Going To See God

Going To See God

Psalm 122

    This morning, I’d like to ask you a question.  My question relates to why you came to church this morning?  Why did you get up from the comfort of a warm bed, browse through the clothes in your closet, jump into the shower, get dressed, get into your car, and drive to this place?  Why did you show up at church this morning?  Was it because of religion, ritual, or relationship?    The question this morning is...  WHY?  Why even come to church at all?  After all. Since COVID, many people are choosing to make church attendance optional.  Why are you here?

    Hundreds of years ago a citizen of Israel, living somewhere out in one of the little villages dotting the countryside, received an invitation.  Through the lanes and streets of his village there went a courier, a messenger, with interesting news, with an exciting proposal.  The news was that there was to be a pilgrimage, that the people of the village were going to travel together, and they were going to go to Jerusalem.  Together they would make provisions for the long and dusty journey.  Together they would assemble their pack animals and their sacrificial doves, they would pull together their wives and their children, and up they would go – upward to Mount Zion and to the beautiful city of Jerusalem, on up the steep steps and finally they would stand on the Temple mount itself.  And there they would worship, they would bring to the Lord whose presence filled that house all their devotion, all their love and their praise. 

    And so in the heart of that pilgrim, that villager, there welled up excitement, high expectations, an outburst of enthusiasm and of joy, and so much so that he recorded what he felt, recorded it for us, jaded, over-shopped and over-stimulated modern people that we are, recorded it for those of us who have forgotten the excitement of a new experience, who have long since lost the sense of novelty and of possibility that can be brought to worship.  Hear him, hear this ancient Israelite villager, and imagine whether you can hear this in yourself.   Listen now, as I read Psalm 122, and catch this author's excitement as he reflects on...

Joyful Contemplation  (vv. 1 - 2) 

Beautiful Adoration  (vv. 3 - 5)  and

Peaceful Consideration  (vv.  6 - 9)

1. Body
1. Joyful Contemplation  (vv. 1 - 2)
1. A pilgrim anticipates going to worship.
1. Joy in the journey
1. "I was glad when they said to me, ’Let us go to the house of the Lord.’"
2. I was glad.  I was excited and full of joy.  I was expecting something when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord."
3. I was expectant when they said, let’s go.  I was expectant.  I was hoping and planning and seeking to find something there.  I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.  Expectations matter. 
4. You see, our sin is that we bring few if any expectations that do matter when we come to worship.  Our sin is the poverty of our expectations. Our mistake is not so much that we expect much, only to have a disappointment.  Our sin, our mistake is that we expect very little from our worship gatherings.
5. One wit once looked at a Christian congregation at worship and then quipped, "They do this every Sunday; they’ll be all right on Monday. It’s just a little habit they’ve acquired."
6. Some people think that church is a place to be entertained if it’s enjoyable, they’ll come …but the truth is, at the end of this “show”, the only applause that matters comes from God.
7. Why was the psalmist glad when he’s told, “Let’s go to the house of God” (vs 1)?  He knows that he will find his true spiritual family there. He knows that He will learn more about how life really works; he knows he’ll gain strength for the days ahead.  Nothing’s going to keep him from worship.  How can we know a person’s priorities?  By what that person does willingly, regularly, and voluntarily. 
8. Worship is not described here as an individual act.  We do not live in isolation—we are part of something larger.  Faith isn’t purely internal; it has to be lived in community.  My body ought to be available to the Body of Christ!  “There are two things we cannot do alone - one is to be married and the other is to be a Christian.”
2. Joyful arrival
1. v. 2 - (the message) -- And now we're here, O Jerusalem, inside Jerusalem's walls! 
2. You know how it is, after going on any long trip,  The moment of arrival means relief, joy, and even a sense of satisfaction.  At long last, the driver can turn to their eight year old and say, “Yes, we’re there.”
3. Arrival should be a time of thanksgiving (“Thank you, God, we’re here.”).
4. Arrival after a long journey can evoke many emotions.  Arrival for such a pilgrimage as this must magnify the emotions, for the journey seeks more than a warm reunion with family or a great holiday photo-op.  A pilgrimage is directed towards a holy place, and ultimately towards God.  Arrival at the holy place means finding the presence of God.  For Christians, the pilgrimage and arrival capture the spirituality -  the life journey towards our Maker and his peace.Beautiful Adoration  (vv. 3-5)
5. The pilgrim admires the worship building.
3. Well suited for worship
1. v. 3 (the message) -- Jerusalem, well-built city, built as a place for worship! 
2. The Lord is there
3. the worshippers are united
1. in love for one another
2. in love for God
3. in service of one Lord, Jesus
4. The Church, the Body of Christ, is the new place of worship
1. 1 Corinthians 3:9 --  For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
2. 1 Peter 2:5 -- you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
4. Worship (and worshippers) ascend
1. vv. 3-4  (the message) -- 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.
2. The males of the twelve tribes of Israel went up three times a year to Jerusalem to worship, at the feasts of passover, pentecost, and tabernacles. 
3. This is what it means to be Israel.  What does it mean to be the church, today?
4. A woman was talking to her neighbor over the fence. "I really don’t know what you see in the church," she said.  "Oh, you really don’t know what you are missing!" said her friend.  "It’s such a wonderful rest after a hard week’s work, to sit in the pews and think about nothing!"
5. Judgments handed down
1. v. 5a (the message) -- Thrones for righteous judgment  are set there...
2. The temple was the place where religious judgments were made.  Jesus was taken to the High Priest for trial.
3. The Church is where the Spirit of God is and where the Word of God is preached.
4. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
5. People who have unconfessed sin in their lives are often uncomfortable in church as they fall under the conviction of the Holy Spirit during the preaching of God’s Word.
6. This was well illustrated by a cartoon in which a congregant after the service says: "Powerful sermons, Pastor. Thoughtful, well researched. I can always see myself in them.  And I want you to knock it off."Peaceful Consideration  (vv. 6 - 9)
7. The Pilgrim prays that the vision becomes reality.
6. Now it’s all over. Now the worship has happened and he’s ready to go home.  Now it’s 12 o’clock and time to go home and watch the Jerusalem Oliveskins beat the Philistine Sheepboys.  But is he finished?  Is that all there is to his worship?  Is this the end of it all?  Not at all. There is more, there is a response that he makes.  There is a promise which he makes to himself, and there is a prayer that is on his lips: 
7. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  May they prosper who love you.  Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers. For my brethren 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."
8. Notice the things for which he prays 
1. Friends protected
2. Enemies exclusion
3. Brothers at peace

