Home is Where the Heart Is (Psalm 122:1-9)
I went to the United States of America in March. I went to stay with my brother who lives in the house that I grew up in. And as we were driving there through the neighbourhood, I am looking out the window of the car and just going down memory lane.
I used to go door-to-door selling things to make money for camping trips with the Boy Scouts. So I know every single house in this neighbourhood.
I remember the streets I used to ride my bicycle down.
I remember playing kickball in the streets, you know, we would play until somebody would yell, “Car”, and then we would spread to the sides and wait till the car passed.
I remember all of these things.
And then I took my three-year-old niece out in the woods to throw stones into the creek. I am just sitting on a log watching her and remembering myself, do that, some forty years ago.
I wonder if you can relate to this kind of feeling — nostalgia — where something is awakened in you, some connection to the past, with your heart somehow connected to a place.
I can tell you the town, neighbourhood and street, but it does not mean anything to you. I could take you there and you would see houses and trees and squirrels. It would just look like a thousand other neighbourhoods.
But to me, it was home for 20 years. So my heart is there somehow.
What is so powerful about this idea of home?
It has to be that as we invest our heart in a place, over time, we come to love it. It affects us in some powerful way because home is where the heart is.
We are looking this morning at Psalm 122.
It's one of the 15 Psalms of Ascent, Psalm 120 to 134, all bear that title. Ascent means to go up. These Psalms seem to have been written for Israelites as they are taking the journey from their homes up to Jerusalem for one of the annual feasts.
At least three times a year, all Israelites would have been doing that. So it is a regular part, a regular rhythm of worship in Israel. Go to Jerusalem, bring it offering, make sacrifice, feast, and then return home. What these Psalms express is the heart of the worshipper on their way to meet with God.
In Psalm 122, the travel arrives in Jerusalem and in his joy, we find something interesting. This man talks about Jerusalem as if it is his home. Even though it is not his home, he loves it in a way a person loves a home. Something about his experience there and what he sees there makes his heart so invested in it. But he loves it. He lives for its peace and its prosperity.
Now why would he do that? And what does that mean for us?
We should love God by making the church our home.
This song is telling us that we should love God by making the church our home.
Let's study the Psalm in two main sections — see the glory of the church (Ps 122:1-5) and seek the good of the church (Ps 122:6-9).
It is my prayer that this song will help us better love God by loving His church.
See the glory of the church (Ps 122:1-5)
We are told that David is the author of this song, but interestingly, he writes it from the perspective of an Israelite at home in their city, and his friends come to him and say, let us go to the house of the Lord, meaning it's time to go up for festival.
We do not know which one Passover or first fruits or harvest. Notice the point and the destination is not just a feast. It is not just Jerusalem, but the temple in Jerusalem.
Let us go to the house of the Lord. That is the destination and sets the whole point of their journey in the context of seeking God. Not just a festival, not just seeing people, not just resting. They want to go to God's house, a temple to meet with God in the place where God chose to meet with His people.
It is very important, as we come to the Bible, that we understand that worship is always done on God's terms. He tells His people where and when and how to worship. We might be tempted to say, “I like worshiping God on a mountain watching a sunset or going to Sentosa and looking out upon the waters.” That is a good thing to do.
We might say, “I worship God through the work that I do.” This is also good. There is a sense in which all of our life should be worship.
But from Genesis to Revelation, when God engages with humans, He tells them how they are supposed to engage with Him.
In the New Testament, God says, He is to be worshipped in churches with other living Christians led by elders and deacons gathering on the Lord's Day.
We engage with God on the terms He proposes in the way He provides.
Beloved, we do not decide how to approach God. We engage with God on the terms He proposes in the way He provides, and throughout the Bible He directs us into worship with other people in a place and manner of His choosing.
Now, this person in the psalm is not sad about this, is he? Look what it says in Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.” The person who loves God is happy when his friends exhort him in spiritual duties.
So when your friend says, “Hey, let us start going to those EQUIP classes and sharpen ourselves theologically”, or your friend says, “Hey, let us start going to Wednesday Bible Study. We are not doing anything on Wednesday night.”
Or maybe your friend says, “Hey, let us keep each other accountable with a Bible reading plan.”
Or teens when Nicholas says, “Hey, let us get a book off the book stall, and let's read it together and talk about it.”
Well, or maybe your spouse proposes reading scripture and praying. The response is not, “I’m so busy, how could you ask me to do that?” Or the response is also not, “Who do you think you are? Do you think you are more spiritual than me?”
Notice the response, “I was glad.” So be glad when somebody exhorts you in spiritual duties.
Now this trip to Jerusalem, it would have taken preparation and effort was not easy, but Psalm 122:2 speaks about the arrival within the gates of Jerusalem. We get a sense of joy and marvel as the pilgrim looks up and looks around. He notices the architecture of the city first and foremost, the construction of the place. It is natural to notice those sorts of things when you come to a new place.
