Hear now from God's Word. This is Psalm 122. A song of ascents of David. I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, peace be within you. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. So as we begin tonight, the first thing you will notice is the title of this psalm. And so this psalm is titled, A Song of Ascents of David. Now, if you were to flip around in your Bible, back a page or forward, you will notice that it's surrounded by songs that are also titled a Song of Ascent. In fact, Psalms 120 through 134, 15 in total, Psalms have this title, a Song of Ascent. Now, as Pastor Frank mentioned earlier, these titles are included in the Hebrew Bible. It can sometimes be a little bit confusing. We have a lot of things that are added to help us in our Bibles. For example, the New Testament did not have chapters and verses. Some Bibles will add an additional title, as it may be, to help you find your place or give a summary of the text. But when you see in the psalm, written right above the text, this title, it was actually included in the Hebrew Bible. More than likely, these were added by Ezra as the Book of Psalms was compiled together, as it had been written over many generations. Some of the titles tell us information about the song. Some also tell us information about the author. And so this one is written by David. There are also psalms that are of Asaph, of Solomon, and others. But in particular, this title seems to indicate that these collection of 15 psalms were used by worshipers as they ascended the road to Jerusalem to the three pilgrim festivals each year. There was a literal aspect to this ascent, ascent meaning going higher, because Jerusalem was higher elevation than most of where the worshipers would come. They would come up to the mountain and they would come up to this higher city. But it was also metaphorical, as we will see as well, as they came to Jerusalem. And so even those Jews who lived far away from Jerusalem would seek to come to Jerusalem to fulfill the command given in Deuteronomy 16, 16. It says, three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booze. They shall not appear before the Lord empty handed. And so it appears that these Psalms, these Songs of Ascents, as these three-time-a-year festivals were celebrated as the nation came together, they would be singing these songs as they went up to Jerusalem and up to the temple. And you can see, we're not going to look at all of them, but in Psalm 120, it starts with geographically distant locations, like Meshech and Kedar, that was outside of the bounds of Israel, perhaps in Arabia or Turkey in modern day geographical terms. And then as the worshippers came, you see that the geographic references get closer until at the conclusion in Psalm 134, it is a song that appears in the midst of the temple itself. And so these Psalms were very well known to the Israelites, as they would use them at least these three times a year. They often had them memorized. And of course, they're quite short relative to some Psalms, and they're helpful to know them as we see these themes. And I suspect if your congregation is like my own, that this psalm we sang tonight and that we're studying together is one that you often sing. So I believe that in the understanding of it, we can better sing our praise to God. And perhaps even memorize. You'll notice many of the songs of the set are quite short. There's much more we could say about the Songs of Ascent. There's some very interesting features to them that show the hand of God in both how they were written and organized. But we'll focus tonight on Psalm 122. And so this psalm, again, is written as the people went up to Jerusalem. They made their pilgrim journey as they went up. And so it begins by saying, I was glad when they said to me, let us go up into the house of the Lord. So you see this beginning of the journey. And so this psalm actually shows the entire journey in just a couple of verses. We see that there was the, let us go, that call, but then by verse two, we see that our feet have been standing. So we'll look at that in a moment. We also see by way of introduction to this psalm that there is rejoicing. If you were to look back at the previous two psalms in the Psalms of Ascent, in Psalm 120, there was really some hesitation to come up. It was about someone in duress, someone facing persecution. Then Psalm 121, we saw that there was some amount of concern and trepidation. But here we see rejoicing and the privilege to go up to Jerusalem. And we also see in this Psalm the importance of Jerusalem for the worshipers, the centrality of Jerusalem that we will come back to. Another thing we see, this is one of four of the 15 Songs of Ascent that are ascribed to David. Now, others may have been written by David. We know that the Psalms are so identified with David that they're often called the Psalms of David. Yet we know there were other authors as well. In fact, there's even a Song of Ascent that is ascribed to Solomon. But this is one of four ascribed to David. And we see in this psalm, even though it was written by David, it anticipates realities that are to come in a special way. It was written by David for worshipers in his day, before the temple was even built, but it was used by many generations going up to the temple, and it's still used by those of us today in the new covenant as we come to worship. But lastly, as a way of introduction, and we'll start looking at each verse here, we will see that Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher of the 19th century, he called this psalm a sweet Sabbath