The Joy of Worship - Psalm 122
For the first six weeks in January, I’ve been preaching through the Psalms of Ascent at the Sunday evening worship services at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Roanoke.
This sermon is the second from this series, but the first one recorded.
Psalm 122 is about going to worship from an idealized point of view. We all know that going to church isn’t always glamorous. And we often walk through the doors with a bad attitude and poor motives.
Our hearts are often not in the right place.
And at the same time, the church itself isn’t perfect. Churches have never been perfect and they never will.
Especially in the age of people “deconstructing their faith.” And a lot of that deconstruction comes through heavy criticism of the church.
It seems like there’s a whole cottage industry devoted to the perils of the Christian church. To be fair, there’s a lot of opportunities for criticism.
That’s why Psalm 122 comes as a complete shock to the system.
It conveys nothing but positivity towards worship. What we learn is that we should love the church. We should love, dare I say it, “organized religion.”
If we love the church we should experience joy in worship, unity in worship, and peace in worship.
Yes I know, this Psalm is about the Temple, not the church. But both the temple and church is where worship is conducted. Temple worship took place under the Old Covenant, worship in church takes place in the New Covenant.
And so, the application of this Psalm is connected directly to our relationship with the church.
Another interesting fact about this Psalm is that David wrote it, but David never actually saw the Temple. But he anticipated the Temple’s completion and the worship that would take place there.
In this Psalm, David describes the typical Jew’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple.
And that’s exactly how this Psalm was used. We’re continuing our study of Psalms or Songs of Ascent, which are Psalms 120-134. These Psalms were sung as the Jewish people would travel to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Temple.
And keep in mind that getting to Jerusalem was a challenge. Threats lurked behind every turn. There was a real possibility of being robbed, or assaulted on the journey to Jerusalem. Not only that, but they risked injury on the rugged terrain.
Joy in Worship (vv. 1-2)
And so David, from a Jewish pilgrim’s perspective certainly understood what he was risking by going to Jerusalem.
But that doesn’t stop him from saying, “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
Others translate verse 1 as, “I rejoiced when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
He was glad, happy, and rejoiced over the idea of going to worship.
Despite the imminent danger of traveling to Jerusalem didn’t dampen his excitement for worship. You might even say, the journey fueled it. He wasn’t thinking about what could happen - he was thinking about what he’ll get to experience.
Have you ever gone on a vacation that you were really excited about and the traveling fueled your anticipation?
I think that’s what we see here. The Jewish traveler is so excited about going to Jerusalem for worship he’s not even really thinking about the problems that could arise from the trip. He’s just longing to be in God’s house.
That’s why verse 2 says, ,“Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!” He goes from being excited about going to the Lord’s House to appearing in Jerusalem.
The way David wrote this Psalm, we might say, the traveler went from longing to be at worship in church to appearing in the church parking lot.
It really does color your perspective on going to church.
What words would you use to describe getting ready for church? If you have young kids, it's probably chaotic. Maybe lethargic? Apathetic? Or routine?
Those are the words that come to my mind. Do you rejoice when Sunday rolls around? Would you say you are glad? Or is Sunday just another day you have to endure?
Why does this wonderful gift that God has given to us become such a burden?
Psalm 122 verse 1 stands in complete contrast to what is so natural for us. It’s easy to just fall into your apathetic Sunday routine.
What’s unnatural is to rejoice over another day, another opportunity to worship the Lord.
Doesn’t it seem like every year you’re a Christian it gets a little harder to find joy in worship?
How quickly do we forget the riches of the gospel?
What Christ accomplished on the cross should drive us to worship. Worship is the natural response to the gospel.
New Christians understand this best. I have a friend in South Carolina who when I first met him had recently converted. He had been radically saved for maybe a month or so. And his excitement, energy, and joy in Christ was contagious.
I remember being so encouraged one day because I just happened to drive by where he worked and he was outside, smoking a cigarette and reading his Bible.
Just as a public service announcement, smoking is bad for you, but it is a detail of that story that has been seared into my brain.
Often new Christians see the joy of their salvation more clearly than those of us who have been saved for many years. My friend was excited about going to church because he saw it as an opportunity to worship the God of his salvation.
But inevitably life bogs us down. Life bogged him down. Our battle with indwelling sin is real. And slowly over time, our Christian walk becomes joyless and church turns into another event that we check off of our calendars.
We must cry out with David from Psalm 51, “restore to me the joy of my salvation!”
Because that’s the real issue isn’t it? Our worship is often joyless because we’ve taken our salvation for granted. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! What incredible news! Your sins have been cast as far as the east is from the west!
When you stop taking your Christian faith for granted it becomes much easier to say, “I was glad when they said, let us go to the house of the Lord!”
And one of the joys of going to worship is being around other like-minded believers.
Unity in Worship (vv. 3-5)
And verses 3-5 describes the people of God coming together to worship and what is important to notice is that there was great unity in their worship.
