A Study in Psalms - Psalm 122

I want to welcome you back to our summer of Psalms. And as Tim said, this is our last, last Psalm of the summer. We didn't do as many this year because of Argentina trip, but I hope and trust that you've grown. And I brought a resource tonight to show you, to help you, and hopefully it'll help you read one Psalm a day. But the Master's Seminary, the Master's Press up at Grace Community Church has put out a hymn book called the Psalms of Grace, and I've been using it. I'm up Psalm 92 as of today, but it has the legacy standard Bible translation of all 150 Psalms.

It has a brief detail about the Psalm, and then it has a prayer about the Psalm, but especially what I like is it has hymns about the Psalm. And sometimes there's one or two, sometimes there's five or six. So, for example, yesterday was Psalm 91, and one of the hymns was Christ Will Be My Hiding Place, that beautiful song by Bob Coffman in Sovereign Music. So, I'm going to give away three of them tonight for you, and if you want it, you can order it through there. But because only one person dares sit on the front row, Marlene's going to get one.

There's actually a pair of binoculars in the lost and found section. Did one of you bring binoculars and sit in the back row to watch the pastor? But, okay, I got two questions. Raise your hand before you shout it out. We studied a Psalm this summer, and verse three says, when the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? What Psalm is that? One of the Psalms we did this summer. Anybody know? If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Verse three of one of our Psalms.

Eleven. You got it. Come up and get this later. Charlie. Okay. Question two. We studied another Psalm this summer, that in the very first verse, it has three names of God.

The Mighty One, God the Lord speaks and summons the earth. What Psalm is that? Well, I'm going to have to teach better if you're not remembering this. Anybody remember that one? Three names of God in verse one. Psalm... Back? No, not 22. So you can eliminate that one. Anybody know? Maybe we'll have to raffle it off. Okay. Anybody? No, not 63, sorry. Now, two down. There's only like two left. Fifty. Who said that? Dina, you can come up and get one of these later, okay? All right. And it's called Psalms of Grace by the Master's Press if you want to order it online.

It'll really help you in your study of Psalms. So let's look at Psalm 122, our last Psalm tonight. It's a short one, but it's a beautiful one and a wonderful one. And I know during COVID and after COVID, you heard Lance quote this first one a thousand times, but Psalms 122, a song of a sense of David.

I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates of Jerusalem. 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 to give thanks to the name of the Lord. Their thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they be secure who love you. Peace be within your walls and security within your towers. For my brothers and companions' sake, I will say, peace be within you.

For the sake of the house of the Lord, our God, I will seek your good. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we come tonight to the last summer of Psalms. And I just pray that each of us would make a daily in our quiet time daily, read one of the Psalms to strengthen our praise life, our prayer life. Tonight, Father, we want to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the peace of Israel. We know, Father, they've turned their back on you. They've denied the Messiah, your son. But the Christian in this nation have loved and supported Jews all over the world, and especially the nation of Israel.

We pray for peace, Father, knowing ultimately that only peace will come when the prince of peace comes and set up his rule and reign there. But, Father, we do pray for the peace of Jerusalem. In Jesus' name, amen. Were you glad to come to church tonight? Good. Are you glad we didn't come on Sunday? You know, a couple of weeks ago, I woke up and realized that I hadn't picked my suits up at the cleaners. I didn't have anything to wear. Usually, it's the wife who says that. Then getting the kids ready.

Some of you are exhausted by the time you get here. Get the kids in the bathroom. Get them to Sunday school. So are you really happy when you come to worship in the Lord's day? You know, there's a lot of excuses about coming to church over the years. And I like what Ann Landers said. I used to love Ann Landers. I miss her. But she said in an article on April 6th in 1991, Ann Landers had a column that says, in order to make it possible for everyone to attend church next week, we are planning a special no-excuse Sunday.

Number one, cots will be placed in the lobby for those who say, Sunday is my only day for sleeping in.

Two, eyedrops will be available for those whose eyes are tired from watching TV too late on Saturday night. Three, we will have steel helmets for those who believe that the roof will cave in if they show up for church services. Four, blankets will be furnished for those who complain that the church is too cold. Some of you. Fans will be on hand for those who say it's too hot. Number five, we will have hearing aids for those in church who say the pastor doesn't talk too loud enough. And there will be cotton for those who say the pastor talks too loud.

