Psalms: Songs of Ascent

Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the lord, to praise the name of the lord, according to the statute given to Israel. There stand the thrones for judgment, the thrones of the House of David. Prey for the peace of Jerusalem, may those who love you be secure, may there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels? For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity.

And we have a second reading in Revelation. Revelation chapter 7 verses 1 to 12 After this, I saw 4 angels standing at the 4 corners of the earth holding back the 4 winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east. Having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the 4 angels who had been given power to harm the land, and the sea do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.

Then I heard the number of those who were sealed. A hundred and 44000 from all the tribes of Israel, from the tribe of Judah 12000 were sealed. From the tribe of Reuben 12000. From the tribe of Gad, 12000, from the tribe of ASHA, 12000. From the tribe of Natalia, 12000.

From the tribe of Manassa, 12000. From the tribe of simeon, 12000. From the tribe of Levi, 12000. From the tribe of Isaka, 12000. From the tribe of Zebelan, 12000.

From the tribe of Joseph, 12000. From the tribe of Benjamin, 12000. After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no 1 could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne, and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God.

Who sits on the throne and to the lamb. All the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders and the 4 living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throat and worshiped God saying, Amen, praise and glory, and wisdom and thanks and honor, and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Our men. Alright.

Thanks for reading that to us, Ben. And if you could keep Sam hundred and 22 open in front of you, that would be good. If we haven't met already this evening, my name is Tom Sweetman, and I'm 1 of the pastors here at the church. And lovely to have you. If you are visiting us this evening, I hope you felt very welcome.

This is a series that we have been doing in this particular part of the book of Psalms, which is called The Song of Essent. And we we kind of work through them, and now we're going back through and doing some of the ones we missed out first time around, and so we're here near the beginning of this collection of Psalms in a hundred and 22, and as we come to it, that's pretty clear. Father, we thank you that this book of Psalms has been treasured by generations of Christians, that people like our brothers and sisters in Eritrea who have experience and do experience great suffering, have looked to the book of Psalms for words to pray in their suffering. For comfort that they can receive from the good shepherd who walks with them. We thank you that these psalms have given voice to your people who want to praise you that they have helped us understand who you are as creator and savior, that they have been the prayer book for many, many hundreds of thousands of Christians.

And we thank you for how in this series, you have been speaking to us through these psalms and applying them freshly to our rage that we might walk closely with you and with our Savior Jesus Christ. And we pray that you would speak to us through this Psalm now in Jesus' name. Our men. Well, as I say, this collection of Psalms is called the songs of ascent. And we've been learning that these were songs that Christians were singing as they traveled through life On the way to Jerusalem, they were called to go up 3 times a year, for particular feasts and festivals, and these are songs written for the journey, which express both their joy that they're going up to worship the Lord, but also the difficulties that they faced along the way.

And we've been saying that these Psalms are a metaphor for the Christian life, that we, too, are on a journey as the people of God, to a city whose architect and builder is God. We're working our way towards a heavenly city, and on the road as God's people, there will be difficult times, and there will be times of great joy. And we've learning how to pray and sing these Psalms as we follow Jesus and we walk through this life. And the really special thing about this particular psalm and the first verse is that in that first verse, we have the moment in which God's people come home. This is the moment of arrival.

They've been on the journey, and now they're home. First 1, I rejoiced with those who said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet, are standing in your gates, o Jerusalem. Our feet are standing in your gates. 1 commentator calls this Psalm, the Song of First Impressions.

It's a song of first impressions. Here they are. This is their first impression. They've been on the way up. They've been coming towards this great city, and now their feet are standing in the gates, and they're taking it in, and they're they're thinking about, and they're sharing their first impressions.

Here they are, they've come home. This is the moment of arrival. And from time to time, I'm sure as Christians, you've all you've all wondered about that moment when you will arrive home. When you will close your eyes for the last time in this life and you will wake up, and you will see your savior face to face, and your feet will be standing in the gates of heaven city. You must have thought about that moment.

When you will transition from a short life of faith to an eternity of sight, and you will be standing in the city of your king, and you'll see him for the first time. We must have all wondered what that's gonna be like. And for centuries, Christians have tried to capture something of it. So, CS Lewis, in his in his narnia, series. He was a great British author and theologian wrote fantasy stories and Christian theology and combined the 2 wonderfully.

In the Narnia series, the last book, which is called The Last Battle. You have this scene where they are about to enter the new Narnia. Which is a picture of the new creation where they're gonna dwell with the king forever. And the unicorn is there, this unicorn character, and he were told speaks for everyone when he looks into the new narnia, and he says, I have come home at last. This is my real country.

