Okay, take your Bible. Let's go to Psalm 122. Psalm 122, as you well know, we're working our way through the book of Psalms. And this is our second time going through it. And we are really kind of traveling with ancient Israel through their hymn book and the way that God has given to them these hymns of praise to worship our God. Psalm 122. I want to read all of it and then we'll study it together. Psalm 122 from the title. A song of a sense of David. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet are standing within your gate, so Jerusalem. Jerusalem, that is built as a city that is compact together, to which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, an ordinance for Israel, in order to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For their thrones were set for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. May peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, may peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. The Bible not only tells us to worship God, but the Bible tells us how to worship God. And I am so thankful for that because we don't have to invent the wheel and try to create new ways and new forms to worship God. It is clearly revealed. in the Word of God that we ought to worship Him and how we ought to worship Him. I'm also thankful for the huge legacy and rich history of church history. We could go back many centuries and learn how God's people have worshipped God. If you look in your outline, there's a couple of paragraphs there at the top, and it comes from a document that was called the Directory for Public Worship. You might've never heard of this before. It was written 400 years ago, 400 years ago. And it was written by the Westminster theologians of England and Scotland, giving guidance to the churches on how to worship God. Now, I edited a little bit here, so follow with me as I read these paragraphs briefly. It's so relevant and practical. When the congregation is to meet for public worship, the people, having been prepared their hearts thereunto, ought all to come and join therein, not absenting themselves from the public ordinance through negligence. Let all enter the assembly, not irreverently, but in a serious and seemly matter. The congregation being assembled, the minister should often solemn calling on them to worship the great name of God. He is to begin with prayer. in all reverence and humility, acknowledging the incomprehensible greatness and majesty of the Lord, in whose presence they do then in a special manner appear. And then their own vileness and unworthiness to approach so near him with their utter inability of themselves to so great a work. and humbly beseeching God for pardon, assistance, and acceptance, and the whole service, then, to be performed. And they pray for a blessing on that particular portion of His Word, then, to be read. and all in the name and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. " Now, that was written 400 years ago. It may be a long sentence in some language that may not be quite as modern or familiar to us, but it's really saying we ought to gather together and come with a serious manner, and we ought to give our full attention to God and pray and reflect and remember that we worship God through the mediating work. of Jesus Christ. What a privilege to gather with the people of God. What a privilege. What a privilege to worship God together. What a privilege to thank God together. That we get to open our Bible, that we get to grow in the knowledge of God, that we get to prepare for the heavenly communion with God and with one another every time we meet together. And that's really what Psalm 122 is all about. Psalm 122 is about the coming together of the people of God. It is the coming together of God's people to the house of God with the assembly of God, praying and thanking God in worship. What a privilege. You know, really, if we kind of take a step back and think about our lives, there's really nothing more important than worshiping the Lord together with God's people in the house of the Lord, where the word is read and the word is preached and the ordinances are enjoyed together, where the people of God love and serve one another. What a heavenly meeting that is. What an other worldly meeting. I don't know if there's a better way to prepare for heaven than to gather with God's people and grow in our love and enjoyment. of that together in the worship of God. Well, Psalm 122, Psalm 122 is the third of this little group of Psalms that are called the Songs of Ascent. It's kind of like a mini collection of Psalms within the entire Psalter. Psalms 120, all the way to 134 is 15 Psalms that we call the Songs of Ascent because when the Jewish people would leave their home and their community, they would travel to Jerusalem. And while they were traveling, this was like the traveling playlist. It was like what they would sing, what they would worship God to as they would travel to Jerusalem. And as magnificent as Jerusalem is, what made the city so wonderful is not so much the rocks, there's a lot of rocks there, and not so much all the wood and stone, and the mountains, those are all great. That's where the temple is. That's where God dwelt. That's the city where God chose to put his name in the Old Testament times, the presence of God, the people of God, the city of God. That's what made it so glorious. You know, you and I today don't We don't travel to Jerusalem to worship God. We don't have to go to a certain mountain to worship God. We gather with the people of God corporately together as an assembly, and we are in the presence of God through the work of Jesus Christ by the unity of the Spirit of God, and we can worship God together anywhere. We can worship God and express our thanks to God and pray to God love one another. That's the joy and the privilege and the benefit of corporate worship. Well, I want to show us more of that from our psalm tonight, Psalm 122. And I want to draw out of this psalm three collective exhortations. And the reason I use the word collective, it's the let us language. Let us, let us, let us. And