9/7/08 - Liturgy Sunday - Psalm 122

TAKE PRIDE IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
- This is where he speaks his truth
- This is where we praise his name

There is a good reason why we are looking at Psalm 122 on a day like today. Because Psalm 122 was part of the liturgy of the Old Testament. It was part of the set form of worship for Old Testament believers. We know that because of the psalm’s heading. It’s not in your bulletin, but if you were to look at Psalm 122 in the Bible, the heading would read “A song of ascents.” If fact, Psalm 122 is in a group of 15 psalms that all begin with that same title. And the most probable explanation of this heading is that these were psalms written for the people to sing or recite as they “ascended,” as they went up to the city of Jerusalem for the three major festivals each year. This is the most probable explanation because of the content of the psalms and because when the Bible describes the people going up to the city of Jerusalem at these specific times, it says they “ascended” to the house of the Lord. And after reading through Psalm 122 it is clear why it is included in this group: the entire psalm speaks of Jerusalem and entering the place of worship. It depicts that joy those believers had as they approached God’s house. It contains a prayer for the city of Jerusalem in which God’s house sat. And it exudes a Christian pride for the house of the Lord and the words of the Lord they were about to hear there.
The believers back then were proud of the house of the Lord. Something that we don’t really share for the house of the Lord today. We aren’t as proud of the spaces in which we worship as they were back then. And there are a couple legitimate reasons for that. One, we don’t have just one house of the Lord now. In Old Testament times the only house of the Lord was in Jerusalem - that was it. And so the “house of the Lord” took on a very special meaning for them. And secondly, we don’t share that same pride in God’s house as they did in Old Testament times because there are no New Testament mandates that command all believers to travel to one specific house of the Lord three times a year for special worship services. We stay in our own areas for the most part because we have many different churches in many different places and each one can rightly be called “a house of the Lord.” Our situation is much different than that of the Old Testament believers. Our worship life is much different. But I’m not so sure that gives us an excuse not to be just as proud of our house of God here as believers were 3000 years ago in the land of Israel.
Are you proud of this house? Are you proud of this house of God that we are worshiping in right now? I would be surprised if you have ever described your feelings for this storefront in that way. In fact, it’s usually just the opposite. When you are talking to a visitor or a neighbor or a friend you usually say something like, “Well, we worship in a storefront right now, but we have property and we’re hoping to build a brand-new church building by next year.” And I say similar things, too. And although that may be true, that doesn’t show a lot of pride in the house of God we have right now, does it? We certainly don’t have the same kind of pride the Old Testament believers had for their house of God. “But it’s not the same,” you might say. “The house of God we have and the house of God those Old Testament Israelites had are completely different! They had that magnificent temple filled with gold and silver and jewels and engravings and cedar and expensive fabric and elaborate sculptures. Of course, they would be proud of that! We don’t have anything even close to that structure the Lord had blessed them with!”
But wait a minute. That’s not exactly true. Our house of God isn’t that much different at all from the house of God mentioned in this psalm. Because there is another part to the heading of Psalm 122. It says, “A song of ascents. Of David.” King David was the author of this particular psalm. And why is that so significant? Because who built that magnificent temple? Not David and not anyone before him. His son Solomon built the temple after David had died. And so when David wrote this psalm and expressed his joyful pride in “the house of the Lord,” it wasn’t a house at all. It wasn’t a building. It was still a tent. The house of God he was so proud of was a tent! It was the tabernacle, the over-sized tent that the Lord had commanded the Israelites to construct. And yet throughout this psalm David and the people are proud of the house of the Lord. They rejoiced in their house of the Lord! Certainly not because it was so beautiful. Not because it was an extravagant work of art filled with gold and precious stones. They didn’t rejoice in the house of the Lord because of how it looked on the outside, but because of the truth they saw and heard on the inside.
So why shouldn’t we be just as proud? Every Sunday when we meet here in our house of God we also hear the exact same truth. We listen to God’s glorious gospel about Christ and the cross. We are filled with his words and the Holy Spirit strengthens our faith through his words. Why shouldn’t we be just as proud? We get together with fellow brothers and sisters. We sing, we pray, we confess our faith together in the Lord and the truth of his Word. Why shouldn’t we be just as proud of the place in which we gather? And when we’re not - when we’re not proud of this house of God - what does that say about where are pride lies? In a beautiful church building? In a large congregation? In a new pre-school? In a nice fellowship area? In a new location? In the externals? Now those are certainly things we should thank God for if and when he gives them to us. And it’d even be all right to be proud of those blessings that the Lord might give us. But shame on us if we are not proud already. Shame on me for looking so intently on where I want us to be that I sometimes forget where we already are. Shame on us for not being proud of this house of God. Because a house of God is not determined by how it looks on the outside, but by what is spoken within. And inside this house of God nothing but the truth is heard.
The truth inside this house is why we can be proud. Because the truth is why we’re forgiven. The truth of the Bible tells us: “Yes, you are sinners. Yes, you do deserve to go to hell for who you are. But you are also forgiven by Christ on the cross. And so you will undeservedly go to heaven.” That is the simple truth. And we have it! And not only do we have that simple life-giving gospel truth, we also have the entire truth of all of Scripture. No book, no person, no tradition, no office is added to the truth of God’s Word in this house. No teaching, no sin, no command is taken away from the truth of God’s Word in this house. No word, no phrase, no sentence is twisted or changed or misconstrued to fit my opinions or your opinions or anyone else’s opinions in this house. We have the truth. Pure, unchanging, and absolutely beautiful! We have a clear picture of our sinfulness in all its horror. And we have a clear picture of Christ in all his glory. We have the truth! Be proud of that. And be proud of the house in which you hear it every week.
And that’s actually the 1st and most important part of our liturgy: God speaking the truth to us. And he does that in the Scripture readings, the announcement of the forgiveness of sins after our confession, in the sermon, in the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and in the blessing at the end of the service. That’s the main meat of every one of our services. But the second part of our liturgy is also very important. It consists of our praise to God. In the hymns, in the prayers, in the offerings, in the confessions - we are praising the name of the Lord for everything that he has done and everything that he will do. And so a worship service in our circles goes both ways: God gives us his truth and forgiveness and love, and we give him our thanks and praise. That’s why we can be proud of this house. Because that’s what happens here every week. Just like it happened in David’s time. Those believers heard the truth and they responded with praise in the house of the Lord. “That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, to praise the name of the LORD.”
The Old Testament Israelites praised the name of the Lord in many different ways when they were at God’s house. They sang psalms, of course. The played tambourines, lutes, drums, and harps. Sometimes they even danced. And they always sacrificed. There were different ways they praised the name of the Lord at different times for what he had done and what he had promised to do. And even though the house of the Lord was just a tent back then, and even though the city they all flocked to three times a year was only a little more than a half mile long and about 200 yards wide at the time of David, they were proud of it. For those who did make the trip, for those who did faithfully carry out God’s commands, they were proud of their Lord and they were proud of the house that carried his name.
By human standards we have a less than spectacular house of the Lord here too, located in a town that is small enough to still be called a “town.” But just like David and the Israelites, we can be proud. Proud of the truth we hear in this building through the sermons and readings and sacraments. Proud of the name we praise in this building through the hymns and prayers and offerings. Proud of the Lord who occupies this building because his Word is present. And proud that just as he this house bears his name, we do too. Be proud of what we have. Be proud of where we are. Because we have everything a house of the Lord really needs: the Lord himself. That’s why David wrote Psalm 122 in honor of a tent. And that’s why you can say the first verse of that psalm with David every week you come here: “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”
Amen.

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ Praise the Lord.” - Psalm 106:48