Our Bible is now pleased with
Psalm 122. I appreciate that psalm that Kevin
just sang, Psalm 121. Now, if you will, let's turn
to Psalm 122. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand
within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city
that is compact together. Whether the tribes go up, the
tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give
thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of
judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love
thee. Peace be within thy walls and
prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companion's
sakes, I will now say, peace be within thee. Because of the
house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good." After six weeks of us not being
able to meet together for public worship, I felt compelled to
bring a message from this psalm, especially from those first words. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go unto the house of the Lord. Now this psalm is
the third of 15 psalms with the same title, A Song of Degrees. And of these 15, four of them
have David as the author and Solomon as the author of one
of them, the human authors that is. We know that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. But I want us to consider for
a little while David's words, his gladness, the gladness that
David experienced when someone said unto him, let us go into
the house of the Lord. First, the house of the Lord
in David's day. What was that? What was the house
of the Lord in David's day? Remember, it was his son Solomon
who God raised up to build the beautiful temple that was so
decorated with gold. But it was not this house that
David has reference to. In David's day, the house of
the Lord which God called his dwelling place, was a tent. A tent. I want you to look back
with me, if you will, to 2 Samuel, chapter 7. 2 Samuel, chapter
7. This is a very beautiful and
moving passage of scripture. We read about David, the man
who was a man after God's own heart. We began in verse one,
and it came to pass when the king, that is David, sat in his
house, and the Lord had given him rest round about from all
his enemies, that the king said unto Nathan the prophet, see
now, I dwell in a house of cedar. But the ark of God dwelleth within
curtains. And Nathan said to the king,
Go, do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee. And
it came to pass that night that the word of the Lord came unto
Nathan, saying, Go, and tell my servant David, Thus saith
the Lord, Shalt thou build me an house, or build me an house
for me to dwell in? Whereas I have not dwelt in any
house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out
of Egypt, even to this day. Now notice, but have walked in
a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places wherein I have
walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with
any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people
Israel. saying, why build you not me
in house of cedar? And then if you will look down
to verses 12 and 13 of that chapter. And when thy days be fulfilled,
this is Nathan bringing the word to David, when thy days be fulfilled,
and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed
after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, that is Solomon,
and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my
name. So when David in this psalm said,
I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house
of the Lord. The only thing that could have
been called the house of the Lord at that time was this tent,
the tabernacle in which God dwelt. Now this should teach us, first
of all, that the gladness for God's children is not the beautiful
buildings. It's not the ornate buildings,
the stained glass windows, and all of the pageantry, and all
of the things of this world that believers
desire. But our desire is to come into
the presence of God. The reason David desired, and
we re going to see more of that in just a moment, but the reason
David was glad when they said unto him, Let us go into the
house of the Lord, it wasn t because he was going into a beautiful
building. To worship God, the true worshipers
of God, must, the Lord Jesus Christ said, worship Him in spirit
and in truth. So that's the first thing I'd
point out to us today. The house of the Lord in David's
day was a tent. It was a tabernacle. And all
you could see from the outside was a tent covered with badger
skins. And so it was a very plain, a
very common looking place, but it was the house of the Lord.