psalm, which I have taken as my title today. And while this psalm does not mention the Sabbath directly, and you may be wondering how this text about Jerusalem is about the Sabbath, I trust that by the end of our time together that you will see why he and why I take on this title of saying this psalm is a sweet Sabbath psalm. So let's again look at verse one. I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. So as we see, there is rejoicing, even at the privilege of going up to the house of the Lord. Unlike Psalm 120 and 121, where there was some concern and trepidation, here we see rejoicing. And we see this gladness, even knowing that many of the travelers were going long distances. And you can look back at Psalm 121 to see it was a dangerous journey through wilderness. And so there were many obstacles along the way. Yet we see the psalmist, even embarking on this journey, is delighted to make it. And where is he delighted to go? He's delighted to go to the house of the Lord. So let's think for a moment about what the house of the Lord is. In David's day, the house of the Lord was represented by the tabernacle. Of course, David desired to build a temple for God, not a tent, not a temporary dwelling place as it were, but something with more permanence. And so his son Solomon was able to build a temple. In fact, there was later another temple built as well as God's dwelling place. But both the tabernacle and the temple, even the glory of the temple, were merely foreshadowing what was to come. They foreshadowed God's presence coming in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, indwelling in his people as his living temple, and ultimately in his glory filling the new creation. I'll briefly reference a few Bible verses that I think bring out these themes. One of which is John 1, verse 14, the introduction to John's gospel, where we learn about the word that we know is the Lord Jesus Christ. It reads, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And in fact, that word for dwelt, if we were to translate it more literally from the Greek, means to make tabernacle. The apostle John tells us that Jesus came and made tabernacle among us. And I believe those hearing this in the original language would have been thinking back to God's presence in the tabernacle. Now Jesus has come in the flesh as God has become incarnate. We then see in 1 Corinthians 3.16 says, do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? This is a reality we have as New Covenant believers. Likewise, the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2.5, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We could spend a while reflecting on this reality, but I want us to see that while we enter in a special way to God's house and worship, even as we're called here today to worship, we also need to recognize that the spirit lives in us. And we also look forward to that which is to come. We will sing at the conclusion today from Psalm 23, which talks about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever, which is what we look forward to. Let's continue now to verse two. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. And so you might think it's strange, as I already alluded to, that in verse one, we have this invitation of let's go up to the house of the Lord. But then in verse two, we see our feet have been standing already. It's almost as if the journey has been completed, though we know that it was often a long journey for many of the worshipers coming up. In fact, this is one of the first seven songs of ascent, and many of the first seven are all about that journey to Jerusalem. So why is the journey complete? Well, I believe there's something we can notice from the verb tense, which, as far as I can tell, is accurately translated, and it might sound a bit odd. It says, our feet have been standing, even as they were being called to worship. I believe this recognizes something, that in a sense, even as they, as the tribes of Israel, came across the land, coming from every direction, all central to Jerusalem to worship, even as they still had a long way to go before they got to the gates of Jerusalem, that it was almost as if they came together and they were worshiping, singing this psalm to God, praising God, that they were already beginning to see the journey, they were already beginning to see the gathering of God's people. And perhaps this reflects just in part that new covenant reality that we'll come back to in a moment. As we looked in John chapter four, Jesus said, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. This idea that we do not worship God specifically in one place in the New Covenant. But hold that thought, as we'll return there. I'm gonna now read verses three through five. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. To make a couple of quick comments about the language here, first we see this idea that Jerusalem is called a city that is compact together. Now this is partially a physical description. Jerusalem, even by accounts of ancient observers and what we can see in scripture, was a relatively dense city. So I drove from about 45 minutes away where I'm surrounded by farmland and I'm in a tight neighborhood in that I have an acre to myself. And so when I come here to Atlanta, I see a city that's more compactly built together, we might say. But we also see not only that, but it was also a city that was surrounded by walls for protection. And so part of this is giving us a physical description, but it's also representing the unity of the 12 tribes of Israel. We'll come back to this as we consider