Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 20-3-16
As we look at these Psalms of Ascents I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a pilgrim following Jesus today. As Australians we’ve actually developed our own pilgrimage in the world to make the pilgrimage to Gallipoli, or attend the dawn service at Anzac Cove. This Gallipoli visit is becoming almost a rite of passage for every young Australian. For my wife and myself we had the privilege on our long service leave to go there a few years back, and so with a busload of Aussies when some stepped off the bus they burst into tears. For myself there was something about that place that made you think, as I have a father who was brought up by a man who was shot and lived on a cripple form those distant shores. So next week if you watch the Anzac Day dawn service televised from Gallipoli, you’ll see the crowd flooded with youthful faces painted with Australian flags. It’s interesting isn't it hat as a nation of travellers, Gallipoli is the closest thing our country has to sacred ground. Just as today in Psalm 122 King David tells us a little why he goes to Church to worship, we notice renewal and praise top his list.
When it come to worship here’s our struggle we know for many worshipping God feels more like a maze of competing demands today, let alone how worship is spoken about as just me and God, and individualism that seems foreign to where the scriptures point us. As the Bible points us to be challenged to see worship as a community event.
So what message does Psalm 122 itself teach us?
You’ll see at the very top of Psalm 122 a superscription, a title. We are told this is A song of ascents. Of David. The background we know that it is David who captures Jerusalem from the Jebusites making it Israel’s capital; it is David will be the temples architect and designer, that his Son Solomon will later build. Jerusalem is where David brought God’s people to church for worship and sacrifice and feasts; and through Jerusalem God’s people would unite to resolve to be God’s covenant people. Psalm 122 then, brings us to the gates of Jerusalem with pilgrims going in to meet God with God’s people to praise God and to seek his peace as we read in verse 1-2 of Psalm 122
1 I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD." 2 Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem. ,
For King David without a temple, the place where he would have gone for worship, would have been at the tabernacle where the Ark of Covenant was kept. Here the Psalmist rejoice with the group going to worship at God’s house, and he is filled with expectation and wonder What God will God bring to them all, verse 3 3 Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. Notice this is a word picture is painted for us, we are to imagine the people of God are gathering to worship together, the pilgrims are lined up for church, like stones tightly packed along the city walls of the citadel fortress Jerusalem. Those walls are likened to unity, not uniformity, where diversity exists among God’s people; in verse 4 these people are the tribes of the LORD who take their identity from God. The question of why they come is made plain in the second part of verse 4 is to praise the name of the LORD. So we quickly see that this was not only a place for just praise and worship, it was also the forum for justice to be received (verse 5) where the oppressed could receive applied mercy. For these pilgrims coming to Jerusalem their desire was for peace, it was to gather as part of the family of God to feast.
Psalm 122 ends in prayer, no one can assume peace just because our hope is in the God who knows of all things before they come to pass, as the psalmist prays verse 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: This was a prayer for unity in purpose and passion, a prayer for protection from any wedge in relationships, because as a name Jerusalem simply means foundation of peace. Work this out a little more, we are to see the Psalmist pray for the peace of the foundation of peace. In other words come to the source of peace. This is not worldly peace; nor is it a negotiated peace which the two parties soon break; or even a politically wrestled peace where parties weasel around the edges. This is true peace that faces up to trouble and calamity that enter into this Psalmist’s prayer. Verse 6b -7. "May those who love you be secure. 7 May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels." The protection isn’t the strength of the city walls, as the Psalmist’s prayer is actually for peace for all within verse 8-9. 8 For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, "Peace be within you." 9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity. We are to see this very much as a family prayer. Imagine brothers, sisters and friends, a family at home at a meal praying for one another, sharing fellowship together.
Psalm 122 warns us against complacency. There will be dangers that will disturb our time, and calamity will come upon us. We are to be mindful to pray the radical prayer Jesus taught us for God’s kingdom to come for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So how does Psalm 122 fit into the Psalms of Ascents?
As part of the Psalms of Ascent the pilgrim having reached Jerusalem is warned, come as worshippers not sightseers. We are to come with a heart to praise and pray in the company of God’s people who are seeking the blessings and perseverance from God together, just as going to Jerusalem demonstrated unity in worship with God’s people gathered. As Psalm 122 finds the pilgrim filled with joy of reaching the destination they’d set out for, they are to come with having a heart for worship. So this is worship as a conscious decision we make, or as purposeful activity we share in together
So What does Psalm 122 mean for me as a pilgrim following Jesus today?
In the Bible truth arrives in action as we are reminded that our growth and change is a community experience. As this Psalm is pointing us, it’s not just in heaven that we will be untied around the throne of God, we are doing that right here and right now, so our personal relationship with God links us to one another now. In the New Testament we see that nearly in Ephesians 2:16-22
16 Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. 17 Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. 18 He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father. 19 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. 20 He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone 21 that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, 22 all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. (The Message)
Was we look that passage from Ephesians and see it link us into Psalm 122 see how Jesus extends our view of life; that is we can’t become the Christians we are meant to be by being just alone with God. The point is clear what we become, we become together. So the question is how are we allowing our worship strengthen our lives? As a community of believers who are we encouraging in our worship?That’s the challenge for us
Let’s pray…
UUU