thor’s home, the beautiful city of Asgard. She easily defeats Thor, forcing Thor and the few remaining survivors of his people to abandon their home.
In a moment of desperation, a very exhausted and disheartened Thor exclaimed to his father, “I am not strong enough… It’s too late. She’s already taken Asgard”. Thor was so focused on losing the city that he forgot a very important truth, which his father gently reminded him of. “Asgard is not a place, and it never was… Asgard is where (its) people stand.” Long story short, Thor eventually beats Hela (sort of), but in doing so, the city of Asgard is completely destroyed. This was a tremendous learning experience for Thor because Asgard represented joy, unity, and security for Thor’s people. It was only after losing the city that Thor could experience the hope they had for the future.
Jesus says something similar about the Church. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus says, (slide)
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”
Just like the city of Asgard, the Church is not a place; it’s where Jesus unifies a group of people who are gathered in His name. In that, they share joy, unity, and security in Jesus Christ.
Today we’re going to be looking at a passage of scripture that describes a city similar to the city of Asgard. It’s a city that meant so much to God’s people because it represented joy, unity, and security for God’s people. We’re going to be talking about the city of Jerusalem. As exciting as it is to see aspects of the gospel unintentionally portrayed in secular mediums like movies, we should expect to see the gospel portrayed throughout the entirety of the bible, especially in areas of the Old Testament. With that in mind, we’re going to see how the gospel is shown through the city of Jerusalem. So, I’ve entitled this sermon “Jerusalem & the Gospel” (slide).
Let me invite you to find Psalm 122, which is our passage for today. We’re going to read through it together and then discuss several ways this passage points us to the gospel. So, please follow along as we read.
(read passage; pray)
This passage is quite short, but it contains a great deal of hidden truths for us to uncover. If you’re following along in your bulletin, you’ll notice a series of blanks for you to fill in. Before we get to those blanks though, I’d like to take a few moments to give you some background information about this passage to help us better understand the author’s intentions, but also to make us sensitive to how the Holy Spirit could speak to us through this passage as well.
If we look at the beginning of our passage, we see this Psalm is attributed to David, who, at the time of writing this Psalm was king over Israel, and as such lived in the city of Jerusalem. In fact, Jerusalem is often referred to as the “city of David”. If we look at verse 5 of our passage, we see David refer to the “…thrones of the house of David”. David ruled as king over Israel, and his throne was in Jerusalem. This is an important aspect that we will return to later.
We also see at the beginning of this passage this Psalm is called “a song of ascents” (some translations read “a song a degrees”, or “a song for pilgrims”). This is one of 15 different Psalms (Psalm 120-134) written by different authors at different times for different reasons. They later became a collection of Psalms used by Jewish pilgrims who traveled to Jerusalem multiple times a year for festivals and times of worship.
Whether or not David wrote this Psalm specifically to be used as a “song of ascents”, we don’t know. However, David does indicate his understanding of the Lord’s desire for His people to gather before Him in worship. If we look at the end of verse 4, David refers to “…an ordinance for Israel”. For those of us who don’t use this word often, an ordinance is a law/command. In this case, it refers to several commands God gave His people back in the times of Moses. If we look at Deuteronomy 16:16, we see an example of one of these ordinances: (slide)
“All your males are to appear three times a year before the LORD your God in the place he chooses…”
God then describes various feasts and times of celebration, all of them meant to guide His people in worship and thanksgiving for all God had done on their behalf. This is the reason David wrote this Psalm: to remind God’s people of His ordinances; that God desires His people to gather together in worship. And we see in verse 1 of our passage that David is filled with joy about this ordinance. He says, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let’s go to the house of the Lord.” David rejoices at the thought of gathering in unified worship and thanksgiving to the Lord.
We might be tempted to ask: if these ordinances were written back in a time when Moses wrote the books of the law (side note: this is centuries before David’s kingship, and definitely before a time when Israel occupied Jerusalem), why is Jerusalem the center of this ordinance when David writes this Psalm? What is the significance of Jerusaelm? This leads us to our first point: Jerusalem’s Significance. (slide)
Point I: Jerusalem’s Significance
In our passage, David talks about several key aspects of Jerusalem. Starting in verse 3, David remarks abouts its physical construction. It’s a city “…built as it should be, solidly united.” Other translations say, “closely compact”, or ‘bound together”. And later, in verse 7, he talks about the “…security within (its) fortresses.” Jerusalem wasn’t just a city. It was a stronghold, built defensibly on the top of a hill. To invade this city was literally an uphill battle. It was designed to withstand and outlast enemy attacks.
It was also a gathering place, where God’s people would come together. In verse 4, David describes it as a place “where the tribes…of the lord go up to give thanks to the name of the Lord.” This city represented strength and security; it represented the unity of God’s people. Perhaps most significantly, this city represented God’s presence among His people.
