So turn with me to Psalm 84. Familiar and beautiful psalm. I will sing it following the sermon. It is a marvelous reflection of the people of the Lord. This is God's very own word. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a nest, and the swallow finds a nest for herself, where she may lay her young at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion, As they go through the valley of Bacchae, they make it a place of springs. The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold our shield, O God. Look on the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a son and a shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you. Then turn forward to Revelation, the revelation of John, the 21st chapter. We'll read here the first seven verses. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as they're gone. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. Then this morning we'll also take up the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 38, concerning the fourth commandment. Lord's Day 38, this is on page 52 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. So begin the Lord's Day together. felt it was fitting to take up the fourth commandment. Having heard the law of God already this morning, now we come to study in more detail the fourth commandment. Page 52, question 103. What is God's will for us in the fourth commandment? First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God's people to learn what God's word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways. Let the Lord work in me through his spirit and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath. People of the Lord our God, the assembly of God's people for worship is a major part of the way in which we honor the fourth commandment. This truth emerges clearly as we hear the exhortation of the writer to the Hebrews to be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. We want to set Psalm 84 in its meditation, its reflection on the glory of God, the splendor of His dwelling place. light of the exhortation of the Hebrews to offer to God acceptable worship. For truly that is what Psalm 84 is doing. It is offering acceptable worship with reverence and awe and the recognition that our God is a consuming fire. This is why we take the word of God so seriously. This is why we take the commands of the Lord so seriously. Similarly, we're told in Hebrews chapter 10 to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near. That's where Psalm 84, with its companion testimony of future glory in Revelation 21, serves as a moving description of assembling before God in the place where God meets His people together. One way to think about it is in a sense of narrow, broad, and narrow again. What do we mean? Narrow, broad, and then narrow again. Well, the old covenant Israelites could see in the tabernacle in the wilderness, and then later in the temple in Jerusalem, the narrow or the particular dwelling place of the Lord God among them. This narrow location in the temple in Jerusalem was the epitome of his presence. You could say the pinnacle of his presence with them as their Lord and protector. You think of the Psalms to say, I lift up my eyes to the mountain. I look to the dwelling place of the Lord, my God, that identification of a, of a narrow spot, a place where they knew the Lord God was among them. Then broad is, is what we describe in the, in the new covenant era that we live in right now, we face a distinctive reality where the presence of God has made known in the broad distribution of temples around the world. What do we mean by that? Well, we know that the Christian believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and therefore it's not one temple in Jerusalem, but it is temples spread around the whole world, broadly scattered in every place. We're found in every corner, and so there's no one particular focal point that we look to when we think of the dwelling place of God on earth. Or when we read Psalm 84, its description of the dwelling place of God, its reflections on the glory of serving in the temple of the Lord, we recognize there is something distinctive about our place now, that we are the dwelling place of God and that we are in service of the Lord, not in some temple court, but in daily service. in the carrying out of the tasks, the commission the Lord has given to us. And so that's the broad sense. So we've gone narrowly the temple being in Jerusalem to broadly the temple being everywhere that the people of God are. And now we come again narrowly in the age to come as described in Revelation 21, when the whole city will be a temple because God will be among them as the holy city and temple of God. It's temple, as Revelation 21 says, is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb. The dwelling place will be God revealed in glory and splendor in a way that we do not yet see him. All of those things are set before us as we reflect also on the fourth commandment, what it means to honor the day of rest and to gather for the assembly of God's people. And it's set before us in certain respects to show how good it is, how pleasant it is, how filling it is for us to worship God together. In certain respects, Psalm 84 is being used as the text this morning, using it not as a club, not as a bludgeon, not as a blunt instrument to say, you must be there, but rather to persuasively set forth, as God does in his word, that we should desire to. It is a good thing. We do not need to be twisted, cajoled and pushed into going to worship, but that it is a beautiful thing. It is a delighting thing. It is a filling and fulfilling thing. And so Psalm 84 brings to mind so much of what we long for close, intimate fellowship with God. But truly, we often turn away from this too, don't we? It's a description of worship that is with God's people and for God's glory and