Scorecards will be available for those who wish to count the number of hypocrites attending, number six. And number seven, we will guarantee that some of your relatives will be here for those who like to go out visiting their relatives on Sunday. Number eight, there will be TV dinners available for those who claim they can't go to church and cook dinner also. Number nine, one section of the church will have some green trees and grass for those who see God in nature, especially from the golf course.

And last but not least, number 10, the sanctuary will be decorated with Christmas poinsettias and Easter lilies to create a familiar environment for those who've never seen the church without them, those CNE Christians. So I hope you are glad to be here tonight and can say, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. What type of psalm is this? Well, it says in the superscription, a song of a sense. Now, you know, in Psalms, there's five hymn books, right? Five hymn books that make up the 150 Psalms.

But within those five hymn books, there's sometimes smaller collections. The great Halal Psalms. Here you have 15 Psalms, starting with Psalm 120, going to 134 that are called the song of a sense songs. And these I'll talk more about it, but they're traditionally sung by the Hebrew pilgrims when they would ascend that uphill to Jerusalem and they would attend the three annual festivals that all men were required. So some commentators think Hezekiah put these together, but others say no, because David wrote at least four of them, including this 122.

So and Psalm 127, which is one of them, was written by Solomon. So maybe Hezekiah put it together in a hymn book. If you were to add up those 15 Psalms, the song of a sense, it only totals 100 verses. Exactly. So they're not long. They're all pretty short. But go back to 120. Psalm 120 depicts the pilgrims living in a hostile world of unbelievers. They're facing trouble and problems. So verse one says, in my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. Psalm 121 is when the pilgrims are on their way to Jerusalem and there could be bandits or could be robbers.

So they need to trust in God's power and help them. And that's why verse two says of Psalm 121, my help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. Then you get to Psalm 122, the third one.

There's a triumph. They've arrived at Jerusalem. There's an excitement. They're standing within the walls of the gates. They're probably looking up at the tabernacle, soon to be temple, praising the Lord. They made it. They're going to come and worship. It's a joyous time, an exciting time. Other people would make note that not only is this a song of ascent, but it's also the songs of Zion. I think there's about six Psalms, Psalms 46, 48, 76, 84, and 87, which celebrate Jerusalem, which celebrate Jerusalem's chosen status as a divinely blessed city.

So I mentioned of the 15 Psalms, four of them are written by David. 122, 124, 131, and 133. If you grew up in a non-dispensational church or came from a covenant theology background, and you believe that the New Testament, the church is the fulfillment and replaces Israel, you're probably not going to get too much out of this Psalm. But if you're like we are at Christ Community Church, you know how important Jerusalem is. Pastor Lance has said multiple times, Israel is, was, and will be the center of the world.

And the center to come. It's the most important city in the world right now. Your outline's real simple. I hope you have an outline. There's three points. A pilgrim's passion, verse one to two. A pilgrim's praise, verses four to five. And a pilgrim's petition, verses six to nine. Let's look at point one, a pilgrim's passion.

So you have the who there. You have the when, the where, and the what. So who's the who? Well, notice first off it says I.

So individually and then corporately. Individually you have I and it also says me. And then corporately you have us. So let's talk about individually. It says I was glad when they said to me. David's speaking here. So you see the need to appreciate the invitation God has given us to worship him. I think it was Psalm 63 a couple weeks ago I mentioned all the things that David had done for the temple. Next time you're in the book of Chronicles, you come to first Chronicles 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, you see David organized the temple worship.

He assembled the Levites. He assigned their duties, their divisions, to when to come and serve, when to go off. He then assembled the priests to do all the sacrifices, the daily sacrifices, weekly, monthly sacrifices. And then he organized the worship, all the musicians, all the singers, and all the musical instruments they had. And finally, he arranged the soldiers or we call them gatekeepers of the temple.

So David, it's no wonder that David was called the man after God's heart. You know, in the business world, we used to have a motto, you know, do whatever it takes to get the job done. That's what David would do for God. He loved the Lord. And I mentioned a couple weeks ago, probably the most quoted verse that Christ gave me in church is Psalms 27, 4, David, it says, one thing I've asked of the Lord, which is I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

So individually, David loved the Lord, David loved the temple, and he would do whatever it took to get the temple built. He was going to build the temple, and then God sent Nathan to him saying, no, your son is going to have to build the temple. But not only individually, we have corporately, it says, let us. So David said, I was glad when they and us, so you have an invitation from fellow believers. They would come to David and say, let us go to the house of the Lord. And that's joy, you know, it's exciting when you see a full church, when you see a lot of people.

