Psalm 122
I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
2 Our feet are standing
in your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is built like a city
that is closely compacted together.
4 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.
5 There the thrones for judgment stand,
the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my brothers and friends,
I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your prosperity.

INTRODUCTION

The third of the Psalms of Ascent,
Perhaps begins with two of the most surprising lines of any Psalm.

I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.
Psalm 122:1

The Psalmist is happy to be going to worship God.
And this is not just a local gathering that the Psalmist is going to,
This is a long journey to Jerusalem.

You can imagine the Israelites as they are on their way to Jerusalem,
The crown is getting larger as they come from all the villages and towns along the way,

And you can hear then calling to each other,
Let us go to the house of the Lord.

And this is what they are doing,
They are going together on this journey to meet with God.
Eugene Peterson captures a sense of this joy by translating this verse,
When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
Psalm 122:1

Do our hearts, leap for joy as we come to worship this morning?
Are we delighted to be on this journey with God’s people.

We are here this morning, because we want to be here.
No one is forcing us to gather here as a church.
So we are delighted to be coming together to worship.
So this is a Psalm that we can sing as a call to worship.
We sang it at the beginning of our service this morning, 
It is a Psalm where we call each other to worship God,
But more than that, this Psalm reminds us, what worship is all about.
It reminds us what happens when we worship God.

So we are happy to be worshipping God this morning,
But what happens when we worship?




WORSHIP - Gives Us A Framework For Life

Well firstly Worship gives us a framework for life.
Worship helps enables us to put all the pieces of our lives together in a way that makes sense.
Worship helps us reprioritise our lives,
So that we know what is important and what isn’t.

Worship on a Sunday, when we come together as the church,
reminds us that God is sovereign.
He is King and we are his subjects.
We all have worth, because Jesus has died for us.
And other people have worth because Jesus died for them.
We have no right to be angry or to keep bitterness in our hearts, if we are putting God first.

If you have ever watched someone cross stitching,
then you will have noticed, that before they place any stitches, they stretch the material over a frame.
The frame holds it tight, so that the stitches can be put in the right place and they will all fit together in the right way.

That is how worship works in our lives.
As we go to the house of the Lord,
Worship is the frame that holds our lives together in the right way,
So that when trouble comes, we know what to do with it.
When we face sickness, we don’t fall to pieces, but we know we can trust Jesus.
When someone lets us down or betrays us, we don’t seek revenge, because we see it in the perspective of knowing the love and forgiveness of Jesus.
We have experienced the grace of Jesus, and so we are ready to share that grace with others.

The pilgrims are on their way to Jerusalem,
And so as they sing this Psalm they are imagining what it will be like when they get there.

Our feet are standing
in your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is built like a city
that is closely compacted together.
Psalm 122:2,3

Jerusalem is well built and well structured.
Everything in the city points to the Temple on the height.
And everything in the Temple points to God.
Every part of our worship is closely compacted together to reveal God to us in a way that provides the framework for our lives.

WORSHIP - Gives Us A Desire For God

Secondly we see from the singing of this Psalm,
That Worship gives us a greater desire for God.

Some people when they come to church are satisfied by what they do.
They have a need for God, and an hour on a Sunday can meet that need for them.
Others are satisfied by a once a month visit to God.
But that is not how worship should work.

Worship should always leave us dissatisfied.
If we have truly met with God in this service,
Then we should leave wanting even more of God.

If any part of this service has given us even the smallest glimpse of God,
Then we should leave wanting even more.

The Israelites were not satisfied by one journey to the Temple.
In this Psalm they declared,

4 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.
Psalm 122:4

After one journey to the Temple,
They would be planning the next one.
After one visit to the Capital they would be counting down the days to the next visit.

“Jerusalem, this is where we go to praise God” - That is what they are singing.
We want more of God.
Worship should not satisfy,
Worship should always Whet the Appetite for God.
We should want more.