I belong here. This is the land that I've been looking for all my life. Though I never knew it till now. The reason why we love the old narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Come further up, come further in.

And there's this sense of we're home. We've come home. Our feet are standing in your gates, so Jerusalem, and we're home. In the pilgrims progress, when Christian and hopeful, Finally make it to the gates of the celestial city, to the gates of heaven city itself, and we're going to get there. Eventually, we've just started a new podcast series in the pilgrim's progress, and it ends with this moment.

And we're told, The writer says, now I saw in my dream that these 2 men went in at the gate, and behold, as they entered, they were transfigured. And they had clothing put on that shone like gold, and then I heard in my dream that all the bells in the city rang for joy, and that it was said unto them, enter ye into the joy of your lord. And in both of these stories in the narnia books and in the pilgrims progress, there have been many hard years behind them. There have been many temptations, some which they've overcome, some which they've succumbed to. There have been many wrong roads, some which they've avoided, others which they've taken.

There have been depressions, and difficulties, and worries, and moments of joy, and now they fuck there's this moment where they finally make it home, and their feet are standing in the gates of heaven city, their home. And when they get there, there is this sense of astonishment. They can't believe it. After all this walking and journeying, this is I belong here. This is my home.

You know, it's not like when you arrive at your destination, and your GPS reads out you have arrived at your destination. Yeah. Just a cold mechanical This is where you wanted to go. Now you're here, there's a sense of the of what I can't believe it. I've made it.

I'm home. That sense of wonder. You know, we sing in 1 of our songs. I will stand in faith and I will run the race and I will slay my sin, and I will reach the end by grace and grace alone. I've made it by grace alone.

I'm home. That's what we see in verse 2. Their feet are standing in the gates. So this is a song of first impressions. It's a song where God's people come home, not just to Jerusalem, but ultimately to the city of Revelation 21, the city where we're all heading to as God's people, that 1 that will come down out of heaven at the command of the Lord Jesus beautifully dressed as a bride for her bridegroom, the destination, which all of God's people have been heading towards, not an earthly city, but we have been welcoming an eternal city whose architect and builder is God.

We've been moving towards that city. And yet, if you look through this psalm, if you look at verse 1, for instance, I rejoiced with those who said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. If you look at verse 4, this is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, This this psalm you see is not just about where God's people are going, it's about who they're going with. This psalm is as much about the people who are journeying as it is the place that they are journeying to. And you can see the Psalm is full of playful language.

You know, the city of Jerusalem is a picture of the people, and the people are a picture of the city. The stones are a picture of the tribes, and the tribes are a picture of the stones. You know, they they are the city, and the city is them. It's bouncing back and forth between this between this language. And so we're picking up from this Psalm, that when God's people gather together, In God's city, around God's throne, they are in heaven, even as they journey onto heaven.

The assembling of God's people under God's throne is as close as we get to heaven on earth before we get to heaven. And so in this song, we're just seeing how the church on earth is a foretaste of a meal yet to be served. It is a blueprint for a city, yet to be built. It is the trailer for a film, yet to be shown. When we gather on Earth as the people of God, we see something of the heaven that we are destined to enjoy in the city of God.

Forever. And there's 3 different aspects of that that we're going to look at in the Psalm. And the first is this, the church on earth enjoys the unity of heaven. That's the first thing. The church on earth enjoys the unity of heaven.

And if you were here last week, Rory was taking us through Psalm a hundred and 33, where the right of there is celebrating the unity of God's people It starts by saying how good and precious it is when God's people live together in unity. And then there are 2 images to help us understand the preciousness of Christian unity. There's oil running down the beard of Aaron, and there's morning Jew, the EW, coming from Mount Herman, and it's a picture of refreshment, and holiness, and joy. That's that's kind of visual language to explain Christian unity. And here we've got another 1 in verse 1 to 4.

Christian unity is like a city built together. Have a look with me again at those opening verses. I rejoiced with those who said to me, let us go to the house of the lord. Our feet are standing in your gates, Ojiru Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together.

That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the lord, to praise the name of the lord, according to the statute given to to Israel. Now I think I've used this illustration before, but you might know of a of a condition, and it is a real condition which people get, a a kind of mental health problem called Paris Syndrome. I don't know if you heard about this Paris Syndrome. It's very common amongst people from far eastern countries. And basically, it's a sort of a type of depression that people get when they arrive in Paris and realized that it was not all that it was cracked up to be.