He says Jerusalem is built as a city that is bound firmly together. The temple in Jerusalem was built on an outcropping of rock called Mount Zion, and then the old city spreads around that highest point.
But why is he mentioning this?
The word “bound firmly together” in Psalm 122:3 is the same word used in Exodus that describes the curtain in the tabernacle, being woven together as one piece. His observations about the togetherness of the city are linked to the tribes and how the tribes go up. So this place was the common destination of all the Israelites as a place of compact unity. Can you see that? Even the city planning points to the idea of God's people being drawn together in unity. They are bound firmly together.
We are people who give thanks to the name of the Lord.
Where does their unity come from? The unity or the fellowship of the people was worship of Yahweh (Ps 122:4b). I think that is just a wonderfully short way to describe worship there in Psalm 122:3. I mean, what are we doing here this morning? Why are we giving up our time and our energy? And what makes people from different backgrounds hang out? What gives us community?
We are people who give thanks to the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is His character — it is who He is. So we had better see Him rightly. That is why we begin our services with songs and prayers and readings that focus on the character of God. But then we turn and give thanks for all He is done.
I wonder how you are doing at the discipline of giving thanks to the Lord. Sometimes you and I can be quicker to list our troubles than count our blessings. Thanking God is a powerful discipline, friends. You might be sick, but you say thank you for life. You might be struggling with sin, but you say thank you that I am forgiven. You might find yourself in deep darkness, but say thank you that there is a light at the end of all of this.
I want you to notice that it says there that giving thanks to the Lord is done as was decreed for Israel. Giving thanks in worship was a decree, was a command.
As modern people, you and I live in an age which can be called the “age of sensation”, the age of feeling. People today tend to want to live with feelings in the driver's seat of their life. And if you do that, you might start to think that it lacks authenticity to do something you do not feel like doing.
So we might wake up on Sunday morning and ask ourselves the question, “Do I feel like going to church this morning?” And perhaps we think it would be unhealthy to go if we do not feel like it. This way of thinking has a certain plausibility to it. After all, we do not want to be hypocrites, right? Don't hypocrites do things that are not from the heart?
But friends, this is a foolish way to think. First, you never need to ask whether you feel like doing something that God has commanded you to do. I mean, we might imagine a school teacher whose pupil is telling them that they did not feel like doing their homework this week.
Beloved, duty is not a bad word. When there is a duty to perform, you just do it. Biblically, we do things in the fear of God, but we also need to understand that feelings often follow obedience. It is not that they do not matter. It is just that they often do not come first.
Eugene Peterson is really helpful here. He writes, “But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.”
I think there is so much to be learned here from the older saints among us. If you are a young person here, you need to take the initiative to cultivate relationship with people much older than you for lots of reasons. It is not something specific that you need to find out. You just need to know someone who has been attending church perhaps for longer than you have been alive. That is really useful to you because they help you realise that you cannot possibly feel like going to church every Sunday for 50 years. You realise, that they were obeying a decree Sunday after Sunday after Sunday to give thanks to the name of the Lord, and trusting that their feelings would follow.
There are lots of application here for us. We want gladness, following obedience in worship and in life.
Now there is one last verse in the psalmist survey of the glory of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was not just a place to unify the people and giving thanks to the Lord. It is also a place where thrones for judgment were set, thrones for the house of David (Ps 122:5).
Now that word, “judgment” is justice, the just rule and reign that any human king was supposed to bring as God's appointed representative. So God had promised David in his house, meaning his descendants that they would always have a man to sit on the throne and rule. And God's people were meant to rejoice in that justice, in the goodness and glory of all that the king did.
So let us take stock of all this for a moment. I titled this point, “seeing the glory of the church”, but have been seeing the glory of Jerusalem. So let me explain.
When we move from the old covenant to the new covenant, the Old Testament to the New Testament, the location of God's dwelling with his people changes. Remember Jesus came on the scene and He said He was now God's temple. He said, destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days and they thought He was talking about the temple of Mount Zion and He was talking about his body.
So it is essential for you to understand if you are here this morning and you are not a Christian. What Christians believe is that we can only be reconciled to God in the person of Jesus Christ. Because He came and lived the righteous life that you and I should have lived but did not. And then He died a death on a cross that you and I deserve to die. God is able to forgive and pardon the sins of everyone who trusts in Him.
So Jesus becomes the way, the point at which any of us can be reconciled to God and have a relationship with Him. I pray that you will do that this morning if you have never trusted in Christ. But after His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven and sending His spirit on the day of Pentecost, the apostles start referring to the church as Jesus' body and the dwelling place of God on earth. So the church is now the temple.
Paul will write to the Corinthian church, don't you know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells within you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him for God's temple was holy and you are that temple.
