We've got two readings this evening. The first one comes to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. I'm going to pick up the reading from verse number 18 down to the end of the chapter and then our second reading will come from Psalm 122. Hebrews 12 verse 18. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more. For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was this sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Zion. and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men, made perfect. And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of evil. See that you refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signify the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. And then turning over to Psalm 122, this is the third of this collection of Psalms entitled the Song of Degrees, And we read there, Psalm 122. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord, that 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 companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy goods. Amen. Well we're continuing to look at the songs that pilgrims sing and so far we looked at Psalm 120 that details the hostile environment in which we are traversing. It is a challenging place to be a believer in this world, to be a child of God, to be a pilgrim traversing this world of sin. There are many oppositions, there are many enemies and the reality of that struggle is made very apparent in that opening psalm. As a side note, surely the presence of such difficulties and such pressure and opposition should provide for us a great motivation in making progress in our journey to the internal rest for the believer. In our second song that we looked at in Psalm 122, we saw how we are sustained in that journey. The psalmist directs us to consider God and where our help comes from. We're not on some kind of orienteering expedition where we are given a destination, we're given a map, we're given a dodgy compass, and we've got to try and make our way to the end of the route. No, we find in Psalm 121 that God is with his people. God protects his people, he doesn't slumber, he doesn't sleep. And the Lord helps his people at the place and the time where they need it. And every aspect of doubt and problem, unbelief that may come in, the Lord provides for each and every situation. But this evening we're looking at the 122nd Psalm. And as we read it, there's a sense in which the pilgrim has already arrived. But there's also a sense in which we've still got to persevere. There's a sense in which we've arrived because you have the looking around Jerusalem, you're seeing all of the wonderful things that are there. And then there is an ongoing prayer for the health and the wellbeing of Zion and for its peace and prosperity. So there is a sense in which we are here but there's a sense in which we're also not here yet. I trust we'll understand that as we go through. Now Jerusalem features very heavily in this psalm, and Jerusalem as a city is a holy site for the world's three major monotheistic religions, that is Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is one of the most hotly contested sites in the world, a tiny region, a tiny place, and yet the world's focus and the world's religions are focused upon this place. Such is the sensitivity of it, the site is actually guarded not by Jews, but by Jordanians, and there is a detachment of Jordanian troops that govern and control and look after that site. Jerusalem is obviously the place where the temple was in place until it was destroyed in AD 70. For Christians, it is the place where Christ was crucified, but currently on the Temple Mount is a mosque which is referred to as the Dome of the Rock. And so this psalm is particularly relevant and poignant given the tensions that are very present in the Middle East at the present time. But Psalm 122 brings the holy city of Jerusalem to the pilgrim's eyes. There are two main aspects to this psalm that I want us to think about. One is the joy of Zion and the second is the prayer for Zion. So they have in the first place this joy of Zion. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. The psalm opens with this exciting call that the psalmist has received. He is rejoicing that others are with him, delighting, looking forward to, anticipating going to the house of God. And it thrills his heart and the others that are making this journey as well. They are eager, looking forward, anticipating going to Zion, going to the house of God. Augustine wrote about this infectious enthusiasm. He writes, come on, let's go, let's go. People talk to one another and catch fire with enthusiasm and all the separate flames unite into a single flame. The psalmist is burning bright, but with others around him, he will burn even brighter. If you have a coal fire, if you light one coal, not a lot of heat, not a lot of light will come from it, but if you put lots of coals together, they're all lit, you have a tremendous amount of light and heat as well. So he says, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. When we consider where the people of God are heading to, do we encourage or enthuse or excite others of the common destination that we are heading to? It ought to be a mark of believers that we are encouragers of other believers. The Lord hasn't called us to be isolationist pilgrims. By that I mean we're on our own. We do it our way as we see fit. The Lord has called us to follow him, but he's placed us in a pilgrimage community. The Lord has saved and when he saves he then adds to the church. The church in the New Testament is described as being the body but here the picture is of a band of pilgrims moving and journeying together. How could we encourage other believers? How could the pilgrims here in Psalm 122 encourage each other, knowing that the journey is long, knowing that the path is hard, knowing that the enemies are all around? Well, they could be encouraging them as each other by saying, well, it's not long now. We will soon be at our destination. We