It's not much fun when there's very few people, right? But David's fellowship was desirable, and he wanted to have it corporately with all the people. We'll talk a little bit more about that. So, you know, we talked a lot about this on Sunday in Lance's current series, The Church and Its Meaning, and we'll take up with that in a couple Sundays. Steve Lawson said, eager joy should always fill the hearts of God's people as they make their way into God's house. In the company of like-minded worshipers, their hungry souls are satisfied as they sit under the exposition of scripture.

War-inspired worship is never a drudgery, but a delight, never a burden, but a blessing. So let me ask you, when was the last time you went to somebody and said, let us go to the house of the Lord?

So let's move to the when. It says, when they send to me. When is that? Well, Deuteronomy 16, 16 was written out in the deserts of Saudi Arabia when they were wandering. Exodus, I think it's 23 also, says three times a year, all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place He will choose. God had not chosen Mount Moriah in Jerusalem at that point, or at least He hadn't told the Jews that. So they were to meet for the festival of unleavened bread, the festival of weeks, and the festival of tabernacles.

So that was the when. Three times a year, all pilgrims, at least all men, were required to go and to the sacrifices. Where? It says at the end of verse one, to the house of the Lord. You notice verse one says, let us go to the house of the Lord.

Verse nine says, for the sake of the house of the Lord our God. That's called an inclusio. You see it in a lot of psalms. Verse one, and then the last verse, you have the brackets there. It's all about the house of the Lord. So since Psalm 122 is attributed to David, it would help many commentators today to know a little bit about Jerusalem in David's day. Because it's not the same now.

Remember, Joab was the one who conquered. He entered the gutter and went up, and the Jebusite says, you'll never get in here. And Joab got in there, and they conquered it. And when they conquered, when David's forces conquered it with Joab, it became the capital for David and for Jerusalem, and since then. Commentators believe then it was about 16 acres, not really big. That's why it says in verse three, as a city that is compact together, very small. I Googled today, and it says Jerusalem is 46 square miles today.

It was 16 acres back in David's day. But remember, when David wrote this, and I'll tell you a little bit about when he wrote this, it helps to know a little bit about Israel. So when Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, entered Palestine, the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and all that furniture was first set up at Gilgal in Joshua 4.

Later they moved it to Shiloh in Joshua 18, and still later it was brought to Nob, which is just right near the present city of Jerusalem. But when David came to the throne, he wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle, to Jerusalem. So he brought it there, and he arranged the priests and the governments and the musicians. Thus the worship of God was inaugurated and began in the city of Jerusalem by David. And it was a glad and joyous occasion for the Israelites, because when they had the tabernacle there, that was the presence of God in Jerusalem.

So it's probably at that time when David brought the tabernacle that Psalm 122 was written, because everybody was excited, and they were saying, Let us go to the house of the Lord. And David was saying, I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord. So this is, they were here, this is an invitation for worshipers, not sightseers as you see today when people go to Jerusalem. First Samuel 11.14, you see the excitement, Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom.

So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord of Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings for the Lord. And all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. Jeremiah 31.6 says, Arise, let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God. Now that phrase there, the house of the Lord, some critics say, Well, how could David write it? Because this, it's not a house. This was a tabernacle, it's not the temple. But all you got to do is look at Exodus 23.19, Joshua 6.24, 1 Samuel 1.7, 1 Samuel 1.24, and 2 Samuel 12.20.

They all call the tabernacle the house of the Lord. So I don't care what the critics say, tabernacle or temple, it's the house of the Lord. Let's go to the what, what's going on here. It says in verse 2, Our feet have been standing within your gates. I mentioned in verse 1, Psalm 120, they're getting ready to go up to Jerusalem, Psalm 121, they're going through the mountains, could be dangers there. But here in verse 3, their feet are standing within your gates. And sometime, if we had time, we would look at Psalm 120 all the way up to 134.

Most of them deal with worship at the temple, and all of them deal with it at Jerusalem. So they're crying out, they're within the walls, they're looking at the marvelous tabernacle or temple up there, and they're excited to finally come and worship.

But you know, not a lot of people in America are excited. A lot of people say, I was glad when they said, let us go to the house of the Lord. I recently saw a Gallup poll, and it said that for the first time in 80 years, church attendance has dropped below the 50% mark in America.

It said that in 2020, 47% of Americans say they belong to a church, a synagogue, a mosque. That's down from 50% in 2018. It was 70% in 1999. So the year 2000, something radically changed, that church attendance, morality, everything in America is going down. Back when Gallup first made the poll in 1937, it was 73%.