Now, second, what were some of the things associated with the
house of the Lord in David's day? Things which would cause
him to be glad, to be glad when someone said unto him, let us
go into the house of the Lord. What were some of the things
associated with that plain looking tabernacle? It wasn't because
he was going to a beautiful building or anything like that. No. But it was what was associated
with that tent, that dwelling place of God, which was curtains. As God said, he had dwelt among
curtains. The first thing, the first thing
associated with this tabernacle was it was here that the Lord
manifested His presence. Now God has manifested His presence
in creation, hasn't He? And you cannot look up into the
starry heavens, you cannot look on the beautiful plains without
seeing God's handiwork, God's presence. He has manifested Himself
in all of His creation, no doubt about it, but we read of God
especially manifesting Himself in this house of the Lord, this
tabernacle. Look back. We're going to look
at a couple of places. Let's look in Exodus chapter
40, if you will. In Exodus chapter 40, and this
is when after God had given Moses the instructions for the tabernacle,
That takes up a good deal of the book of Exodus. But here in this last chapter,
Exodus chapter 40, if you will look down in verse 33 and 34. And he, that is Moses, reared
up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and
set up the hanging of the court gate. Now notice, so Moses finished
the work. He had received the instructions
from God, and in the book of Hebrews we are told that Moses
was faithful in following those instructions. The laver, the
brazen altar, the golden altar, the table of showbread, the candlestick,
the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat, the coverings, everything,
and he set up the coverings around the courthouse, courtyard rather,
here in this verse, and the work was finished. Notice that. So
Moses finished the work. Now what's the next thing we
see? Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and
the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The first thing
that is associated with this dwelling place of God, this house
of the Lord, that no doubt caused David to be glad when asked to
go into it or go to it was the fact that associated with this
tabernacle was the manifestation of the glory of the Lord. Now, if you will, look with me
in 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles. This is after David has died
and his son, Solomon, has been raised up to build this beautiful
temple. And on the day he dedicated it,
2 Chronicles chapter 5, First of all, verse 7. And the priest brought in the
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord unto his place. Now, the Ark
of the Covenant we know had been brought to Jerusalem. We've studied
about that when David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. The tabernacle, all the other
pieces of furniture, were still in the tabernacle, which was
not in Jerusalem until Solomon built this temple. And the last
thing that we read about here is they brought in the priest,
rather, they brought in the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord unto
his place. Oh, it was a beautiful place.
At Holy of Holies in that temple, the walls were all covered with
gold. Solomon had those two cherubim. Remember, they were on the mercy
seat as God gave instruction to Moses. But Solomon had these
giant cherubims built inside that holy of holies, and their
wings touched each other and stretched from wall to wall.
And they too were covered with gold. And the priests, they brought
in the Ark of the Covenant this day. It was dedicated And notice,
if you will, in that same chapter down to verse 13, it came even
to pass, as the trumpeteers and singers were as one, to make
one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. And when
they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and
instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, for He is good,
for His mercy endureth forever, that then," now notice, "...then
the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so
that the priest could not stand to minister by reason of the
cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God."
What I'm pointing out to us is this, what was associated with
this tabernacle and then with the temple when it was built
was it was a place where God manifested His glory. There was
a cloud which filled the tabernacle and the temple, so much so that
the priests, we're told, were not able to minister that day
inside the temple. No wonder David was glad. No wonder he was glad when someone
said, let us go into the house of the Lord. That was the place,
that was a place where God had manifested his glory. A second
thing that caused David to be glad, another thing that was
associated with the house of the Lord, it was here that the
Lord pictured, now listen, what is the gospel? that is substitution
and satisfaction. Many of you have heard me say
this before, but I will say it again and keep saying it. You
have never heard the gospel if you have not heard substitution
and satisfaction. And that was manifested here
at this tabernacle. It was here on a brazen altar
that every morning and every evening A lamb was slain and
offered unto God. A lamb pictures unto us an innocent
victim. And the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the great sacrifice for sin that those lambs pictured, we
know in himself he was innocent. He was guiltless. He had no sin
of his own. And yet, as that lamb was substituted
in the place of the guilty, so Jesus Christ our Lord, the Lamb
of God, was substituted in the place of guilty sinners like
you and I. Substitution and satisfaction. Yes. When that animal was offered
there, the fat of that animal, rather, was offered there on
that altar, And that smoke ascended up to heaven. It was a picture
of the satisfaction that God was satisfied, not with the blood
of an animal, not with the fat of an animal, no, but the blood
of the one that that animal pictured. And those believers in the Old
Testament until Christ came, they were saved in the only way
of salvation. The only way for me to be saved,
the only way for you to be saved. They were looking to Christ as
we look to Christ. They were looking to him who
was promised to come. So that was associated, they
were not allowed to offer sacrifices in other places. It was only
here at this tabernacle and then at the temple. Then a third thing, it was here
that prayer was offered. in the house of the Lord. You
remember when the Lord Jesus Christ was here in the flesh,
we're told that one day he entered into the house of the Lord, into
the temple. Now, this is what it says in
Mark chapter 11. They came to Jerusalem and Jesus
went into the temple. That is, that was called the
house of the Lord. He went into the temple and began
to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew
the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold
doves, and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel
through the temple. And he taught them, saying unto
them, now listen, is it not written, my house, the house of the Lord,
my house shall be called a house of prayer of all nations. Even when exiled in Babylon,
when they were carried into captivity, you remember Daniel when he prayed
and he was cast into that den of lions for praying. But he
prayed with his window open toward Jerusalem, in other words, towards
the temple. You know, many people think of
prayer as only asking, only asking. But that is not what the Lord
Jesus Christ has taught us about prayer and the model prayer that
he gave us, nor is that what we see in the prayers which are
recorded in the word of God. We're not given a form of prayer. We're not given a certain form
and you pray those very words over and over and over again.