Jerusalem, but you see all the tribes could meet here together in one place where they were previously spread out. Now all the heads of households were coming together as one during these three pilgrim festivals. You also note that it talks about going up to Jerusalem, where the tribes go up You know, I compare this to how we commonly talk in the South, or at least how my family would. If I was to talk about going to Chattanooga, I would say I'm going up to Chattanooga. I wouldn't say I'm going down to Chattanooga, because that's north. I might go down to Columbus or over to Alabama. These are frames of references. But we see that Jerusalem was so central that no matter if you came from north, south, east, or west, you were always going up when you went to Jerusalem. Part of this was geographic, certainly, as we talked about Jerusalem being set on a mountaintop. It wasn't the absolute highest place, but it was higher than most of the areas where the tribes were coming from. But I believe it also shows the centrality of Jerusalem to the Israelites, even in how it's described. So as we think about the purpose of Jerusalem, certainly it was very central. One way that's not the best way to figure this out, but we could count, would be to say the name Jerusalem is used 669 times in the Old Testament. Zion, which is a prominent mountain in the landscape, which there is a difference in emphasis, but is also referring to Jerusalem, is used an additional 154 times. Just look at the Psalms we've already sung tonight. We saw in Psalm 46 the reference to the city of our God of Jerusalem. We saw in Psalm 84, Zion. We saw in Psalm 122, Jerusalem. And yes, I picked these Psalms for us to sing, but you would find plenteous examples of Jerusalem and Zion being mentioned all throughout the Psalms. Jerusalem was the place where the tabernacle and later the temple was built. It was important that they were gathering specifically in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was also the place where the Lord's anointed, the king, reigned from. So in this time, as David wrote this psalm, David was sitting on the throne. And you see that mention in verse five, saying, the thrones of David's house. And I would even say that David is not simply aggrandizing himself here when he mentions the thrones of the house of David. Certainly, we admit that while David was a human author, that this is inspired by the spirit of God. But even more than that, this is David showing that he knew there would be those who come after him. This phrase, the house of David, could be rendered, as some translations do, as the dynasty of David. It represented that David knew that there would be those who would come after him who would sit on that throne. And so as he talks about the thrones of the house of David, he's not merely saying, this is my throne, but he is representing that kingly line that was being established. And we know that eventually that is the kingly line from which Jesus, the Messiah, would come. And you can see that laid out in the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1. And so we see Jerusalem was where the temple would eventually be, where the throne of the Lord's anointed was. And Jerusalem is also described as the place of the presence of the Lord. One example of many is in Jeremiah 3.17, which describes the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem. And in fact, as we think about the Lord's anointed, the king, being in Jerusalem, we shouldn't be surprised because the reign of the Lord God and the reign of his anointed are not in opposition to each other, but they are complementary. So it was important that this is where the king reigned. But we also know that Jerusalem was the commanded place of worship in the Old Covenant. We see this reinforced in verse four, where it says, as was decreed for Israel to give thanks to the name of the Lord. We see this importance of being the place where worship would happen. And we see the importance of worshiping as God decrees, not according to what seems best to us. Even before Jerusalem was known by name, there was an importance to a particular place and where the people would worship. Back in Deuteronomy 12, as instructions were being given for the people as they would enter the promised land, God directed the people on how to worship. He said, you must not worship the Lord your God in their way, speaking of the surrounding peoples. But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go. And so now we see that even the reason for joining in this particular season was part of this commanded journey. Again, we saw in Deuteronomy 16, 16, those three times of year that all of the men would go up at the place that God will choose. Specifically gives that even in the command to worship, also noting that God chooses where they will worship. And so we see that Jerusalem was the commanded place of worship, but it was also not the place of any one tribe. While there were tribal allotments of land across Israel, Jerusalem was where the whole nation could join together in unity. And so we see all the people coming up to Jerusalem and praising God together. So we see all these tribes. Again, just remember, this is what is being proclaimed as they gather together. And this theme of unity is picked up elsewhere in the Song of Ascent. For example, that great song of unity in Psalm 133, we see this idea of all the people coming together and worshiping. So we'll continue now to verse six through the end. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will say, peace be within you. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. Now walls and towers were very important for the physical security of the city of Jerusalem. Even the very name Jerusalem means city of peace. That word peace is from Salem, similar to Shalom, and both in related languages that you might have heard from Hebrew, but that idea that it was a city of peace. And so that was important for how the people came together. And certainly some of the focus here was thinking about the need for physical security. But even this psalm is not just praying for the physical city of Jerusalem, or even praying only for, say, the bounds of where Jerusalem was located. You notice that in verse six, it says, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Then the next clause, may they prosper who love you. It was also looking at they who love you. And so when we pray this prayer, we're not praying just for the city itself, but for all those who recognize the importance of Jerusalem as the place of God's presence, God's covenant people. You think back even for these commanded journeys, not the entire nation was there. You notice it was the males who were to go up because many of the women would stay home with the children and attend to affairs. There were also times when there were God's coming people under persecution or duress who couldn't make it there. Yet there was still this recognition of those who love even the city of Jerusalem. They understood what Jerusalem meant, that it was more than just a city. It was the place of the Lord's presence. And David is already recognizing this even in his Old Covenant context, that there is more being meant by Jerusalem than the physical city. So how do we pray for the peace of Jerusalem? How do we seek the good of the house of the Lord our God? Some may be tempted to think that this is only about the modern city of Jerusalem. You can go get a flight to the city of Jerusalem and visit it today. It's still there, it still exists. And yes, we should pray for Jerusalem and for Israel. We should especially pray for the conversions of souls as there are few churches and believers in that city today. I understand there's even restrictions on preaching the gospel there. And it's also a place where we don't always think of peace and safety. There's the midst of war going on in that region today. And so we should especially pray for those who trust in Jesus Christ for their safety and protection in this season. But we also pray when we look at this prayer for the church, where God's people gather. We understand that the church is under attack by enemies within the walls and outside of the walls. We have this great promise from Jesus He says in Matthew 16, 18, says, I will build my church and the gates of Hades or hell shall not prevail against it. And as we pray for the church, we pray in light of this promise. Jesus Christ is the one who built his church and he will sovereignly preserve it. Even as we trust that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, we know there's a battle to be won in each place where God builds his church. We trust that the church grows triumphant across the globe as centers are converted, as each generation passes on the covenant promises. But there's not a promise in scripture. While I believe there is this promise that the church as a whole will be preserved, that any particular congregation or even denomination will continue to exist. There's many churches that have succumbed to the way of the world, favoring comfort, failing to evangelize, failing to raise their children in the faith, proving of sin, and no longer exist. Now I don't want to say we can say that every church that doesn't exist is particularly for a reason like this that we can identify. There are faithful congregations as far as we can tell, which in God's providence do not exist. But either way, we earnestly fight the good fight and we pray for the continuance and support of the church. And we also see how God continues to build his church all throughout the world. Even in times where it might be discouraging in the West, we can hear reports in other parts of the globe and know that God is sovereignly building his church. And as a brief aside, as we think about the church, this promise I just quoted from Matthew 16 is actually one of only two times that Jesus in the gospel uses the word church. The other is in Matthew 18, starting in verse 15, where he talks about the concept of church discipline, what to do when a brother sins against you. I mention this because in verse five, we see this mention of thrones of judgment. And I believe those are relevant to us in the church as well. where judgment is a part of the duty of the church, even as difficult as that is to do well. But how do we seek the good of the house of the Lord our God? And I would say one of the main ways is by diligently participating in the worship of the church. So how do we worship God? First, we worship as one united Israel. The first promise given in the covenant to Abraham includes this line, I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. This was first given in Genesis chapter 12. The promise was even repeated to Jacob, renamed Israel in Numbers 24. But how were the nations blessed? Think about how strange this must have appeared to Abraham, and even for many generations afterwards, where the covenant was mainly made known to a very small persecuted people that were confined to one geographic area, related. We saw it happen in small ways, though, in the old covenant. I referenced earlier Matthew 1. Perhaps you can read Matthew 1 later, and you'll see that even in Matthew 