And in Ephesians, he revels in the same kind of architectural imagery that we have in this soul. He says in Christ, the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him, meaning in Jesus, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by His spirit. So what Jerusalem was to the Israelite, the church is to the Christian.
You and I ought to read Psalms like this one, replacing Jerusalem with church. Now the church is a people, not a place, so there is some difference, Old Testament to New Testament. We often say “I'm going to church.” We should talk about the people as the church, not the location. But the church is the members of Grace Baptist Church. You are this holy temple in the Lord who is being built by God for a dwelling place by the spirit. So we should read the psalm and see the glory of the church in that way.
So beloved, see the glory of joy, the gladness to be in worship, come early. Don't get here after the Call to Worship. That makes no sense whatsoever. Come here before we are called to worship by God's word. Get here with enough time to pray a prayer and prepare your heart. And then come and say our feet are standing within your gates.
See the glory of fellowship, the binding together of fellow worshipers. Though in some ways we have so little in common, that makes our fellowship all the more sweet, all the more amazing.
See the glory of gratitude. We hve come to give thanks to the Lord for who He is and for what He has done.
See the glory of humility. We bow before the throne of Jesus, the son of David, the justice of His rule and His reign. He is our king. So our first point here is that we need to see these glories of the church, the gathered people of God.
Having seen these glories, what's the response?
Seek the good of the church (Ps 122:6-9)
I wonder if you can see that change here, a shift towards application. Two main responses to seeing the glory of the church — prayer and action.
First the prayer.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps 122:6). There are some who mainly use this first to encourage us to pray for the
modern nation state of Israel, especially the conflict in the Middle East. And that is a good and wonderful thing to pray for, especially with what is happening right now.
But this prayer is about something much deeper than that. When he says, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. There is a play on words that we miss in English. In Hebrew you are praying for the shalom of Jerusalem. You are praying for the peace of the city of peace. In our context it is praying for the peace for those who know the peace of God.
And notice that this shalom, this peace is comprehensive. First it is the peace of security from external forces. It says, may they be secure who love you (Ps 122:6b) and peace within your walls and your towers (Ps 122:7). So in view here are the defenses against physical attack of the city. We are praying for protection from external threats. There are forces from without that want to attack God's people.
Now the church as I said, is not a place with physical walls today but we can still think of attack from the outside. We should pray for Christians in places that are under physical attack like that.
But perhaps an even more dangerous attack from the outside is the barrage of lies that constantly come against us from the surrounding culture. Lies that say the truth is relative, that we cannot really determine what is true. Lies that say authority is not to be trusted and it is always bad. Lies that say love means affirming my moral choices, whatever they are, often simply affirming my chosen sexual morality. Lies that say sexual immorality is a light thing to be joked about and tolerated in the shows we watch and the music that we listen to.
Too often Christians are caught listening to and watching and believing lies that are a trap of the evil one. Lies assault the church just like ancient armies seeking to tear down the walls of the city. So God give us peace, deliver us from evil, from attack from the outside.
But notice it is not just peace from without. There is another kind of peace talked about there in Psalm 122:8 — peace within. One of the main ingredients, the success of any church, is internal peace.
If God's people are united in spirit, intent on one purpose, you can expect to that church to be filled with fruitfulness. People show up and they want to stick around and they don't even know why. Not yet Christians show up and they find something attractive that they just can't explain. People are growing spiritually because they're in an accepting and a forgiving place to grow. Some then start ministries — not the staff of the church, the members of the church are out there starting ministries, because the unity allows people to work together in all kinds of ways.
Internal peace is a source of a bounding fruitfulness.
On the other hand, there's strife and division. Different factions working against each other. These things are deadly to a church.
So, friend, are you committed to the peace of this body? I should probably ask first, are you committed to this body in the first place?
I was thinking that some today seem to think that church membership is something akin to gym membership — I would just be committed as long as it met my needs. I do not need unity with the others there and can just use the machine and wipe it off and move along.
The family of God is meant to be so much more than that. Your membership here is meant to matter in a deep and committed way. Why don't you show that commitment in your prayer life, praying for the unity of this church, showing up at prayer meeting and doing it corporately. Pray for peace from without and peace with it.
Now, notice in the last verse of the song that we have begun with prayer, but we do not end there. Do it. We end with action (Ps 122:9).
Now, his reason is for the sake of the house of the Lord our God. It is affection for God and worship of God that drives him. He does not say he particularly likes the other worshipers for their righteousness or their likeability or anything about them. He seeks the good of Jerusalem. We seek the good of the church because of God. We love the church because we love God.
I think this is a profoundly useful perspective for us friends. I often tell people that we seem nice enough as a church at first, but you should stick around. I mean, the church is filled with sinners. Eventually, you are going to get sinned against. There are going to be times when you show up with needs hoping that someone's going to encourage you and everybody around you just seems so busy. When you get overlooked, it is going to happen. There is no guarantee that you are going to find in the church that perfect place of service for you that uses all your gifts. I always wonder who is perfectly gifted for children's ministry?