might encourage our brothers and sisters by saying, well, don't dwell upon the present, think about where we're going. Think about the end, not necessarily upon the immediate issues. We might encourage our brothers and sisters, and they may have been encouraged here by saying, well, look at where you've come from to where you are now. And that can be an encouragement. You might say, well, look at where you were, look at what you've been delivered from. It may be that somebody comes and says, well, could I help you? These are all things by which we can encourage one another. And we also need help from others if we find ourselves heading in a wrong direction. If we were making a journey of any significant length, and you were with somebody else, you'd talk to them, you'd encourage them, and you would help them. The writer to the Ecclesiastes puts it this way, Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. The Lord's design for his people that he has saved, that he has redeemed, that he has purchased with his own blood, is that they belong and are part of the church, of course, which has its local expressions. When we think about how we gather and how we come together as God's people, how do we come? Do we have that sense of enthusiasm? This is the highlight of the week, perhaps. Do we come with expectancy that we are going to meet with God? Do we come with visible joy on our faces? Or do we look as if this is the worst thing in the world to be doing? Do we come as if we had preferred to be anywhere else and doing anything else? As we gather week by week we are having as it were staging posts on our journey to glory. Each week we're reminding ourselves of where we've come from and where we're heading to and how the Lord has dealt with us and as we go into the next week we are then going forward in the strength of that looking forward to the next staging post of the Lord's day. So the anticipation for these pilgrims and these verses is of arriving in Jerusalem. So why was Jerusalem so special for the pilgrims here? Well it was the place where Isaac had been offered to God and where God had provided the alternate ram. The Lord gave the sacrifice and Isaac was spared. You move through the centuries and it was where the temple would be situated, it would be where the Ark of the Covenant would be established, it was the seat of government and the place of national worship, and it was the place where God had chosen to dwell. If you think back to 2 Chronicles chapter 7, where the temple is dedicated, there the fire of God comes down, and God visibly fills that house. in Haggai, now many centuries later, the children of Israel have been into exile, they've now returned, and there is some dismay that the temple isn't as grand as Solomon's. And Haggai comes with this encouragement about how God, the Lord would appear, the glory of the Lord would appear in the temple, and he would be the desire of all nations. And that's talking about the coming of Christ, the Messiah. And although the Jews by and large rejected or missed the coming of the Messiah, nevertheless, he came and his glory was seen. He was crucified outside of the city wall. That doesn't sound very glorious. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. Again, not very glorious. But then we read, and then we know he was raised on the third day in power and majesty. We read in Romans how that he is a son of God with power when he rises from the dead. And so Jerusalem is seen for the people of God as being that place of congregating, that place of meeting, that place of having fellowship and communion with God. And it's where the gospel would emanate out from. The gospel would start in Jerusalem and eventually end up to the uttermost parts of the world. With that in mind, Imagine the pilgrim's feelings and delight as they catch that first sight of Jerusalem. There they are, they've been walking perhaps for many hours, perhaps even days, they're thirsty, they're hungry, they're tired, it's very dry and arid, feet aching, and then they catch a glimpse of where they're heading to Jerusalem. Perhaps you've been on a journey and you have gone in some particularly nice part of the world and you've turned a corner and suddenly a view opens up before you and you sort of say well wow that is amazing. Well, that is something for what the pilgrims would have experienced here. As they come up, they discover and they see Jerusalem, the city that they have been anticipating. Furthermore, we read that they say, our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. They have arrived. They have finally reached their destination. that time of anticipation is now ended and realization has come to pass. I don't know whether you've ever seen footage on the TV of hostages that have been released, perhaps from a foreign country. and when they come in the military planes and they land perhaps at Bryze Norton or some other military base, they get out of the plane and the first thing they do is sort of kiss the ground because they're so delighted to be home. They are no longer aliens in a foreign land but they're now citizens of their own country. And here the pilgrim is saying, our feet shall stand within thy gates. If we consider heaven, Imagine that first moment when death has passed and now the beauty and the wonder and the glory of heaven opens up before us. Imagine the joy of realizing that you will have when you discover and when you comprehend that this is yours because of what the Lord has done for you. This is for you because of what Christ has accomplished on your behalf. Imagine that scene when you gather with all of God's people and you worship him. It won't be there that you think, well, I'm good and I have some kind of right to be there. It will not be any boastful, proud arrogance. but rather a holy wonder that we are here with other of God's redeemed people. God has been so good, and as the hymn writer John Kent puts it, on such love, my soul still ponder, love so great, so rich and free, say while lost in holy wonder, why, O