So there's not a lot of people in our country that are glad to go to the house of the Lord. But David was. And David had a passion, as I mentioned, for the house of the Lord. But not everybody does, though. It reminds me of that story about David. When David brought the ark into Jerusalem, he's dancing, he's wearing that linen thong, and he's all excited, people are excited. But there was one person that wasn't too excited. Remember his wife, Michael? She looked out the window, it says in 2 Samuel 6, and she despised her husband.

And people are dancing, they're celebrating the Lord with songs and lyres, harps, tambourines. It's just a wonderful time. The Ark of the Covenant is there, the presence of God is going to be there. They're shouting, horns are sounding, a wonderful celebration. But Michael despised David, and she wasn't celebrating. And it goes to say in the last verse in that 2 Samuel 6, that it just says, and Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child till the day of her death. Just boom. So the question is to us, do you have a passion to come to the house of God?

I trust you do, because I'm talking to the Wednesday night crowd, not just the Sunday crowd. You come out twice a week at least. Some of you men have been here three times this week if you were here on a Monday night. But what activities related to your faith make you glad? Is there anything greater than coming to church? You know, I remember 1999. I was working in North Hollywood, and the 210's gotten a lot worse, but you had to get off work at about 5 to get to Christ's coming church at 7 o'clock.

But Lance began studying Revelation. And that was one of the best studies I've ever had, because Revelation up to that point was just a quagmire of just hard to understand. But he actually didn't finish it. I had to go to India before he finished a couple years later. But I couldn't wait to leave work on Wednesday night and get to church. Recently we studied, I think, 30 messages on Job, and that was some of the best teaching in the Old Testament. Can't wait to come to church to learn about God's word.

So another question is, how recently have you invited someone to come to church with you? You know, I have my wallet there, but in my wallet I have our business cards for CCC. And in the grocery store, you know, you can hand those out. You can have people give those out. Another thing, what about this Sunday? Are you excited to come to church this Sunday? It's Communion Sunday. Are you going to prepare yourself to come? Because we give thanks to the Lord, remembering the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made.

Are you excited about every opportunity to worship, whether individually, in your quiet time in the morning, or corporately? Let me ask this question.

Will you come back next Wednesday night? Because we're going to have a praise and prayer time. And last time we had good attendance, but sometimes that attendance went down to 40. People didn't want to praise and pray to the Lord. But I hope you'll come back Wednesday. And then lastly, does my worship center around giving thanks to the character of God? Let's move on to point B, the pilgrim's praise, or point 2, verses 3 to 5. So the place of Jerusalem. So it begins with the word Jerusalem. Three times in our psalm it says Jerusalem.

And just how important is Jerusalem? It's mentioned in the Bible, at least one commentator says 806 times. 660 in the Old Testament and 146 in the New Testament. Let me just give you 10 quick mentions.

2 Samuel 5 says that King David conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites and made it his capital city. 1 Kings 8, King Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant into the newly rebuilt temple, the newly built temple in Jerusalem. Isaiah 2.3 says that the prophet speaks of a time when all nations will gather in Jerusalem to learn about God. Ezra 1.4, Ezra 1.1-4 says Cyrus, the Persian king, issued a decree allowing all the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the destroyed temple. Nehemiah 2, verses 11 to 20 says Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls.

Matthew 21, verses 1 to 11, Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on a donkey, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9.9. Acts 2, we have the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in Jerusalem. Galatians 4, verses 25 to 26, the Apostle Paul calls Jerusalem the Jerusalem above and the mother of us all, contrasting the old and the new covenants. And Revelation 21, verses 2 to 3, Apostle John saw a vision of the new Jerusalem descending from heaven like a bride prepared to her husband.

So you see how important it is. Not only is it called Jerusalem, but there's other names for it. We first see the name of not Jerusalem, but Salem, which is Jerusalem, in Genesis chapter 14, verse 18, when the connection when Abraham came out and met Melchizedek.

Then, of course, we have the name Zion, which is a very common name. It was the name David gave to the Temple Mount. But over time, the word Zion became synonymous with Jerusalem. And then in Nehemiah 11, verse 1, and Isaiah 52, verse 1, it's called Jerusalem, the holy city, because it housed the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple. And then Isaiah 29, verses 1 to 2, it's called Ariel. That means the lion of God or altar. And Isaiah used it to refer to Jerusalem as he declared God's judgment. So in the Song of Ascents, you see the word Jerusalem in Psalm 122 three times, in verses 2, verses 3, and verses 6.