1, which tells the genealogy, the descent of Jesus, you saw that there were many Gentiles by birth that were included in that story that God was telling. And so we do see in small part that there were Gentiles coming into the covenant. But it wasn't until the Messiah came, till Jesus came, and especially the ministry of the apostles by a spirit, that we saw large numbers of Gentiles coming to be blessed. And now we see the blessing spreading throughout all the earth as God's covenant has expanded and continues to expand across the globe. I don't know if any of us are Jewish by birth, I'm certainly not, but we see that God's covenant continues to go out and we see beginning to be fulfilled this promise made to Abraham that all the families of the earth shall be blessed. In the New Testament, we even find that believers in the new covenant are included in Israel. Paul develops this in Romans 11. We could spend a lot of time on this, but one short verse that I think summarizes this well, so quickly we might even miss it, is in the letter to the predominantly Gentile believers of the Church of Galatia. In his conclusion, Paul says this in Galatians 6, starting in verse 15, for neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. If you know the letter to the Galatians, there was a lot of concern about, well, how do we include these non-Jewish Gentiles into one people? Should they be one people? Do they have to become like a Jew and first receive circumcision? What's happening? But Paul says it's not about circumcision, it's about a new creation. And then he has this idea of peace upon the Israel of God. And the Israel of God includes Jesus Christ and all of those who are united to him by faith alone. We believe that even Old Testament saints, as they look for salvation, look forward to the Messiah to come as their hope of salvation. And now we see the church, or we could say the true Israel of God, includes Jews and Gentiles, includes slave and free men and women, people from all nations coming together to worship. And as we join together on the Lord's Day, each church shows the diversity of the body in different ways, just including some of those categories that we just discussed. And we also remember that we are just one small part of believers who are joining all across the globe this day to worship our God. The Lord's Day is when we are appointed to worship and we see, in part, this coming together of all of these diverse people. This psalm, as it shows the tribes coming up to worship God, shows us the need to worship together as one body. And think about how glorious it will be as we think of that heavenly scene revealed to the Apostle John in Revelation 9, where he described a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. So we have that to see. But next, as we think about how we worship God, so first we worship as one united Israel, but secondly, we continue to worship God as God decrees. Now our decrees are not always exactly the same in the New Testament as the Old. So we read earlier from John chapter four, and if you want to turn there again, I'll make a couple of points there from John chapter four. This is a very well-known passage. And it's given as the Samaritan woman meets with Jesus. Now keep in mind, the Samaritans were not well regarded by the Jewish people of their day. But after Jesus confronts this woman at the well with her sin, she then turns her question to ask Jesus about worship. And so she asks this question, noting a disagreement between the Jews and the Samaritans about where to worship. She said, well, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship. And so this was, you know, I've heard different interpretations about why this woman asked the question at this particular moment, but we see that Jesus answers her and he tells her about worship. But he answers in a way that she didn't expect. She wanted an answer of like, well, this mountain, this mountain, where do I go? But he tells her, starting in verse 21, But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. And we see this great reminder here. There's a lot of things that we could be reminded of, but one particular thing is we see that worship in the New Covenant is not tied to a specific place like Jerusalem, but wherever God's people gather. You know, this season we're not worshiping in the building this congregation has just purchased. We're down the road while there is a need for work to be done. But it doesn't matter if it's over there or over here or the nicest building that you could imagine, but it's about where God's people are. But even as it's not the same that it's being tied to a specific place like it was in Jerusalem in the Old Covenant, we do see what is the same is that we look to God's commands or to his decrees. We don't look to our own whims and pleasures for how we are to worship him, but God tells us how to worship him. And in this way, we worship him in the truths of our scriptures. But let's now look back to verse one of this passage, and I'm going to read it again. I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Do we truly delight to go up to the house of God? Do we truly desire to join with our God when he calls us to worship? One of the scripture memory verses I have might seem a bit obscure if you haven't considered it before, but it's Psalm 87 verse 2. It says, And quite simply, this is showing us, you know, Gates of Zion, we could say, is about public worship. It's about gathering, as they were called in the Old Testament, to gather in Zion and Jerusalem to worship. But it's contrasted with the dwellings of