I remember when Bill Clinton came to Northern Ireland,
As President of the United States,
We lived reasonably close to  Aldergrove and I knew the route he would be travelling to Belfast.
So I went and stood at the side of the road to see the cavalcade go past.
I was then in Belfast at church house, and a crowd had gathered outside the Europa,
I had already seen the President driving past,
But now I want to see more.
I stood in line hoping to get a handshake.
He shook the hand of the person beside me and then turned and headed to his car,
But that didn’t satisfy it had merely whetted my appetite,
I waited at the road side to see him go back to the airport.
That is what Worship should do for us,

We should want more and more of God,
This is what we do to praise God.




WORSHIP - Gives Us God’s Decisions

Thirdly then Worship Gives us God’s Decisions.
If we are to live with God and worship Him, 
Then we need to know what God is saying to us.
We need to know what he wants us to do,

And worship brings us to that place.
Where we find out what God has decided about us.

Coming together for worship gives us the decisions of God, in a way that worshipping on our own does not,

Of course we could worship God alone.
And it is vital that we do that each day,
Spending a little bit of time listening to God and speaking to Him,
But when we come together we ear things that otherwise we would miss.

The Israelites knew this truth as they went to Jerusalem.
They could have stayed at home and read the bible and sung the Psalms.

But …

There the thrones for judgment stand,
the thrones of the house of David.
Psalm 122:5

It is in Jerusalem that God reveals His judgements.
His decisions for our lives.

When we come together to worship,
The word of God is all around as we seek his judgments and decisions from it.
In the Call to worship at the beginning and the benediction at the end we turn to the word of God.
As we sing, we use words that are based on God’s word,
As we read, it is the word of God that we have before us.
In the sermon we have God’s word to out situation.

Worship gives us the decisions of God. WORSHIP - Gives Us Peace & Prosperity

And finally we see that Worship brings us peace and prosperity.
If we want true life,
An abundant life.
Then we need the peace and prosperity that comes from Worshipping God together.

When we worship alone we can mould God any way that we want.
But when we worship together we have to see things from the perspective of others,
We get a wider view of who God is.

These two things that worship gives us are an interesting way to end this Psalm.
Peace and Prosperity in Hebrew are very similar words.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my brothers and friends,
I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your prosperity.
Psalm 122:6-9

Does worship really make any difference to the world outside of church?
Yes it does.
This is the transition into the real world.
As we worship ask for peace, because far too many people in this world are in turmoil.
Ask God for peace - Shalom.
This peace is hard to explain,
It is when everything in our lives exist in perfect balance.
It is when God pours out his grace upon us,
And his streams of living water flow out of us.

And also ask for Prosperity.
Not necessarily for prosperity in wealth,
But prosperity in a life that is blessed with the things of God.
Prosperity is Shalvah.

This prosperity is the knowledge that God is with us.
He is keeping us secure.
This is something that money cannot buy.
It can only come from Worship.

Worship gives us Shalom and Shalvah.

I would encourage you to mark this two words in some way,
So that when you come back to this Psalm you remember what it is about.



CONCLUSION


So are we leaping for joy,
When we come to the house of the Lord?
Are we rejoicing to be here today?

Worship provides the framework for life that we need to make sense of this world.
It whets our appetite for God, giving us a greater desire for Him.
It helps us understand God’s judgements and his will for our lives,
And it gives us Peace and Prosperity, something that we cannot get anywhere else.

US President.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and 
I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Abraham Lincoln


Worship is pausing to sharpen the axe before cutting the tree.

Psalm 120
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
2 Save me, O Lord, from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he do to you,
and what more besides, O deceitful tongue?
4 He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom tree.
5 Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
6 Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
7 I am a man of peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.


CALL TO WORSHIP


God poses an unusual question to us in Jeremiah 12

It comes in response to what Jeremiah has been saying to God.
See if you can relate to this, 
He is asking God,

Why is this life so hard?
Why could life not be a bit easier?
Look at the evil people, they seem to have all that they want and more,
However I’ve been faithful all my life and I seem to be getting nowhere.