In Psalm 125, it's in verse 1, those who trust the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever as the mountains surround Jerusalem, in verse 1 and 2. In Psalms 126, verse 1, it says, when the Lord restores the fortune of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Go to Psalm 128, verse 5, it says, the Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem. Psalm 129, 5, it says, may all who hate Zion be put to shame and turn backward. Psalm 132, verse 13, this is the longest Psalm of Ascents.

It says in verse 13, for the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his dwelling place. And lastly, Psalm 133, verse 3, it says, it is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing life evermore. You know, one commentator says, we need to recall the importance of Jerusalem in the councils of God. There was never a city like it. He said, even today, if you drew a circle, put up Jerusalem, and you drew a radius of 900 miles around Jerusalem, that would include all the cities in the Middle East.

It would include Athens, Istanbul, Antioch, Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Cairo, Mecca. Almost all of the Western civilization is an offshoot of what transpired around Jerusalem in those cities. The verse continues, it says, built as a city that is bound firmly together. And I mentioned that in David's day, it could have been as little as 11 acres. Other commentators say 16 acres. Today it's 46 square miles, but they actually have archeological evidence that shows the city was one that was compacted, built very closely together, like you see Oriental cities where, you know, one wall separates the two houses, and there's fortifications.

Move on to the people who worship. It says in verse four there, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord. I mentioned Deuteronomy 16, 16, and then I mentioned Exodus 23, 14 to 17, that says three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord, your God. And there's many different names for the festivals, but the law of Moses commanded all males to go three times a year to Jerusalem. So the first is, of course, the Feast of Passover, also called the Unleavened Bread or the Barley Harvest.

And that was on the 14th of Nisan. Then you have the Feast of Pentecost, also called the Weeks or First Fruits or the Wheat Harvest Festival.

And that was on the 6th of Sivion. And then you have the Feast of Booths, also called the In-Gathering or the Fruit Harvest. And that was on the 15th of Tishra. It says all males in Exodus there in Deuteronomy. But remember the story of Joseph and Mary when Jesus was 12 years old? It says in Luke 2, 41, Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And remember when Jesus stayed and they left, there was a large group. So they traveled in large groups. It wasn't just men.

It was families. It was probably entire villages and cities going up there together. So at least three times a year, all men were required. And it was a proclamation, number three.

There was a proclamation of worship. My Bible says, as was decreed for Israel, the LSV or the New King James says, to the testimony of Israel. NASV says, and ordinance for Israel. It wasn't a suggestion. It was a command. You were required as a man to go up to the house of the Lord at least three times a year. You know, the New Testament has a command, not a suggestion. And that's in Hebrews 10, verses 24 and 25. We talked a lot about this during COVID. And it says, let us consider how we may stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as in the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.

So we have a command in the Old Testament and the New Testament to come and worship. And what's the purpose of worship? Subpoint four there says, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. The pilgrims came with a purpose to give thanks to the name of the Lord. Now turn, if you have turning your Bibles to first Chronicles, first Chronicles 16, David is gonna quote a bunch of Psalms.

And actually he quotes Psalm 105, Psalm 96, Psalms 106. And none of those say David wrote them, but David's quoting them. But I'll just read a few verses from first Chronicles 16, verse eight says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make his deeds among the peoples.

And then you gotta go 25 more verses to verse 34. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever. And then verse 35, say also, save us oh God of our salvation and gather and deliver us from among the nations that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. They came to give thanks like we come to give thanks. Sunday, we come to give thanks for Jesus who died on the cross and paid the price for our sins. And we remember that occasion by partaking of holy communion.

Go all the way to the back of your Bible. If you're not coming to giving thanks now, you call yourself a Christian, look at Revelation, Revelation four, be a lot of praise and thanks in Revelation.

Revelation chapter four, I'll just read verse nine to 11 says, and whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who's seated on the throne who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. And then you go to Revelation chapter 11, Revelation chapter 11 in the middle of tribulation, it says in verse 15, then the seventh angel blew his trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.

And the 24 elders, that's the church by the way, who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worship God saying, we give thanks to you, O Lord God Almighty who was and who was for you have been taken, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. So you see, and then remember in the New Testament it says in first Thessalonians 5.18 that we're to give thanks in all circumstances.