Something we don’t see in our passage is that Jerusalem was the dwelling place of the Ark of the Covenant (see 2 Sam 6). This was a large, ornate box that contained several artifacts including the Ten Commandments. Most importantly though, the Ark was the physical manifestation of the presence of God. The Ark was God’s reminder to His people that He was among them, and David had it brought to Jerusalem.
This city held great significance to God’s people. David saw it for what it was in his time: a symbol of God’s presence with His people. It instilled joy, unity, and security in God’s people. More than this though, it instilled a hope for the future, which leads us to our second point: God’s Promise. (slide)
Point II: God’s Promise
We briefly touched on this aspect earlier in our discussion, so let’s revisit verse 5 from our passage. David refers to “…thrones (of) judgment… thrones of the house of David”. These thrones serve two purposes. The first is simple: the throne of a king is meant to establish justice; David’s throne represents godly justice. Secondly, and more significantly, these thrones were a reminder of God’s promise to David early in his kingship.
We read about this promise in 2 Samuel 7:12-13. In this passage, we see David wrestling with a desire to build God a house worthy of His Name. However, God’s promise to David has greater implications than a house for God to dwell in. In this passage God says to David, (slide)
“12When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever… 16Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.”
David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, but the Lord had a greater plan. This plan would address the future of David’s throne. A descendant of David’s would build a house for the Lord that would be established forever. This is an incredible promise, and one that would fill David, and all God’s people with hope for the future. As long as the city of Jerusalem stood, God’s people hoped that eventually one of David’s descendants would build a house of the Lord that would be established forever!
Unfortunately, human beings are incredibly short-sighted, and this hope would have to pass through trials before it could be brought to perfect fulfillment, which leads us to the third point: Jerusalem’s Decline. (slide)
Point III: Jerusalem’s Decline
We need to understand that God is faithful to His Word. His promise was for David’s throne to be established forever through one of his descendants. In the book of 1 Kings 6:12a-13, God reiterates this same promise to David’s son, Solomon, (slide)
“…if you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep all my commands by walking in them, I will fulfill my promise to you, which I made to your father David. 13I will dwell among the Israelites and not abandon my people Israel.”
Solomon would indeed inherit his father’s throne, and he would also be the one to build a house for the Lord in Jerusalem (see 1 Kings 6). However, we find out later that Solomon did not remain faithful to the Lord, but instead gave himself over to idolatry and the worship of false gods. God’s promise to David would not be fulfilled in Solomon, nor would it be fulfilled in Solomon’s son, Rehoboam.
The kings following David’s reign did not remain faithful to the Lord, but instead led God’s people away from Him, and the results were devastating. The nation of Israel would experience division and war; Solomon’s temple would eventually be destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again; the beautiful city of Jerusalem would no longer represent unity and security among God’s people. So, where does this leave us? It leaves us in desperate need of a perfect king who won’t lead people away from God, but will instead bring people to God. This leaves us in need of redemption, which brings us to our fourth and final point: God’s Redemption. (slide)
Point IV: God’s Redemption
The city of Jerusalem was indeed an incredible city, and it represented a great deal to God and His people. However, the hope of God’s promise was not in a place, but rather in a person.
There is indeed a king from the line of David who would and has established security in the house of the Lord forever. Only, most didn’t recognize Him when He arrived. In Luke 1:32-33, an angel of the Lord appeared to a very young, pregnant, and confused girl. And the angel told her, (slide)
“32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. 32He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”
This king is none other than Jesus Christ. He is the perfect King who perfectly fulfills God’s promise to David, and who establishes security in the house of the Lord forever. This is the hope we have in the gospel, and this is how Jerusalem points us to the gospel. It represents our need for a perfect King and a merciful savior. This leads us to the bottom line of our entire passage: The gospel brings eternal security. (slide)
Bottom Line: The gospel brings eternal security.
Our passage began with a focus on Jerusalem. It was a place where God’s people would go to appear before the Lord in worship. Fortunately for us, we no longer have to travel to Jerusalem to appear before the Lord, because the House of the Lord is no longer a singular place. In 2 Corinthians 6:16, Paul quotes the prophet Ezekiel. (slide)
“For we are the temple of the living God, as God said: I will dwell and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of God’s promise to David. He brought about eternal security for all who would call upon His name. This is the gospel. Romans 1:16 says this about the gospel, (slide)
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.”
Then in Acts 2:21, (slide)
“…everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
The gospel is the good news about Jesus; He is the perfect king who establishes the house of God forever, and all who call upon His name are saved and become temples of the living God. In this, we have joy, unity, and security for all eternity.
Weekly Challenge(s):
- Celebrate the hope of the gospel.
- Remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:20. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”
- Look for an opportunity to rejoice in the Lord with a brother or sister in Christ.
- Share the hope of the gospel.
- If we have eternal security in Jesus, and if all who call upon his name can experience it as well, we need to be active in sharing this hope.
- Look for an opportunity this week to share hope with someone.
Closing:
(Gospel presentation & closing prayer)
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