God’s response seems harsh and hopeless
He says:

“If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
Jeremiah 12:5

God is saying,
You do realise that there is much more to life than you seem to understand?
You are trudging about in the ordinary and you are not coping very well.
Step out into the extra-ordinary and then you will have true life.
Take a step of faith and discover who I Am.

Now the first step of that journey is having our sins forgiven,
But that is not the end of the journey it is only the first step.

Do you want more from life?
Do you want to go on an adventure with God.
An adventure - Where you learn to trust Him more.
Where you reprioritise everything you do and own.

Then this morning, and over the next few weeks we are going on a journey together,
A journey that will take us step by step, higher and higher as we aim to reach God and meet Him face to face.

It will not be an easy journey,
But it is one that we can all make,
And at the end when you look back you will see things that you have never seen before.

It will require a commitment.
But if you are ready,
Then lets take the first step,

And commit our journey to God in prayer
Lets ask Him for “Journeying Mercies.”


​INTRODUCTION TO BIBLE READING

Our bible reading this morning is taken from the Psalms,
From Psalm 120.

And I want to introduce you to a little self contained book of songs in the Psalter.
Psalm 120 is the first of the Psalms of Ascent.

They are a collection of 15 Psalms that were used by pilgrims on their journey to meet with God.
Remember at the beginning, we asked if there was more to life than this.

Yes there is, and this is the first step.

These Psalms were used in at least a couple of different ways.
One use was on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

The Israelites would set off on a long journey to the Holy City to Worship God at the Temple.
It was a special journey,
And as the people would set off they would lift this little Book of Psalms and sing them along the way.
And with each song they would be getting closer to Jerusalem,
And closer to the Temple,
And also closer to God.
They were songs that would draw them closer to God.

The idea is that these are the Psalms of ascent,
They are climbing up to the City,
They are climbing up to the Temple,
But they are also climbing up to God.
We all have this desire to meet God and know Him and this is what we are doing over these next few weeks.

These Psalms were also used at the end of the journey.
When the pilgrims reach Jerusalem,
There are 15 steps up to the entrance of the Temple.
And as the people gather round to enter the Temple,
The Priests would climb, one step at a time, and the people and the priests would sing a Psalm on each step,
Until they reach the Temple and enter the presence of God.

Each song is very short so it is practical enough to sing on a step before climbing another one.

So lets read the Psalm together.
Admittedly this is a strange Psalm to begin with,
But the Psalmist is expressing his dissatisfaction with the world that he is living in.
He is saying that there must be more to life.
And he is saying, I’m in!
I’m so fed up with all the lying and fighting that I’m going to look for more.

So Lets read.







INTRODUCTION

So as we start off on this journey,
Do you want to be a Pilgrim or a Tourist?

What do I mean?
Well a Tourist, gets bused into all the exciting places.
A tour guide tells them the most interesting stories, and then they get back on the bus and head off to the next destination.
After a week or so, all the places start to blend into one,
Because they have not spent any length f time in any one spot.

But the Pilgrim, travels to the destination,
They may listen to the tour guide first of all,
But then they go exploring themselves.
They read, and explore and most of all they experience what is going on around them.
They spend time in the culture,
They spend time with the people,
And it changes them.
They remember the details because it is the details that have changed them.
They take their time and then they move on.

With this journey of ascent,
You can be a Pilgrim or a Tourist.
You can just arrive each Sunday and see the sights and then be ready to move on to the next service. 
Or you can be a pilgrim,
Taking your time,
Being immersed in the song and the journey.
Singing the song all week long.
Taking the same step over and over again, until it has changed you and transformed you.

I have been living with these songs for several months now.
We have been reading them in the prayer meeting each week,
And there is still so much to learn.
So as we study this Psalm, how do we start the journey?