honor. Psalm 94 is a sacred call to the blessed assembly and anticipation and expectation of a greater day which awaits us when we shall be presented in the most holy place of our Lord in the new heavens and the new earth. And until that day, we set aside this sacred day to keep it holy and a day set apart unto the Lord. resting from our daily labors and rejoicing in the finished work of Jesus Christ for us. So as part of our study of the fourth commandment, we'll set God's command to us in context, its purpose for us. Psalm 84 shows us the outcome, the effect of the accumulation of days of rest and gladness. What does honoring the Lord's day do to a person? What does accumulating this many days of rest every seventh day, resting and worshiping, what does that do? You see it in the words of the psalmist. You see it in the delight of the heart expressed there. The effect of Sabbath rest and sacred worship is this loving devotion to the Lord and a hunger for his word and presence. Do we know that? Do we experience that? same sense of hunger for his word and his presence and a desire to gather together with those who are similarly swept up in what God is doing. This morning we see that it is in the blessed assembly of God's people where the house of God is revealed more fully. our first point, where the peace of God is announced more clearly, our second point, and thirdly, where the path of God is shown more powerfully. So the house of God, the peace of God, and the path of God, all made known in the blessed assembly of God's people. For the psalmist describes the temple dwelling of God, the house of God among his people in the old covenant, first as the tabernacle, later as the temple of Solomon, and he says, how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts. The Israelites knew that their God was present in the temple for them. Though he was in no way limited by space or time, being almighty God is the faithful cry in Psalm 8. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. God was not bound or limited to the temple, but he said, I am with you and I am present in this dwelling place. And the psalmist says, how lovely. is your temple, is your dwelling place, O Lord. To teach the Israelites and nurture them in their worship, God descended in cloud upon the holy temple in Jerusalem in the days of Solomon, to usher in the times of dwelling among them. There's times where, as new covenant believers, it would almost be more uplifting at times, doesn't it feel? If we knew where exactly God was, if there was one place, that we could pilgrimage to or one place that we could look to one place we could set a webcam on, and that was God's dwelling place. But it is not so. And so when we cry, Lord, my soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord, my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. There it is clear that the psalmist is meditating on the temple of the Lord. We know that we ourselves are being caught up, swept up into that spiritual expectation, that spiritual longing, yearning for the revelation of God in Christ. With the same recognition, identification of ourselves as the very dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, God among us. And from our study of the Old Testament, we know that the Lord gave a commandment for Solomon to build a temple in Jerusalem. He gave him very precise instructions. And Moses had received the rituals of God's people in the old covenant. And they were designed to serve as symbols of the gospel and as assurances of God's forgiveness and redeeming love. Each time that blood was spilled in the temple in Jerusalem, the people were reminded of their sins and reminded of God's promise to wipe away every sin, to take away all reproach, to set captives free and give life to the dead. God was telling them a day of rest is coming. As you see already, your freedom, you're being set free from your sin. And so every seventh day for the people of Israel was the Sabbath rest of the people of God. A focus in particular on the dwelling place of God, drawing attention to the temple of God, where the Lord of the Sabbath made his dwelling among them. A day of rest to honor the God who rested on the seventh day from all his labors in creation. All throughout the Old Testament, there were these pointed reminders for the Israelites to remember the mighty deeds of God. The mighty deeds of old and to tell them to their children, to declare the greatness of the Lord, their God, and to make known his deeds among them. We know that the Lord appointed priests for the purpose not only of offering sacrifices, not only of purifying the people, but also to teach. They were the ones instructed to teach the word of God given through Moses and to make these things known. And so they taught and the parents taught all were caught up in this effort to hear the word, to receive the word and to meditate on it. And so they did. And the psalmist is doing that in Psalm 84, extolling God and worshiping him for all the blessings which had been received. And our worship today is no different. I want us to see that. It's just as necessary. It's just as loaded with meaning. We pack our services with the persuasive and powerful word of God for us as we are ushered into his presence. to acknowledge his claim on us and our responsibility to him. That's why we begin the service with a call to worship. And we believe and understand that this call comes from our God when he says, come worship, bring worship. Each day we are to worship the Lord, our God. Yet, because we are forgetful, because we are often in need of a reminder, we begin our corporate worship services together. Our blessed assembly begins. Come, let us worship. Let us kneel and bow down before the Lord, our maker, singing songs of praise, meditating on his word. This is for us the meditation or the assembly of God's