So they had been expecting and anticipating this beautiful, romantic, clean, architectural wonder, and they arrived there, and it's just like a balloon being deflated in their hearts, as the disappointment said, oh, this is it, you know? It's actually got an official definition. Paris syndrome is a sense of extreme disappointment exhibited by some individuals when visiting Paris who feel that the city was not what they had expected. About 20 people a year apparently get this And, you know, I was googling it this week, Paris syndrome, extreme disappointment, this city that did not live up to their notations. Well, there would have been no such thing here when the pilgrims finally made it up to Jerusalem.

There would be no Jerusalem syndrome, No disappointment, no depression, no sadness, no unrealized expectations, nothing like that. You see, you remember that some of these pilgrims would have been coming just from from small towns, and some of their towns may only have been really a collection of tents. And here, 3 times a year, they would make this trip 3 times a year, somebody would say, time. Come. Let us go up to the house of the lord.

And every time when they came over, that hill, and they saw the city of Jerusalem built up on a hill, they would have been stunned. They would have been stunned by it. No disappointment. It was a marvelous thing for them to see. At this time, it was built up or upon a hill, And either side, there were steep valleys, and even though it was no more than half a mile wide, you can see how described here.

It's well built. It's compact. It's beautiful. It's got its walls and its citadel. It's just a it would be a marvelous thing for them to just see it off in the distance and then approach it and to come up to the city of God together.

And of course, this city, as you can see, is a picture of them. 1 of the reasons they loved it was because it reminded them of who they were. In verse 3, the new living translation translates it. This way. It says Jerusalem is a well built city.

Its seamless walls cannot be pre be breached. Seamless walls cannot be breached. And from a distance, that's what it would would be like. You know, you saw the walls of Jerusalem, glinting in the sun, the sunlight reflecting off the white limestone out into the world around, then it would just look like 1 seamless, compact, white, beautiful city. But as you got close to the walls, you would see that it was made up of individual stones.

That had been crafted and cemented together. And that was a picture of what they were like. You know, here they are, the people of God divided verse 4 into tribes, and those tribes would be further divided into clans, and into families and into individuals. And when you read the old testament, you see that these tribes were not famous for getting along with each other all the time. And yet, when they assemble together, they are like the city They are individual stones, but they are built together, compacted together around the worship of God.

And around the forgiveness of sin. Every tribe and clan and family and individual is like the stone within the wall, They are individual, but they are 1, seamless, and compact, and coming together for the same purpose to worship the lord. In the new testament, Peter, he 1 Peter chapter 2 describes the church this way. You also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In other words, what Jerusalem was to the Israelites, the church is to us.

Every single person is a living stone who has been crafted and cut by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who has been made precious in the gospel, and who has been compacted into are great walls which are the church. Living stones cemented together around the cornerstone who is the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, why do they love the city? Why are they so happy to go up to the city of God? Because the city is them, and they are the city, and it reminds them of who they are.

Revelation 7 is a wonderful chapter, isn't it? Verse 9, we had it read to us. After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no 1 could count. From every nation, tribe, the tribes are going up, people and language and they cry out in 1 voice together, salvation belongs to our God and to the lamb. Such a wonderful scene because you notice that what makes them unique is preserved, their languages.

And their experiences, and their cultures, and where they came from. They are there with what makes them them but their glory is that the many have been built into the 1, just like the wars of Jerusalem. You'd be like standing over the the Grand Canyon. If you've ever seen pictures of the Grand Canyon or if you visited it, Or if you've ever been in a helicopter over it, you know, you you stand and you look at that extraordinary piece of natural architecture. You see the rusted colors of the sandstone and all the caves and channels that have been crafted by the winds and by powerful forces over the years, and you stand before it, and it's so impressive to look at.

And yet, you put your face up next to the rock, and you see that the whole thing is made by hundreds of millions of grains of sand compacted together. Individual grains of sand with their own little story compacted together, and when you stand and look at the whole is breathtaking. That's the picture in Revelation 7. You stand at the Grand Canyon, and you see this great worshiping formed community, and each 1, each grain of sand is there, compacted together around the throne. That's why these pea loved going up because it reminded them of them.

That's who they were, the city was them, and they were the city, compacted together. So see the church enjoys the unity of heaven. Secondly, the church praises the God of heaven. You notice why they come up in verse 4 to praise the name of the Lord. The church praises the God of heaven.

There's this great scene in in the book, the fellowship of the ring, and in in the film as well, by JR Tolkien. And there's a moment where there's a council. It's called the Council of Elrond. And it's a group of people who get together and they are gonna decide what to do with the 1 ring, this powerful ring that's been discovered. Something needs to be done about it.

And so they assemble this council in order to decide, and it is a picture of disunity. I mean, none of them can decide to do. They've all got their own different opinions about what should happen. The dwarves are angry with the elves, and the elves are angry with the dwarves, and the men are against each other, and they've all got different visions. 1 man says, I think we should use this in order to rule with it and we can have the power of this ring.