I’m Distressed About Life

We start off this journey, the same way that anyone starts off on the Christian life.
We need to get to the point that we are distressed about the way that we are living.
And we need to realise that we cannot possibly carry on the way that we have been living.

We need to realise that we are sinful,
And that there is nothing we can do about it ourselves.
Our sin needs to worry us, so much, that we realise there is no way we can carry on the way we have been going.

We need to look at the world and realise that it is broken,
And new governments and campaign letters, and giving to charities, will never be enough on their own to put it right

And therefore, as the Psalmist says,
So we say this morning,

I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
Psalm 120:1

It is as simple as that to start on this journey.
Call out to God and He will answer.
Get to the point where there is nowhere else to go and cry out to God.

Eugene Peterson says:
“A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace.”
Eugene Peterson

Do we have such an appetite for the world of Grace?
Because if we do this is the journey that we should embark on.

I’m Fed Up With Lies

The second step on this journey is to say that we are fed up with the lies.
This Psalm is the song of someone who is sick of the lies
To sing this song we need to realise how many lies we hear on a daily basis.

Very few people seem capable of living in healthy relationships.
Things are not alright as they are.
We have been fed a very convincing lie,
That human beings are good and it is only a few who cause the problems.
But the Psalmist cries out to God in distress,

Save me, O Lord, from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he do to you,
and what more besides, O deceitful tongue.
Psalm 120:2-3

The truth is, we are living in a broken world.
We are not good with a few rough edges that need smoothed off,
We are sinful and broken.
We cannot save ourselves.

We need to admit this,
And reject the lies of the world.
We need to start living again in the truth of God’s word.




I’m Frightened Of Punishment

In verse four we say,
I’m frightened of punishment.

We realise the truth, of our sin,
We realise the consequences of our sin.
If we keep living this way,
Then punishment is coming and punishment is not something to be ignored or laughed off,
It is to be feared.

We say of God:

He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom tree.
Psalm 120:4

This is not pleasant,
This journey will lead us on the way to avoid this punishment.
This step of the journey, will set us on the right way.


I’m Going To Get Out

So we are distressed,
We realise the lies 
and we know that punishment is coming our way.

We need to say, I’m Going To Get Out.
We need to make that choice to leave the old ways behind.
And start afresh.

The Psalmist looks at his own life,
And realises the way that he has been living.
The people that he has been associating with.
And it is now time to stop.

Meshech and Kedar are two areas renowned as places where evil people live.
They are full of liars and cheats.
Robbers and delinquents.
And the Psalmist has quite happily lived among them

Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech,
that I live among the tents of Kedar.
Psalm 120:5

It would be like us looking at all our business associates, and suddenly realising that they are all cheats, and engaged in shady deals.
Or listening to the conversations of our friends and suddenly realising that they are full of gossip, and malicious gossip at that.
And we say, I’ve got to get out.
I can’t live like this anymore.
Because others just assume that I am from Meshech,
They think I was born and bred in Kedar. I’m Ready For Peace

So what is the alternative?
The alternative is peace.
We need to stand up and say I am ready for peace.

Peace comes in many different guises.
There is national peace, where we have no war.

But there is also inner peace,
Peace that comes from repentance.
From leaving the old life behind and setting off new.
Starting a new journey, 
In a new direction,
And telling everyone why you are doing it.

Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
7 I am a man of peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 120:6,7

Repentance is realising that what God wants from your life, will never be achieved by doing the same old things in the same old way.
Repentance is making a decision to follow Jesus and become a pilgrim with Him.
To confess the sins of the old life and receive His forgiveness.


CONCLUSION

So Pilgrim or Tourist?
What is it to be?

Will we just get excited by the sights this morning and then forget about the Lord’s table tonight.

Or are we ready to set out on a journey,
Unsure of where we might end up,
But realising that it is to a better place.

This is the first step of Ascent.
Climbing to reach God
Going up to the King of Kings.