So whether you're in a good mood or a bad mood, you're to come to church on Sunday, whether you're going through trials, I think of some of the people in our church who are undergoing chemo and radiation and yet they come to church and then there's other people if you get a sniffle, they won't come, right? So that's the purpose of worship to give thanks, we'll talk more about that. And then we have verse five, which is an entering verse and we call this the pinnacle of worship because commentators will argue about this first five because what do they mean thrones here?

There's really only one throne in Jerusalem, David's throne. So there's one view that the Psalmist says there, the thrones for judgment were set, the thrones for the house of David. So it's plural. So some commentators say, well, it means David and then Raboam and all of David's ancestors, those thrones. But I don't think so. I think most commentators say it's talking about the millennial kingdom and we'll talk more about that in a minute. And because in the millennial kingdom, remember what Jesus said to his apostles?

I think it's in Matthew 19, verse 28. Jesus said to him that ye who follow me in the regeneration, when the son of man, you shall sit on the throne, he shall, I'm sorry, the son of man, Jesus shall sit on the throne of his glory and ye also shall sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So you got Jesus on his throne, you got the 12 apostles judging there. So many people believe that at David's time, there weren't thrones. So most commentators believe that verse five is talking about the millennial age.

And remember when we did Psalm 110 last week, we said David was writing as a prophet. So David in the power of the Holy Spirit would often write these Psalms knowing about the future going on. So when Jesus sets that throne up in Jerusalem and the apostles are there judging, that's ultimately gonna be the pinnacle of worship. It won't get any greater than that. It says all the nations of the world will come to Jerusalem to learn about God. So I'm thankful that you come out on Wednesday nights. I'm thankful you come on Sunday.

And Donald Gray Barnhouse, one of my favorite commentators, tells a story. There was a sign by a church in Texas along the road and it said, go and worship God in the church of your own choice. So a young boy was at a red light and he read the sign and he asked his father, daddy, what does worship mean? And the father replied, it means to go to church and listen to the preacher preach. Barnhouse says, could there be a more horrible definition of worship than that? Worship, three or 400 years ago, was pronounced worth ship, means the acknowledgement of the worth that is in our God.

Worship in heaven, we read some of the verses, is described in terms of angels and sons falling before him saying, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. There's a song that, when we went to the Shepherd's Conference up at Grace Community this year, the last song of the very night, the first time I heard this song, it's a song called, Is He Worthy?

I'm hoping someday Tim can get a choir and get to sing. Have you heard it? Google, Is He Worthy Shepherd's Conference? It makes the hair on your neck stand up. It's so stunning, so beautiful. I think there's other people who wrote it, but it's just, is he worthy? If he's your Lord and Savior, he's worthy for you to say, let us, I was glad when they said, let us come to the house of the Lord. Whether I have my suit, whether the kids are in a good mood, whether I got my breakfast, I'm coming to the house of the Lord.

The question is, can his worthiness be measured by how much praise you give him? So I hope you'll be here next Wednesday night when Lance leads the prayer and praise time. Let's look at point three, the Pilgrim's Petition.

Now we come to verses six to nine, and we have another very famous saying. And so first off, we have the pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

And you notice that it says in verse six, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Verse seven, peace be within your walls and security within your towers. Verse eight, for my brothers and companions sake, I will say, peace be within you. The name Jerusalem means foundations of peace. Now, interesting though, that David was a man of war, you know that. And David wanted to build the temple, right? And God sent Nathan to tell David, you know, you're a man of war, you shed blood. David was, his 40 years was almost always in battle.

It does say that God gave victory everywhere David went. But when you look at a timeline of the major events of the history of Jerusalem, the city has been fought over 16 times in its history.

Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times. It's really interesting when you look back at it. When you look at the, let's talk about past, present and future of Jerusalem, the past.

You know, David was a great King and he ruled for 40 years. And then King Solomon ruled for another 40 years. And he was probably the only one that had peace for those 40 years. I did a little study of the 20 Kings after Solomon. And you know, the Northern Kings were all bad, right? Most of them got assassinated. But there were 20 Kings after Solomon, starting with Roboam, ending with Zedekiah. So if you study the first Kings and you study Chronicles, I only found one King that doesn't mention any time he ever went to war.

And that was Ammon. And he only ruled two years and got assassinated. So he only had two years. But every other King, even the great Kings like Hezekiah, Josiah, they always had wars. They always had people coming to attack Jerusalem. So the point is in the 515 years of those 20 Kings of Judah, there was basically peace for 40 years. And that was Solomon's. Then during the 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament, Jerusalem was besieged, conquered repeatedly by the Greeks.