1. Again, imagine the scene for our pilgrim traveller.  He leaves the Temple, he walks out of the city, down the hillside into the valley below, and then he turns to catch a glimpse of the place which has really, really meant something to him, he turns to see just one more time before turning homeward.  And he sees the city with its bulwarks, its battlements and its gates; he recalls how much battle has been done there.  He thinks of all the fighting that has marred this place.   From our perspective, we know that, during its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times
2. So our traveller, in his heart, forms a prayer, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. Peace within your walls, peace with in you, I will seek your good."Conclusion 
1. While we're speaking of church attendance, have you ever heard Murphy’s Law for Preachers:
1. Law # 1: If the weather is extremely bad, church attendance will be down. 
2. Law #2: If the weather is extremely good church attendance will be down. 
3. Law #3: If the printer goes "kaput" and the bulletins are in short supply, church attendance will exceed all expectations.
2. Mark Brunner wants to know, "How many things are you passionate about in life?"  He writes,  "I remember many years ago during the Lombardi days and the good fortune of the Green Bay Packers. I was passionate about them. 
3. Between 1961 and 1969 I can honestly say that I never, never missed watching or listening to a weekend Packer broadcast.  It really didn’t matter where we were or what the inconvenience, I had to know what was going on with my beloved Packers.  Then the unexpected happened.  The Packers were playing that old familiar Thanksgiving Day game against, their arch nemesis, the Detroit Lions.  We were invited to my grandmother’s house for the day.  When we got there I discovered to my dismay that my grandmother’s TV set was not working.  And the radio reception from her little upper apartment was poor.  That cold November Thursday I found myself sitting in my Dad’s 1959 Plymouth, bundled up, shivering, but listening to Ted Moore on the car radio.  I needed to be a “part” of that game no matter the cost."
4. How passionate should we be when it comes to church?  Willing to sacrifice, even put ourselves into an uncomfortable situation, in order to stay on top of our “game?”
5. This morning, from Psalm 122, we have seen the JOYFUL CONTEMPLATION of going to the House of God.  First, the joy in the journey, and then the joyful arrival.
6. Then, we've seen the BEAUTIFUL ADORATION of the worship experience itself.  How the Church is well-suited for worship.  How the worship ascends to God and how the Judgments, through His Word, come down.
7. Finally, we've been left with the PEACEFUL CONSIDERATION of the worship experience.  The psalmist has encouraged us to pray for friends, against enemies and that the CHURCH - brothers and sisters in Christ - might live in peace.
8. Let us bow our hearts together today and pray similarly.