That model prayer, our Father which art in heaven, You know,
men have taken that and they've used that as a prayer to repeat. And that's not the purpose of
that prayer at all. It was given to teach His disciples
how to pray. And what we see about prayer
from the Word of God is that we begin prayer by acknowledging
God's greatness. Hallowed be thy name, God's holiness,
one of his perfections. When we began to pray, we should
think about one of his perfections, especially, and mention that
in prayer. Maybe it's his goodness, his
goodness, or his mercy, or his kindness unto us, his holiness. And recognizing in prayer his
omnipotence, that assures us that there's nothing too hard
for him. There's nothing too hard for
him. There's nothing impossible for him that he is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Recognizing
his omnipresence remind us that he's a God at hand. Remember
one of those foreign countries, some man told their king, well,
the God of the Israelites is the God of the valleys or God
of the mountains. He said, well, let's fight him
in the mountains then. Well, they found out that the
God of Israel, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the
God of the mountains and the God of the valleys. And we go
through valleys in our lives, and we go up on mountaintops,
experiences in our lives, and we find that God is the same. He's a very present help in time
of trouble. Whatever the trouble is, He's
a very present time in help. And recognizing not only His
omnipotence and His omnipresence, but we should recognize His sovereignty. so that we submit to his will
as the Lord Jesus Christ did. What is this? What am I saying?
I'm saying that prayer, our Lord said that his house, the house
of the Lord, would be called a house of prayer. And what is
prayer? Prayer is worship. It's worship,
yes. Petitions come in, making our
petitions known unto God with thanksgiving, the apostle Paul
said. And something else about prayer
is humility. I'm always impressed when I read
in Genesis when Abraham was praying to God, when he was interceding
for Sodom and Gomorrah. You remember on one time he said,
I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust
and ashes. He recognized rather who he was and who he was speaking to. Here
I am, nothing, nothing but dust and ashes, and yet I've taken
upon myself to speak unto thee, the God of heaven and earth."
We see worship, and surely there's a place for confession of sins
in our prayer. We have this promise, if we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Is there ever a day, is there
ever a day that goes by in the life of a believer that we do
not need to confess our sins? Some people have taught, and
of course it's a lie, but some people have taught that they've
advance to a position where they have no sin? A Christian, a believer
who has no sin? Well, the Apostle Paul never
made it. We know that. He never got to that place. Neither
did John, because John said, if we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And then, of course,
a doxology is part of prayer. Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen. So the house of the Lord
was a house of prayer, a house of worship. And one last thing
associated with the house of the Lord and that dispensation,
it was here that believers would meet together. They would meet
together and they would sing and they would praise the Lord.