people meditating on the word, seeing that we are in the presence, the dwelling place of the Lord, our God, that he is with us. That it's an assembly, you could say, of dwelling places of God. And as the psalmist realizes, this has huge implications for how we worship. Our hearts, as he says, my soul longs, it faints for you, O God. Become more and more stirred up in love and devotion to the Lord, our God, as we assemble regularly together. That's the message of Hebrews, right? That we're not to neglect the regular assembly because we are to learn, we grow, we come to see more clearly how we are to love one another. In short, we are fed and enabled by God in the regular assembly of God's people. We come to the feast which is prepared for us in the word and in the sacraments. So to stress the point, we don't go to a temple, we go to the gathering. We go to the ecclesia, which is the congregation. Each Lord's Sunday, each Lord's Day rather, to be fed and enabled to grow in the spirit. And so do we hear the heart of one in the psalm here who's feasting on the word of God and the message of hope made known to God's people. My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of my Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Worship and delight and desire go together. As the prophet Isaiah says, blessed are those who call the Sabbath a delight. Do we long to assemble for worship? At 830 in the morning. A cold day when you have to wait for your car to warm up. Or do we desire to have a day set aside for the gospel ministry and instruction in the Word? Or do we at times look at it longingly and say, man, I could get a lot more done if I use that day too. Or what if I made this a multiple choice day? I get to pick what I want to do. Do we enjoy the Lord's day as a festive day of rest? Notice the focus of the catechism there, that it is a festive day of rest. Boys and girls, what does it mean for it to be festive? Well, it's like a party. You ever think of church like a party, a celebration? It's not a birthday party. It's a resurrection party, a festive day of rest. And what does it feature? The lively preaching of God's word to learn what God's word teaches. We participate in the sacraments. We pray to God publicly and we bring Christian offerings for the poor. That's what we do as we assemble. That's what we do as we keep the fourth commandment. And it all serves, as the Lord is showing us, as a foretaste of heavenly rest, as a preview of the great assembly, the greater assembly, the grand party that will be the most incredible thing we will experience for eternity. A thronging multitude worshiping the Lord, set free in the sacrifice of the Lamb, receiving wine and bread and all of these things without cost. delighting in Christ. The psalmist reflects in the next two verses on the very naturalness, the properness of what God has done for his people. He says, just as the sparrow finds a home, and just as the swallow finds a nest for herself, where she might lay her young. Who's caused that? God did. Remember, God created the swallows. He's created the sparrows. And the psalmist is saying, just as you showed them how to create a home, how to create a nest, how to care for her young. So Lord, you do the same thing for us. And it's awesome. At your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God, blessed are those who dwell in your house. Doing what? Ever singing your praise. He says, just as it's so good for the sparrow to have a home, for the swallow to have a nest, for her to nurture her young. So for the people of God, we have something awesome, a place, altars of the living God, where we can sing his praise, to dwell in his house, his house among us. in his house, bringing these assemblies, bringing these gatherings, rather, together. And then we see this Selah, often understood as pause. He says, ever singing your praise, and then he just stops, pauses for a moment. Psalmist isn't interested chiefly with sparrows and swallows, making their nests in the ceilings of the temple. He says, we're the ones in view here. serving at the altar of the Lord of hosts. That's where the priests were in the old covenant. And what does Hebrews 13 say? We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. He says we have a greater altar still where the perfect sacrifice for man's sin was offered once for all by a priest appointed by oath in the order of Melchizedek. If the Psalmist can praise God even before the perfect sacrifice was offered, How much more for us? How much more we can be filled with delight ever singing your praise, O God? We have a priest appointed in the order of Melchizedek by an oath. For the Levites who ministered in the Lord's temple in Jerusalem and the psalmist, they extol the Lord of hosts for his gifts to the people. And so we stress again, how much more than us as believers who know that temple and the Levites were a pale shadow of the greater reality that is now ours in Christ. And we have a whole day to rest and celebrate a festive day of rest. said there's only two appointments that we make on the Lord's day. Only two things that we must attend to morning and evening worship and all the rest, especially in a day and an age when we're busy, there's so much going on. Do we really reflect? Do we enjoy this day of rest? That it is a privilege, a joy for us, a day set aside for the things that are laid out there. It's a light agenda, but a glorious one. And we know to the Lord gives it to us because it is good. The Lord calls us to it. Because it is pleasing, but it is also beneficial for us. involving the assembly, the gathering together of God's people as the house of God, the dwelling place of God most high, through the Spirit, who makes us part, as we see in 1 Corinthians 12, of one body in our Lord Jesus Christ. I've read in various places people commenting on, well, if we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, then wherever we happen to be, then that's church, right? But then why is it that the Lord is calling us to be gathered together as one body? in our Lord Jesus Christ. While there is truth that wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is a temple of the Lord. Those temples gather together, they assemble. It's the burden of Hebrews is saying, do not give up on that, what you were doing. To be one body in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful truth. But what makes it all the more meaningful, it can't just be out there, but it has to be personal, it has to be impacting, is notice what follows in the psalm. The description, not of the house of God any longer, but the peace of God. The peace of God which is announced in the temple, but made even clearer in the new covenant ministry of Christ Jesus. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Bacchae, they make it a place of springs. The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in Zion. It's an idealized and evocative expression of praise to the Father for his gifts and provision for his people. It describes a wilderness valley of Bacar being remade with springs of abundant water or the call of the early rains. Early rains that come as a surprise is an added blessing. If you live in a dry land and rain comes early, that means you're going to have a good year. When rain comes early, it means you will have added blessing. It shows that God is providing for them. They lived in a very arid and dry place. And so the early rains are a sign of the Lord's goodness, assuring the people of success and health because the hand of the Lord was with them. It says they go from strength to strength. Verse seven, each one appears before God in Zion. You know, we caught by what's stunning in that statement. It's not the strength part, though that is stirring in its own right. Going from strength to strength, we know our weakness. And so to hear and to reflect on strength is one thing. To say, in God, I find my help. God is my help in time of need. But notice the latter part. Each one appears before God in Zion. It's stunning that the psalmist foresees their admittance to the throne room of God appearing before God in Zion. Because remember, when is he writing this? There is a massive curtain in the temple separating the holy of holies from the holy place, which is itself separated from the temple courts. And even that is separated from the court of the Gentiles. And so for for myself or for many who are not Jewish, there would have been four layers of separation of appearing before God. It says each one appears before God in Zion. What's the nature? What is the character of that appearance? It's free. It's unhindered. It's in peace. It's without fear. Knowing what we know about the nature of God and the character and nature of sinful mankind, we see how this is a truly an amazing statement. It means that in God's presence, a new and living way has been established for His people to approach and to draw near. to appear before God and Zion without fear or danger. Reflecting on this fills up our Lord's day, doesn't it? Reflecting on the good news in Jesus Christ feeds us, nourishes us on the Lord's day. In God's presence, we appear without fear or danger. We know and celebrate every Lord's day, the very clear and powerful way that we enter into the presence of God to appear before God in Zion. How do we do it? In the vindication by resurrection of Christ Jesus, our Lord. He was crucified for our sins and he was raised for our justification so that we have a new stand, a new status, that we are blameless and righteous. He who upheld the law could approach God. That's what's clear. And the Lord declares, in my son, my beloved son, I now grant you also the access which your sinful nature made impossible before. Resting and drawing near to the throne of God as temples of the Holy Spirit. What a beautiful thing it is to observe the Lord's day. Places and people of worship, a sacred assembly of those who are called out of darkness into the light. And the impulse to gather should be met by desire to gather regularly and to feast on this good news over and over again, to hear more clearly the message of peace, true and lasting peace in Christ, the son of God. To be assured that we can draw near and to, as the catechism rightly points out, pray to God publicly. Notice that's what the psalmist does in verses eight and nine. Oh Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, oh God of Jacob. There's a plaintiveness here. There's a yearning here. There's a Lord. I bring my needs before you hear them. Oh God. Behold our shield. Oh God. Look on the face of your anointed elsewhere. The Psalms will say, have mercy on us. So God, according to your steadfast love, same is expressed in the clay or in the cry. Look on the face of your anointed. Do not forget us. from this prayer and this recognition of the peace of God and the intercession and saving work of Jesus Christ, your Savior. And we then come to the third aspect of the blessed assembly. For we see the house of God, we see the peace of God, we also see the third blessing of the regular gathering together of God's people. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a son and a shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you. We come to know the path of God's people, a heart which is set free in Christ. Your heart desires to rest from evil ways, to turn away from the tents of wickedness, where hearts are turned away from God and inward to self, to renounce that, to turn away from that, to say, Lord, even those areas where I may be harboring sin, hardening my heart, take that away from me, O God. Show me the path that you would have me walk. Give me strength to walk uprightly. For what's the believer being exhorted to every day and in every blessed assembly of God's people? Every day of my life, I am to rest from my evil ways. The Lord worked through me and through his spirit. And so begin already in this life, the eternal Sabbath, the eternal rest, which awaits. One day in God's courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. And we await a glorious future when we will not even know days, because it will be eternity in God's courts. Lord, the Lord makes these things known to us, showing us a joy-filled future where all the saints of God, that's the power of Revelation 21, shall see and receive the glory and splendor which emanates from the heavenly courtroom of the Lord our God. It's awesome in Revelation 21 how it describes how tears are wiped away, how there is no sorrow, how there is no need for light because God himself is present, how there is no need for a particular temple because the Lord, the God Almighty is that temple. A resting place, a place of communion with God. A thousand days in the courts of the wicked are nothing compared to one day with God. we consider and we marvel at an eternity with him. How do we respond? As the psalmist does, blessed is the one who trusts in you. That's true. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, his maker. Blessed is the one who walks the path which God makes plain and clear every time that his word is open. Every time we assemble, every time we gather to grow in love and fellowship and mutual encouragement and exhortation, this is a joy-filled assembly, a blessed assembly for those who trust in the Lord and lean on Him for help in time of need and in the day of salvation. It doesn't mean that every time we show up here that we can't have any hindrances, any burdens, any things that are weighing down on us. No, the reality is very different. We often gather in this way. That's why the psalmist says, my soul longs. It faints for you, oh God, for your courts. That's our experience still. It doesn't mean we're happy, clappy, and always sappy. None of those things. We're joy filled, even a joy that knows sorrow as we await the coming of Christ as he is with us. That's why we see in the blessed assembly of God's people, when the people of God gather together, that the house of God is revealed more fully as temples of the living God gathered together as one body. Also, the peace of God is announced more clearly, again and again, persistently, the gospel being proclaimed. And third, where the path of God is shown more powerfully, for it has become commonplace in popular Christian books to downplay what we call formal worship services in favor of trendy ideas of personal worship or personal devotion. I have my worship time alone in nature, or I feel closest to Jesus when there's no one else around me, or my quiet time has more effect on me than a worship service. Or I want to focus on Jesus seven days of the week and not treat one day as a special day of devotion. After all, if I had seven children, I wouldn't pick one of them as special, but would instead treat them all the same. Isn't our day-to-day life supposed to be that way? These are often persuasive and compelling arguments, aren't they? There is a certain plausibility to the correction that is being offered. We are to be focused on far more than just going to church on Sunday. Yes, agreed. All agree, in fact. There's never been dispute about that. We are to be focused on our whole lives. But something is left behind and something important is left behind when we go one step further and then abandon or diminish the blessed assembly on the Lord's day. When we downplay what we call formal worship services in favor of our own ideas of personal worship or personal devotion, we come very near to a disregard of the Lord's will for us in the fourth commandment. Such a swap finds no place in scripture, nor the long history of the Christian church. Christian church since the resurrection of Christ has been gathering on the first day of the week for over 2000 years. People today say, well, take it or leave it. We do that to our peril. We are a gathering and a community being prepared by the Holy Spirit for presentation to our bridegroom, Christ Jesus, our Lord. Not as a collection of free agents, independently determining what works for them, applying free market principles to free agent people. Do you see how our cultural attachment to freedom and independence can so quickly distort our Christian attachment to the body of Christ? Without realizing it, we buy into the cultural assumptions of the world. We neglect the sacred calling we have to honor the Sabbath day and to keep it holy, that is to set it apart unto the Lord. That's why the word here in the fourth commandment offers us a necessary corrective and encouragement this morning. shows us the measure of our devotion to the Lord as it finds expression in our honoring of the Lord's day, to rest from our daily labors and to gather for worship with the people of God so as to enjoy a festive day of rest in the finished work of Christ. And knowing this truth, we have this confidence, as Hebrews 4 declares, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest, has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sword of disobedience. And since then we have a great high priest, he goes on, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. How do we know peace? It is in the one who brings peace. As he says, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and grace to help in time of need. The Lord offers us this each Sunday, every day as we gather before him to worship him, to hear from his word, to be blessed in fellowship together. And then to go through our week living in light of the comfort we have received, putting into practice all of these things, taking to heart God's very word of life to us and blessing Christ and the peace we have with him. Amen.