And then of course the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 63 BC. So there's no peace there. And when Jesus Christ came, he came when Rome had conquered Jerusalem and the Jews were slaves to the Romans. And remember when Jesus was going up the Golgotha and trying to carry his cross and the women are crying, what did Jesus say to them? He said, daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me, weep for your children. For behold, days are coming when they will say, blessed are the barren and the wombs that never nursed.

Then they will say to the mountains, fall on us. And about 40 years later, General Titus absolutely destroyed Jerusalem and Israel ceased to be a nation, right? Let's talk about present. So for 1,878 years, Israel was not a nation. But then in 1948, in what Winston Churchill called the greatest miracle of the 20th century, a nation that was a nation that wasn't a nation was reborn a nation. But they had a war in 1948, right? The Arab-Israeli War. They had a war eight years later, the Suez War. And just a few years later in 1967, they had the Six Day War.

Then in 1973, they had the Yom Kippur War, the October War. 1982, they had the invasion of Lebanon War. And even today, every other day lately, you hear about Jews being slaughtered by Palestines. Last year in 2022, only six settlers were massacred or killed in Israel. So far this year, 29 settlers have been murdered by Palestinian, Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS in Israel. It's getting worse and worse. So there's not peace today. So you think about it. We pray for the peace of Israel, right? Tomorrow's the last day of our month that we're praying for the peace of Israel.

And I put a lot of things to pray for. I put on here, pray that the rockets won't be raining down in Jerusalem, that the UN, which is prejudiced against Israel, we're praying for a lot of present things, right? But as I was making this lesson, I realized that when we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, yeah, I'm praying now because I don't want settlers killed. I want them to know Jesus Christ, but we're actually praying for the future. So let's talk a little bit about the future. You remember that verse in Isaiah 9, 6-7 that we all know about the prophecy of Jesus?

It says, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom. And that did not happen at the first coming.

So it's his second coming when there will be, the Prince of Peace will come and he will make peace. So there's gonna be two kingdoms. There's gonna be a millennial Jerusalem, okay? A little of 1,000 reign of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. Dr. Galbian says it's gonna be a magnificent city, compacted together, not only architecturally, but it's gonna be vast, a great, beautiful city, but compacted together spiritually. Her warfare is over. She's no longer in strife and the danger of attack. This will be the city of Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom when the Prince of Peace comes.

But we always know that at the end of that 1,000 years, Satan will be released from the pit and he will go out and raise up the nations of the world to try to attack Jerusalem. And then after that, God's gonna make a new heavens and a new earth. And it says that at the end of the millennium, when we have the great white throne and judgment comes, God's gonna create a new heavens and a new earth and he's gonna create an eternal Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven and it rests upon eternal earth.

That city, okay, I didn't mention, the millennial Jerusalem is gonna cover 100 square miles of territory. Right now, if Google's right, it's only 46 square miles. David's time was 16 acres. So you got 16 acres today, 46 square miles. The millennial Jerusalem will cover 100 square miles of territory, but the eternal Jerusalem is gonna be 1,500 miles in length, breadth and height when you read Revelation there. So it says that in verse seven, the author says, pray for peace that may be within the walls of Jerusalem.

David was so excited to bring the Ark of the Covenant in, so excited to have the sacrifices there. He wanted peace for Jerusalem and his son Solomon would see that for 40 years, but there really hasn't been much peace. But we can pray that the Prince of Peace will come, but ultimately we're not gonna see that till Revelation 21 and 22. But we can pray for the Lord to open the eyes of the Jewish people. The last few months, I've been making a lot of trips to Cedar Sinai. The pastor I work with in India, his daughter had a liver transplant.

And for some reason, we always go on Saturday because it's not a lot of traffic, but there's thousands of Jews walking to the synagogue in Beverly Hills on Saturday because they don't drive, they walk. And they're all wearing black and they all have their shawls and they're just everywhere. I've never seen so many Jews. You don't realize how many Jews we have here in Beverly Hills and around there. But we need to pray that for organizations like Jews for Jesus and Israel My Glory. There's a lot of groups trying to work with Jewish people.