In fact, some believe, I mentioned the title of this psalm, A Song
of Degrees, 15 of these psalms in a row here, A Song of Degrees. Many believe that that title
is given because the Israelites were commanded to go up to wherever
God placed that tabernacle. It ended up in Jerusalem, but
when David wrote this song, it wasn't in Jerusalem, but yet
three times a year, all of the males of Israel, they had to
go up to that tabernacle, wherever it was. And those who lived the
farthest off in Palestine, they would begin first and they would
go in something like caravans up to this place. And as they
go, and more people would come and make a part of their group,
they were singing. They were singing, and they especially
were singing these psalms that we have here, these 15 psalms. In going up every year three
times, they acknowledged God's providence, didn't they? Because
think about it. The men, they left their homes,
they left their wives, they left their farms for for those days
that they were there to worship the Lord. And it was a time of
joy. The time when they went up and
they had to be in those booths for a week to remind them of
their experience when they came out of Egypt, dwelling in the
wilderness. And for a week they would be
there in the place where the tabernacle was, later in Jerusalem,
as I said. But all the time they were away
from their families and from their homes, their farms, God
protected them. And God told them that those
nations round about them during that time, he would make sure
they did not covet or come to possess or to steal their places. And then third, What should make
believers today? What should make you and I in
this dispensation glad when we are asked to go to the house
of the Lord? Well, each of those four things
apply to us as well. The Lord has promised his presence
where two or three gather together in his name. I know we worship
the Lord in our homes and we should. But there's a special
time when believers come together and we join hearts and voices
in worshiping the Lord. And he is here. He is here in
our presence. The word tabernacled amongst
us. That's what the scripture says
in John chapter one. The word that was in the beginning
with God, the word that was God, The word was made flesh and dwelt
tabernacled among us. And when we come together, we
come together to worship Christ. And he has promised to be here
in our midst. And then second, the Lord Jesus
Christ and him crucified is always the center of our meeting when
we come together. We're not here today to hear
about the virus or any other thing that's going on in this
world. As important as some of those
things may be, but we are here gathered today in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ to worship Him. And always the focus of
our worship service must be the preaching of the gospel. Like
the Apostle Paul said, I determine to know nothing among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For we preach Christ and Him
crucified. God forbid that I should glory
in anything save the cross of Jesus Christ. This message that
tells us of God's great love, that God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. The great love of God for such
sinners that God give His Son. And Christ gave Himself. He gave
all of Himself. He gave His life's blood to redeem
us unto God. We come together today in the
house of the Lord because this is where He has promised to meet
with us especially and because this is where we hear of Him
and His substitution and satisfaction in our stead and in our place. And we come together to pray.
We pray for one another and we worship, worship God almighty. And you know, even we worship
God. And I said, Christ is the center
of our, our worship and preaching and baptism. What is that? What is that but the command
of the Lord Jesus Christ, whosoever believeth and is baptized shall
be saved. And in baptism, we have a picture
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, how he died, was buried, and
rose again. And the Lord's table, when we
meet together and have the Lord's supper, what is that but a picture
of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord? His blood and His flesh
that was shed for us. His blood shed for us and His
body broken for us. And we come to fellowship. We
come together to fellowship with our brothers and sisters. We're
all in the family of God. Those of us who've been saved
by the grace of God, we all are part of God's great family. And we come together to sing
and give glory to him who loved us and gave himself for us. But I've written down three other
things I want to mention today that should make us glad to go
to the house of the Lord. First, we should be glad because
we have a house of the Lord to which we may come. Those of you who are here today,
with maybe one or two exceptions, were not here when this building,
which I'm referring to as the House of the Lord, when it was
built. But I would tell you that several men, young men at that
time, they sacrificed a great deal of time in building this
building. They did, and I'll forever be
thankful to each one of those men. I could name some men who gave
every Saturday, not for one week, but week after week, after week,
after week, and building this place where we can come and worship
the Lord. I'm thankful, aren't you? We
should be thankful that we have a house of the Lord to which
we may come. And second, we should be thankful
that we have the freedom here to come. There's places in this
world, and you know it so, God has his children scattered all
over the world. Scripture says, the song of heaven
is he hath redeemed us by his blood out of every tongue and
tribe and nation And there's people in this world today who
love Christ, who were redeemed with His blood. And if they're
worshiping today, they're doing so in fear and in hiding and
places like that because of the governments under which they
live. Thank God we live in a country
in a place where we have the freedom, the liberty to come
and worship him. And lastly, we should be thankful today that
we have a house of the Lord where peace and unity is the norm. Peace and unity is the norm. Aren't you thankful for the unity
that God has given us in this congregation and the peace No
one's seeking preeminence. That's usually what disrupts
peace and unity in a congregation. But we're all here as servants
to serve him and to serve one another. And God blesses the
unity and the peace that he has given us. Well, I pray the Lord
would bless these words and these thoughts to all of us today. And we too are able to say, especially
after six weeks of not being able to come together, I was
glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the
Lord. And several people expressed
to me, they were so thankful when we sent out the message
we were going to meet today for the first time.