Another stands up with an axe and says, no, let's smash it and tries to clump it with his axe and break it. And this disunity, there's no shared vision as to what to do with it, until Frodo, who's 1 of the heroes of the story, says I will take it and I would destroy it. And then after that, 1 by 1, all the others who hated each other and disagreed stood up and said, I will go. I will go with him. And the point there is that in order for there to be a fellowship, there has to be a shared vision.

There has to be something which unites them, something they can bond in that will bring them together. If they try and do it their own way, it's be disunity and it's gonna be disaster. There is only fellowship with that common vision. There's an interesting point to make there about unity If the focus is on unity or on keeping everyone together, it probably won't work. If you aim just at unity, What you get is a kind of lowest common denominator unity, where you basically get rid of anything that's distinctive and just unite around sort of the basic simplest thing.

But actually, in order to get true unity, you have to have a common vision. That has to be something that you all go up for in order to bring it. And you see in verse 3 to 4 that that common vision is the praise of God. Jerusalem is like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, and why do they go to praise the name of the Lord, to unite the tribes and the languages and the cultures and the clans, they needed to have this common vision, praising God.

As they walked up together, giving thanks to the Lord was what bonded them. You know, if they saw that city, all their frosty disagreements would melt away in the sunshine of God's goodness. And there they would be to give thanks to the name of God. I love the message translation of verse 4. It puts it this way.

Jerusalem, well built city, built as a place for worship, the city to which the tribes ascend, all God's tribes go up to worship, to give thanks to the name of God. This is what it means to be Israel. To give thanks to the name of God, this is what it means to be Israel. See that? Gathering for praise is what it means to be Israel.

Apart from thanksgiving. They have no identity. Apart from thanksgiving, they will have no unity. It is what set them apart and it is what brought them together. It's interesting to compare the worship of the true God to to pagan or non Christian worship, the worship of other gods.

Because very often, with idols and with pagan worship, it's centered around what you can get from God, not what you can say thank you to God for. You go up and you want something thing. You want something Front wanted something to give you as we were hearing this morning. You want prosperity. You just want to be given something, whereas actually what marks off true in worship is Thanksgiving.

It's what the gospel is all about. Thanks to God. You see, what unites us as a church, There's all kinds of things which might unite us, you know, similar age and stage and same hobbies and whatever it might be. But at the deepest level, our unity is in thanksgiving for what God has done for us in the gospel. Of Jesus Christ, that he has borne away our sins, that he's given us a new life, that he's humbled us under his hand and lifted us up by his grace.

That's what unites us as we come to give thanks together for the gospel. Charles Bergin said, that we are prone to write our complaints in marble and our blessings in sand. In other words, the things that go wrong and the things that we wanna complain about, we scribe them into marble, you know, that so deeply there, aren't they? The things for us to grumble about. We want them there, always seen, never moving, and the blessing the thousands of reasons we have to give thanks are written in sand, just washed away by tomorrow's tide.

But if we're gonna stay united, if we're gonna stay healthy, then we need to be a people that are marked by thanksgiving. It's interesting when you look at Israel's history, when they grumbled against the Lord, they divided with each other. Those things followed. Grumbled against the Lord, divided against each other, but Thanksgiving is the cement which holds us. It's what bonds us together now, and it's what bonds us together in heaven.

No amazing grace, When we've been there 10000 years, bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first began. It's what heaven will be about, and it's what we do on on earth a church, we are united by our common purpose to give thanks to the lord. Thirdly then, and last honestly. The church praises the God of heaven, and thirdly, the church bows to the king of heaven.

It's the last The church bows to the king of heaven. Now I totally missed this link until Fin pointed it out to me earlier in the week, but if you you might have heard this psalm recently in our in our culture, Psalm 122, it's almost certain that you watch the event and almost certain that you would have heard this Psalm being sung, because Psalm a hundred and 22 is what was sung as King Charles came to be crowned into Westminster Abbey. This is the entry him, the piece of music that is sung. And and it's interesting because in church history, this has been seen as a kind of coronation Psalm or or at least a Psalm which celebrates the throne. You know, you go up to hear from the king and you gather around the king, and that why you assemble to gather around the the throne.

And it makes sense when you look at verses 3 to 5. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the lord, to praise the name of the lord according to the statute given to Israel. There stand the thrones for judgment, the thrones of the House of David. So why do they rejoice as they make their way up to the city of God?