Sometimes the pastors of the church are going to leave something to be desired. In spite of all that sort of stuff, for the sake of the Lord, your God, you can still seek the good of your church.
Isn't that encouraging? Say with the Psalmist, I will seek your good. That is pretty powerful.
Now, how do we do that practically? I want to close with four exhortations. How do you seek the good of the church? Four things.
Firstly, show up. The whole thing began with, let us go up to the house of the Lord (Ps 122:1). So you should resolve to be with the church, whenever it is meeting. There are 52 Sundays in a year. Resolve to gather with God's people 52 times. Now, there may be intervening times of sickness, and some of you may have deeds of necessity or mercy as the old creeds put it. But as far as it is up to you, resolve to show up. Plan your travel around gathering with God's people. Think about the gospel good that you could do by making sure that you're gathering with God's people on the Lord's day wherever you go. There is no vacation from church.
Secondly, serve. Serve the church. Do it officially and unofficially. Sign up for everything the deacons ask for. But beyond that, come each week with the idea that somebody here needs your help. Somebody needs an encouraging word. Somebody needs what you could offer. A word of counsel. Invite out to a meal or coffee. Do you serve?
Thirdly, bring others to attend. This seeks the good of the church by making sure there's a next generation of the church. Praise God, I think there are saints around us still from the Kampong Silat days. The rest of us are here because somebody brought us at some point in time, right? It is a baton that's been passed to us. And if we do not pass it, then in a generation or two, these seats are empty. So ask yourself, who can you invite to come to church?
We do not need studies and surveys for this, but studies tell us that 80% of people, Christian or non-Christian, say they would come to church if a friend invited them. So build relationships with that purpose, with that agenda in mind. Sometimes we get the idea that agenda is bad in relationships but there is a good agenda. Think about your neighbours. Think about your co-workers in that light. Be purposeful in building relationships and then take the step of faith to invite them.
Fourth, keep the peace by praying for the peace of your church. Work for the peace of your church. Are you a peacemaker? Well, how would you know? Well, first, you can think about when you are offended. Do you let stuff go or do you keep stuff going? Do you let stuff roll off you like water off a duck's back or do you brood over offenses? In Proverbs 17:4 we see that starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam. So drop the matter before a dispute breaks out. Dropping things is so powerful. It takes faith to drop things because you are entrusting it to the Lord's hand, whatever it is.
And peacemaking, is not just a negative command but there is a positive command too. In Romans 14:19, we are told to make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.
Spouses should apply this. If you are still bickering with your spouse about something that happened yesterday, you should stop. It is a sin. Let it go. Do what leads to peace and mutual edification in your marriage.
Siblings should apply this in families. If you are fighting with your brother or sister, say you are sorry to God. Do what leads to peace and mutual edification in your family.
We should all apply this in the church, starting with the person who is hardest for you. Realise that in every community you will ever be in, there's going to be that person, that person that's hardest for you for whatever reason. Think about them. And by the way, ignoring them does not fulfill this command.
Four exhortations — seek the good of the church, show up, serve, invite others, and keep the peace.
We should love God by making the church our home. We see its glories. Then we seek its good, praying for it and working for it in acts of service and keeping the peace and inviting others into it. All of this is good for us and God glorifying. It is our prayer and our work to what we should put our hand to.
But I anticipate a question here, because is a question I have asked myself — What do you do when you have sought to make the church your home and it does not feel like home? What do you do then? What if your experience of church does not match the joy expressed in the Psalm when it feels unsatisfying.
Sometimes we are not glad when someone says, let's go to the house of the Lord. Sometimes we feel distant from other people rather than being like a unified body that is bound closely together in thanksgiving and in worship. Sometimes those who love God do not feel secure and the peace that we pray for seems elusive amidst disagreement. Often we wonder about the throne of the anointed one. It feels remote along with the justice and righteousness it should bring.
What do we do when we do not feel at home here? Well, friends, that is when we need the words of the Saviour. Remember when the disciples were anxious because He told them that He was going to leave them? He said, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also.
He said in essence, I know that you will not feel at home until you are with me. Again, you will not feel fully at home here because you were made for another place.
The last chapters of the last book of the Bible, John the Apostle is taken in the spirit up to a great high mountain and he is shown the holy city, not the old Jerusalem, but the new one. The new Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven from God and he hears a voice. It is a voice that you and I, if we are in Christ, will hear again one day what is the voice say — “Behold now the dwelling place of God is with man”. I am sure that when we hear that voice, it will be like going down the street of your old neighbourhood. It will feel just like that because it in the end will feel like home and home beloved is where the heart is.
Let us pray together.