Lord, such love to me, hallelujah, hallelujah, grace shall reign eternity. The psalmist is delighting in the fact that his feet are within the gates of Jerusalem. He's arrived. And then in verse three, you discover the kind of things that he sees. He says this, Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together. The psalmist is surveying the city. It's a city that is compact together. It's not so vast that the pilgrims feel isolated and alone. It is compact. Everything is together. There's a kind of intimacy with it. And I don't know whether you've ever been in a group of large gathering of people. but it can be very lonely and very overwhelming in such environments. It may seem daunting, but not for the pilgrim here comprehending Zion and comprehending Jerusalem. It is compact together. Now with that we don't have the idea everything is squeezed in, that it's no room for anybody, that we're all hemmed in and it's all claustrophobic, but it's close, it's convenient, it's homely. Notice how it is a city that has been built. Again, it's not in ruins. Jerusalem, for much of its history, has been in ruins. And yet here, it is a city that has been built. It's also protected. Yes, there is the enemy outside, but inside they are safe from perils. They have made that journey through perilous regions. The enemy is outside, but now they are safely in Zion. When we translate this to heaven, again there is a vastness to it, but also a wonderful closeness about it as well. It won't be a case that we are lost in the crowd, it won't be a case that nobody speaks to us, it won't be a case that we are missed and we're overlooked and we're ignored. We will have our place, we'll be there numbered, we will be wanted, we will be loved, And the church, this side of glory, will ought to reflect that in this world, that every believer has a part to play, every believer is appreciated, loved and ministered to, every believer has a God-given gift which they are to use for his glory and for the extension of his kingdom. Nobody should feel lonely or outside in the church if they are a believer. If they're an unbeliever there may be a sense in which they realize they don't have what the people of God has, but for the believer in the church they shouldn't feel like they have nothing to offer and that they are an outsider. The church, like Zion here, should be a place of safety and security, a place where they are protected and they feel safe. Sometimes when we pray, and particularly at the prayer meeting, many of you have said about the midweek meeting being an oasis in a desert land, and that is what Jerusalem is like. It is a place of protection, a place of supply, in a place which has been very barren and very difficult. When we come as the Lord's people, we come apart from the battle. We come apart from the pressures of life. We come apart to have our souls nourished and strengthened as we then face our new challenges in the week before us. Then you come to verse four and you see this. Why do the people of God head to Jerusalem? Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testament 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. The people are here coming to give thanks to God. That is why they have come. That is why they have made this journey. And this is why they are appearing in this way. they are coming to Jerusalem, and in their coming and in their praising, they are testifying that God's covenantal dealings with them have been fulfilled. God, you will remember, had appeared to Abraham, then to Isaac, and then to Jacob. He had bound himself or covenanted himself with them to make that family a great nation. And through that nation, one of their seeds would be raised up, who would be for the blessing of the whole world. Through the nation of Israel, the Messiah has come. Through the nation of Israel, the saviour of sinners has arrived. And as the children of Israel would go up, make their journey, appear before God, praise God, they are declaring that God has been faithful to them. They were the testimony or the evidence of his work upon them. Again we see something else, we see the heading to Jerusalem for the seat of authority, for there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. God had promised to David that one would sit on his throne who would reign forever. And that one would be given all power, all authority, his kingdom would know no end. The Lord Jesus Christ, at the last time he speaks before he ascends to heaven, declares how he has been given all power and all authority. And then in the book of the Revelation, you see him being described as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The children of Israel are going to Jerusalem to acknowledge the authority of God and the expectation of the coming Messiah. When we think about this for us, when we gather in heaven as God's people, we'll be there praising God and testifying that the salvation that he has put in place has worked. The salvation that he has instructed and ordained has been fruitful in our lives. We will be testimony of that redemptive work. We are the evidence that Christ has saved. And in heaven, we will be praising to that effect. And we will come to that throne, we will acknowledge the kingship of Christ and give him the authority that is due. We'll take our crowns off and put them at his feet. And so we have these things that are here for our instruction and the people go up to Jerusalem to praise God, to worship him and to submit to his authority and power. the life of the local church is exactly the same. We gather week by week, we're testifying what God has done. Why do we have the Lord's Supper? We are remembering that Jesus has died for us, his body broken, his blood being shed. Why do we have the ordinance of baptism? It's that picture of what has happened in the life of the believer and the gospel of Christ is being testified to the world as we gather week by week that it is effective and it saves. And as we come together, we give God the glory, we submit to his