The tribes of Israel are gathering in Jerusalem to go to the Temple to worship the Lord. In the Bible, the city of Jerusalem is often used as a metaphor for both the people of Israel and the presence of God. But when you think about it, there’s a lot of overlap between those two ideas because the Israelites would go to Jerusalem to enter into God’s presence in worship.
Look at verses 3-5 with me.
3 Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together, 4 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. 5 There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.
Notice, they were “bound firmly together” and that all the tribes of Israel would “go up.”
There’s closeness. There’s community.
It’s important to notice that the Lord decreed it, or called them into worship. It was “decreed for Israel.”
And in the midst of the worship was the judgment seat of the house of David, which was the royal, messianic line from which Jesus Christ came. There were messianic overtones to their worship.
Old Testament worship was regulated, directed, and called by God. It was a God-ordained assembly. Just like it is now. Worship isn’t a man-made idea. It’s God’s idea.
No one arbitrarily chooses when to go to worship.
Even though it might seem like the pilgrim just arbitrarily goes to worship the Lord in verse 1, that’s not what’s going on. He was responding to the call to worship and his response was gladness. He was happy! He wanted to do it! No arm-twisting required!
And the end of verse 4 answers why they had gathered for worship. They were called into worship “to give thanks to the name of the Lord.”
They actually believed that God was worthy of their worship and they were willing to worship Him as He prescribed.
Deep, God-glorifying unity comes as the result of worshiping God on His terms.
A friend of mine’s family from South Carolina helped plant a church. And growing up he was very involved with the church - he did all kinds of things with them. But then, like so many of us, the pandemic hit. And days turned into weeks, which turned into months, which (I believe) turned into years where he never went to church. And eventually he began to wonder if he even needed to. Because in his mind, what he missed in church he made up for in quiet times and with his small group.
He thought he dictated the terms of worship. You might be thinking, okay, so he didn’t go to church… Did God strike him down with a lightning bolt or something? Well no.
My friend thinks he’s the god of the universe and that the Lord serves him. Not only is his thinking unbiblical but it’s destructive to the church. He’s convinced other people to reject the church and walk away from it.
Some of the most immature people who profess Christ are those that don’t prioritize the church.
Unity is deeply connected to Biblical and theological clarity.
But it has to start with the congregation. Sincere unity is always a grassroots movement. It doesn’t matter how loudly I shout the word, “UNITY” at you. I can’t force unity. There’s no top down implementation of unity.
And so we have to pray to that end. We must pray for the church.
Peace in Worship (vv. 6-9)
I’m sure you’re aware our culture is becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity. We’re often told that what the Bible teaches is backward and no longer acceptable to our modern culture.
The church is under attack from all sides and in many cases, attacked from within.
And what’s quite scary is the helplessness we feel. We can defend it, but we can’t stop it. It often feels insurmountable.
We can’t do anything, but God can. And we must ask him for his help.
We must pray. We must petition the throne of grace for the peace and protection of the church.
Look at verses 6-9 with me.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
“May they be secure who love you!
7 Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers!”
8 For my brothers and companions' sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.
This is a prayer for the physical protection of those that worship the Lord. But there is a spiritual component to these verses as well. He’s asking for protection over believers.
Notice the words ‘peace’ and ‘security’ are repeated five times within these verses.
The word for ‘peace’ is the Hebrew word shalom. The word means welfare, safety, and completeness.
The Hebrew word for ‘security’ means, quietness and rest. The idea being communicated in verses 6-9 is a holistic peace, completeness and rest upon the people of Jerusalem.
But doesn’t it seem odd that the narrator switches from excitement for worship in verse one to a prayer for God’s people?
Initially, it might not seem like they go together, but here’s the connection: when the universal church dies, worship dies.
That’s why verse 9 says, “For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.”
We pray for the peace and protection of God’s church because God alone is worthy of praise.
The God of the heavens and earth, the God who takes away the sins of the world, and promises peace to you through the blood of Christ, yes, He is indeed worthy of your worship.
That’s why we pray for the peace of the church.
Every week we need to be recalibrated. Re-centered. Re-encouraged. We need God to cut through the noise of life. We need our souls ministered to.
God primarily ministers to your soul through the church. We need the weekly reminder of our sin. We need the weekly reminder to confess it before the Lord. We need the weekly reminder to turn to Christ for forgiveness and hope.
And it’s in this message we find our happiness in God.
When you’re on your deathbed you're going to want to hear truths that matter. We need brief moments of existential clarity.
In worship is where the stress of those hard relationships, the stress of a job search, the uncertainty of a major life change, all the things that are screaming at us are paused so we can consider and behold the living God.
Our lives are bigger than the sum of our problems. We need to prepare for eternity with Christ. I recently read this quote: “Worship doesn’t satisfy your hunger for God, it whets your appetite.”
For the Christian, this is just a small taste of what lies ahead.
And may you taste and see that the Lord is good. Amen.