And they're probably the most stubborn, hardest people to work for the Lord because it says in the Bible that now is the time of the Gentiles. Israel's been cursed and it won't be until the tribulation where they'll be saved, but many of them will die in that tribulation. And we want them to see Jesus as their Messiah. Have you ever met a Jewish Christian? Have you ever met him? I had a pastor and went to a pastor's conference in Cambodia and pastor was from Kentucky. He was a Jew, he was a Jew all his life, a rabbi and he came to Christ.

It's just fascinating to talk to them because when you interpret the Bible, you have to interpret in view of Jewish history and culture and they have so many insights and it's exciting. But we can also pray for the restoration of glory that God promised to Abraham. So we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Tomorrow's the last day of August, but don't stop praying for the peace of Jerusalem because you're actually praying for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

And number two, seek the good of Israel. We're not Jews, right? Well, there's a couple of Jews, but we're Gentiles. But how can we, as verse nine says, for the sake of the house of the Lord, our God, I will seek your good. Now, David was the king. The Jews were there. They would bring the food for the priests. They would go and worship. They would go and sacrifice. They'd have their sins forgiven or covered. So they could seek the good of Jerusalem. They would fight for Jerusalem when necessarily and serve there.

What do we do though? Well, you know, I remember the Abrahamic covenant. It says, he says, I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And we have been blessed through Jesus Christ who came from the line, a Jewish line, and we have salvation through there. You know, I don't know what we can do. I was thinking, you know, do we support Israel financially? Well, we do, right? Your tax dollars give at least $3.8 billion a year, almost exclusively in military aid.

I read an article about the Yom Kippur War, 1973. Things didn't look too good because it was the holiest day of the year for Israel, the Yom Kippur War, when the Arab nations attacked and they were getting their jets shot out of the sky by the Russian SAM missiles. But America sent them, I don't know what they sent them, stuff to evade the missiles that they were able to put on the planes. So time and time again, the United States has been a friend to Israel and we need to keep that way. But what's happening in our Congress?

What's happening in Minnesota where you have the largest Muslim population in the United States? They're electing Muslim congressmen and they don't like Israel. And so we need to keep putting pressure on our senators, our congressmen to support Israel so we can remain blessed by Israel. And I think you know that the greatest support for Israel in the United States comes from the Christians. And you may not know, but Christians aren't exactly liked by the Israelis. You know, they don't like you because they consider us idolaters.

We worship Jesus and we worship in a church. I watched a video recently, a guy asked at least 10 Jews, would you rather go to a mosque or would you go to the church, a church? Every one of them said a mosque, even if they kill us, we're not going to the church because it's idolatry. They don't like Christians, but we know that they're blinded by Satan. We know that they rejected the Messiah, but we need to pray for them, we need to love them, and we need to push our congressmen to play for it. We also need to stand for the truth about Israel because we have this new millennial generation and we talked about church attendance from 1999 to now, which is just drastically going around.

And I constantly hear one thing, Israel is an apartheid state. Have you heard that? It's just an outright lie, but people go around saying that and that, so there's a lot of lies, so we can stand for the truth and try to gently correct people if they'll listen, which they might not. But Israel's greatest support has always been Christians in the USA, and we can continue to support that. Of course, the greatest way is by praying. Pray for the peace of Israel, pray for the Jews, the 6.4 million Jews in the United States, pray for the Jews in Israel, that they would know that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and they will be saved.

Because as Lance has taught, when they go into the tribulation, probably two thirds of them will be slaughtered and only one third will be saved, as Romans 11 says.

So as you leave here tonight, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to come and rule and reign from Jerusalem when there will be the ultimate peace in the world and Jerusalem. Until that great day, I hope you will say to each other, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ, born in a Jewish nation. Thank you that he came and died on the cross for our sins. Father, we know that the Apostle Paul went to the Jews first and they mostly all rejected him.

Jesus came to his own and his own did not receive him. Yet to as many as received him, to them he gave the right to be called children of God. I trust every single person here tonight would be a child of God. And if not, may they come tonight and know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But Father, may we as a church, may we as a nation of the United States pray for Israel. Father, we know they're not perfect. Some of their presidents are in jail right now for corruption. Father, there are many things they're wrong.

They've turned their back on you. But Father, we pray for the peace of Israel, trusting and hoping that many Jews could come to the Lord. And we ask Father for opportunities to share with Jews that we would need. And Father, as we leave here today, it's with excitement that we get to come back Sunday and say, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. May we say that to someone in West Covina, Baldwin Park, Irwindale, Upland, and beyond, inviting people to come and worship you, because we are glad to come and worship you and give you thanks and glory.

In Jesus' name, amen.