word, and we give Christ the preeminence in all things, and we're anticipating the glory that will await us. So the church here on earth should exhibit these signs. that they are a testimony of what God has done for sinners. If people come into us and they are left with the impression that we are good people and we're going to heaven because we're better than other people, then our witness and our testimony is all wrong. Our testimony should be that we are sinners and God has had mercy. As people come in, they should see that we are praising God. and not men. We are putting God on that highest throne and not men in any way. And the authority for the church is Christ and his words. And if our authority is somewhere else, that should not be seen in the life of the local church. Well, more briefly, let us look to the second part, the prayer for Zion. The second part demonstrates that we're not yet home. It's not yet complete, because if it were complete, then we wouldn't need to pray for peace, because peace would have come. We wouldn't be praying for prosperity, because there would be the fullness already. We wouldn't be seeking the goods, that would have already occurred. Jerusalem is a picture of a future city. We read from Hebrews 12, But ye have come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men, made perfect. We are heading to this future, to this glorious Zion. The temple, the sacrifices, the priests, the old Levitical system, they were not an end in themselves. They were shadowing, they were a type of something better and something more perfect that would follow. And here in the second part of the psalm, the psalmist is acknowledging the not yet. That although we are looking with one level at the church and what's happening now, we're also looking to the church made glorious. And so the psalmist has prayer in his heart for the good, the prosperity and the peace of Zion. Firstly, peace. He prays for peace for Zion. 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 companions' sakes, I will now say, peace be within thee. We don't need to have a very deep knowledge of church history. We don't even need to look too far away at church history in our own congregation and see that problems have come upon the church. Sometimes the problems have originated from outside. Heresies have tried to come in. Forced teaching has tried to come in. Problems in that regard have attempted to cause conflict for the people of God. It may come in the form of persecution, it may come in the form of harassment, it may come in the form of trouble, but the problems can come from outside. And so the psalmist rightly is praying that we may know peace of Jerusalem, that Zion, the people of God, may know peace. But also we see here, pray for the peace of Jerusalem and peace be within thy walls. We find that peace is not a guarantee in and amongst the people of God. There are problems that can originate from within. I was looking through the church records and a very sad period in the church's history. We had some land that seemed and the canal was being built through the middle of it. The deacon at the time, he oversaw that, he sold the land off, he pocketed the money and instead of the money coming back to the church to support the pastor as to how the deed was set up, he kept it and set up a new church and paid a new man. And so there were problems that were within. He didn't like what was being done and he took it upon himself to do what he wanted. And that was a very dark period in the church's history as to how the church navigated that issue and navigated that situation. Well eventually the money was retrieved and that is why the church has had the gallery built and the front of the church here erected as well. But in the life of the church we can have conflicts within believers and amongst believers. There can be hostility, there can be unkindness, There can be no love, there can be disregard, carelessness, pride, arrogance, stubbornness, self-will. All of these things can disturb and wreck the peace of the local church. And the psalmist is praying for the peace within thy walls. There is a joy though in that there's a day coming when there will be no more schism, there will be no more discord, but for the present time we're called to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the peace within her walls. Another aspect that we are to pray for is prosperity. That comes in verse seven, prosperity within thy palaces. It also speaks about those who pray for the peace within the walls will have prosperity and seeking the goods of Zion. Now, what does that mean? Do we pray that all the church members are made multimillionaires? Well, that might be nice, but no, that's not what this means. it is meaning the good and the prospering of the Church. In other words, the Word of God going out, the Kingdom of Christ being extended, souls being saved and transformed, the Church growing, the lost being reached, the people of God changed to reflect the beauty and the wonder of Christ. And as we look within, as we look at ourselves, we see that there's such a work still to do, that work of sanctifying, that work of making us more Christ-like, there is so much work the Spirit has to do within us. And as we look out and we see the vastness of the unbelieving world, there's such a work that is yet to be done, the kingdom to be extended and the kingdom to prosper. So this is the prayer for Zion, peace and prosperity. Well, when we get to heaven, and we will be there by the grace of God, We won't see the church in ruin, in dilapidation. It won't be beset with strife and difficulty. It will be the church made perfect, the church triumphant in glory. No spot, no wrinkle, no blemish, nothing that defiles, made perfect, presented and prepared for the bridegroom Christ. There's a sense in which we have heaven brought to us here, but we're not there yet. And each week as we gather, as we go up to the house of God, we have, as it were, our staging posts on our way to glory. Amen. May God bless his words.