Will they rejoice because it's a picture of their unity? They rejoice because there, there's gonna be sacrifices for their sins, and they rejoice because their Messiah reigns upon his throne. They go to gather around the throne, and they remember that in the city of God, this is where the thrones of the house of David are. This is where we can go to remember who we are. This is where we can go to see a just ruler in a world of injustice.

This is where we can hear a truthful king in a world of lies. This is where we can go to find freedom under the kingship of another saved from having to rule ourselves. This is where we church can go and bow as 1 together before the throne of our Messiah are king. Verse 4, that is what it means to be Israel in the message. This is what it means.

It means to gather as God's people and bow the knee to God's king. That's why they go up. And that's what it means for us to be the church. Now every Sunday when we gather together and Ben did it this evening, He welcomed people in the name of the Lord Jesus who is the Christ. He is the 1 who sits on David's throne.

He is the 1 we gather around every Sunday to hear from. You know, the church has no greater beauty than the throne that we gather around, that the crown that we celebrate, where we come and remember that Christ reigns upon the earth. Verse 5 is what we sing as we come to church. Here stands the Thrones for judgment, the throne of the House of Jesus Christ. We have come to bow the knee to him, and to hear his words in a world of lies, and to submit to him gladly as the king of kings and the lord of lords.

The throne is why they gather. And again, I just love how this all comes together in Revelation 7. This is Revelation 7. Maybe we could get it back on Joshua. Revelation 7 verse 9.

After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no 1 could count. From every nation tried people and language, standing before their thrown and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. You see how Psalm a hundred and 22 is ultimately fulfilled in that moment. Here are the tribes of God who are gathering together from every tribe and tongue and nation and they are assembling together around the throne.

Here is where the Thrones for judgment are. Here is where the king sits upon the throne. Let us give thanks together forever. That is what it means to be church, to assemble as the people around throne. It's what we do now, and it's what we will do forever.

This psalm is always looking on to its fulfillment. Both here and in glory. And it's gotta be right, hasn't it? It's gotta be right. Because if you think about verse 3, you remember verse 3, I read it out from the message.

Jerusalem is like a city with seamless walls that cannot be breached. Well, the trouble is they were breached. Multiple times, in fact. It's like that person who said of the Titanic, this ship can't sink. You know, these walls can't be breached.

Well, they could, and they can. And you can imagine when nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon came busting into Jerusalem and decimated its thrones and destroyed its walls. It would have felt like a disaster. What has happened to the city upon the hill? Except it wasn't ultimately a disaster because the walls would be rebuilt in the church, and the throne would be established forever in Jesus.

And the thanksgiving of God's people would never ever be silenced because it had a greater fulfillment. In church and in Christ. And so the next time you wonder, I wonder, you know, I wonder what it's gonna be like when I closed my eyes for the last time on earth. And I wake up and see Jesus face to face. I wonder what that's like.

Well, you can remember that church is as close as we get on earth. Church is what it will be like, gathering together as the people of God United around the throne to give thanks. That's basically the substance of what it will be. And this Psalm is all about And so next week when Sunday rolls around, you might want to text a friend versus 1. In the morning, maybe 8 39 o'clock.

You could text them and say brother or sister, let us go to the house of the lord together. Let us go up. Let us go to church where we will assemble together around the throne of God to give thanks. And in verse 6, you can pray. Verse 6, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

It's the only command in the Psalm, actually. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. It's not about praying for a city. It's not about praying for a building. It's about praying for a people.

You notice the word within. May there be peace within your walls? Well, what's within the walls? To people, and security within your citadels. Well, who's in the citadel?

It's the people. For the sake of my family and friends, I will say peace be within you? Well, who's within them? It's the people. That's the command in verse 6.

Given that that's what church is. A united, thankful, throne centered people, pray for her peace, pray for her prosperity, pray that more would be added to her, and pray that we would seek the good of the church for as long as we live before we come Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this Psalm, and we thank you for how it finds a fulfillment here this evening amongst that we are the people of God who have gathered together, and we are like those walls of Jerusalem, that we are individual We are individual works of grace, and yet we have been cemented together around the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that we have gathered this evening in order to bow the knee to King Jesus, and we're so thankful that he reigns upon his throne, and that all authority in heaven on earth has been given to him. And every single thing is being bought under the lordship of Christ, and we gladly bow to you this evening King Jesus, and we pray that you would help us to be thankful people.

We're sorry, lord, that often we write our complaints in marble, and we write our blessings in the sand. That we are so often marked by grumbling, whereas actually what will unite us and keep our souls healthy is thanksgiving. To you for all that you have done. And we praise you for that vision in Revelation 7 to which all of your people are headed where we will gather around the throne of the lamb forever. Keep our eyes upon that day.

We ask in Jesus' name, amen.