Jacob, which is about worshiping gods in your dwellings or in your private homes. And this verse shows us that while it was important to worship God in the secret place, certainly we should worship God in our homes, and I'm sure that's something that your elders encourage you to do, but we especially should gather with God publicly as we are called to public worship each week on the Lord's Day. If we were to put this in New Covenant language, we might look to Hebrews 10.25, where the apostle to the Hebrews says, We need to especially make an effort to join together in public worship each week as we are able to do. This is very important to us, and this is what God directs us to do. I want you to think for a moment. Why are you here? Why do you come to worship? I asked this question when I taught on this psalm at my church, where I was in the evening service. We have morning and evening, and not everybody comes back in the evening. So maybe that is worth thinking about. But even for you, you know, there's some who didn't make it today. You know, are you just here because you want to see some of your friends, maybe, for the young people here? Did you come because you wanted people to see you here? Is it because you wanted to see what the man in the railroad cap had to offer when he came and invited you? Did you come because your mom or your dad or your spouse drug you here? There's many different things that we could think about. But as we turn our hearts towards God, may he give us this attitude of the psalmist who rejoiced when he had the opportunity to go to the house of God. Now I believe that God can work through us even when we're not rejoicing when we come. There may be times that you have to drag yourself out of bed, that you don't want to fight Atlanta traffic, that you don't want to make the long walk in the heat, whatever it may be to get here, but God can still bless you even then. But as we incline our hearts towards God, may he give us this attitude of the psalmist again. May he give us that attitude where we rejoiced when we had the opportunity to go to the house of God. But now let's turn as we think finally about this idea of this being a sweet Sabbath psalm to this admonition from the prophet Isaiah. You can turn here if you like, it's just a couple of verses, but quite important ones. This is from Isaiah chapter 58, Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14. And here, the prophet Isaiah gives, this is part of a longer admonition about how we are to treat the Sabbath, the day of worship. He says, if you turn your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it, not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. As we come together, we worship the Lord on the Lord's day, the first day of the week. We do this as directed by our Lord and as we remember that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the first day of the week. It's not by accident that we're here on the first day. And the standards of this church even call this the Christian Sabbath, thinking about that day that is set apart. So it's not an accident that we're here this particular day, in this particular time, and that the Lord has called us And we remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is our only hope of salvation. And as we remember the salvation we have through him, may we delight to come and worship. This day is not about our pleasure. It's not about talking idly. It's not a time to just catch up on hobbies or sports or what's going on in work. Certainly some of these things we can talk about in a way to encourage one another, but our focus is about taking delight in the Lord. And so as we rejoice in the salvation that's offered to us freely through Jesus Christ and through his death and resurrection, may we, like David, say, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we do indeed thank you for calling us to worship. We thank you for this great opportunity to gather with your people on this, your holy day. We pray that you would help us to have the same attitude that David had when he said he was glad to go to your house. Of the prophet Isaiah, when he said that we should call the Sabbath a delight. May you work in our hearts so that this is true. We thank you for that great gift of salvation that has been given to us, that you have called and included even those of us who are far off to be a part of your covenant. Thank you for the new birth, for regeneration, and all of the blessings which come with that. We pray that you would help us to be faithful to all that you have called us to do as we seek to worship you as you direct us, as we seek to worship you week after week. that you would help us to be faithful. Pray that you would help us to be an encouragement to one another, even as we gather, that as we have times of fellowship, that it might be focused on how to encourage one another to delight in the Lord and not simply filled with idle chatter. And we also pray that you would help us to encourage those who are not here today. We know some may not be here because of sickness or all manner of different reasons that may come up to providentially hinder someone. But we also know from time to time that there are those who simply choose not to come. We pray that you would help us to encourage and seek those to gather in your house with us. We thank you for this opportunity of worship. We pray that we might honor you as we gather together, as we continue in worship, as we sing together. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. If you would take your Psalter and turn to number 23B. As I mentioned,