what we're gonna draw out of this psalm are three exhortations so that we can worship God together appropriately and rightly with the people of God. Number one, let us go up. Number two, let us give thanks. And number three, let us seek God. Let's look at it together. In your notes, number one, let us go up. Let us go up. That's how the psalm begins. Do you see it there? I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. We don't forget Hebrews chapter 10. Beginning in verse 24, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. Oh, we get to go to worship God. We get to gather together with the people of God. Somebody might say, come on, come on, come to this party with me. Come to the restaurant with me. This is way better. Come, let's worship the living God together. Verse one, I trust as the heart of every believer. I was glad. I was overjoyed when my fellow worshipers said to me, let's go. Let's go to the house of the Lord. the very first word of the psalm on coming to worship with God's people. I get to rejoice. I rejoice in that. It's not drudgery. It's not a, all right, we'll go to church. It's, I rejoice. There's a gladness there. And it has been well said before, but let me remind us, private worship with you, your Bible, And the Lord, in your own private quiet time, is a tremendous thing. Do that. That's great. Family worship, in the home, together with your family, is a great thing. Do that. But corporate worship, together with the entire congregation, what could be better than that? We want to remind husbands to lead and set the example in rejoicing on the way to worship. Come, let's go and worship God together. We want to encourage fathers to lead and set the example of corporate worship as a joyous activity and privilege in the home. We want to encourage parents, both dad and mom together, to model the excitement of the weekly corporate feast of worship. It's not that we have to go to church. Let's prepare because we get together with God's people and meet with the Lord. There is gladness and community and joy and invitation and mutual encouragement. You know, even very briefly, not only can we encourage one another in this, but let me sort of take this and make an application with this. Consider the last time that you've invited someone to church. When was the last time that you said, hey, come to church with me. Come to church with me. I remember. early in the days of Christ's fellowship, more than 10 or 11 or 12 years ago, there were visitors who would come on a Sunday and we'd say, how did you hear of Christ's Fellowship Bible Church? And sometimes they'd say, oh, it was that family over there. Well, the next week, another visitor would come. How did you hear about the church? Oh, it was from that same family over there. And then the next week, people inviting, inviting families, inviting neighbors, inviting coworkers, inviting strangers by giving them a tract or giving them a card. Come, come and worship the Lord and hear the gospel preached. We get to ponder, even in our own mind, who might be someone that you could invite. Come, let's go to the house of God. I want you to come with me to church. I want you to know that the gospel will be preached every time we gather, and you will hear Christ lifted up. Maybe for us, very briefly, one application point for us, we can leave early to go to the house of God. Leave early and arrive expectantly to come to the house of God. And then not only do we leave early and arrive expectantly, but then we greet each other warmly. We greet each other warmly. And maybe a fourth way to build on that would be to speak intentionally to each other. Speak intentionally. Not just, hey, how's the weather outside? How's your walk? We get to worship the Lord together. What is God teaching you? What did you learn from the time of worship together? And then fifth, we wanna block out the world and gaze upon Christ together. Oh, let us go up. Let's encourage each other to go to the house of the Lord and worship our God. We don't go to the temple. 1 Corinthians says, we are the temple. God is among us. What great hope. So what are these collective exhortations? It all begins with number one here in verse one. Let us go. Let us go up. What a great encouragement, even in the heart. I rejoice when they said, let's go. Number two, let us give thanks. You see it in your outline there. Number two, let us give thanks. Imagine Psalm 120. They're leaving their hostile environment. Remember that? Meshach. And they, oh, I'm leaving. I feel like a stranger. I feel like an alien in this world. I don't fit in in this world. And then we saw in Psalm 121, Who's going to keep me safe on the journey? How am I going to make it there? Who's going to be my keeper and my watcher? God will. And then tonight we come to Psalm 122. We're here. Look at verse two. Our feet are standing within your gates. We're here. We've made it. We've arrived. Verse three, Jerusalem that is built as a city that is compact together to which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord. So, okay, you and I aren't going to Jerusalem. Let's modernize this. You've arrived at church. Others have gathered. You're early. You get out of your car. You're walking into the building. What do you do? What's the proper mindset to have when we arrive? And even a way to sort of prepare us for the second point, we live, as we all know, in a self-absorbed culture, don't we? I mean, just a self-absorbed culture. And while we are living in this self-absorbed culture, how we need God's people around us to stir us up to thank the Lord, so that we don't focus on self, but we focus on thanking the Lord together. Okay, verse 2, we're here. Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Verse 3, we love our city. Jerusalem is built compact together. Verse 4, all the tribes of Israel go up. Isn't that so cool? Judah, Benjamin, Issachar, Naphtali, Asher on the coast. all the different backgrounds and cultures, all the different customs, and yet they come together in unity, kind of like us. different backgrounds, different places of life. And yet we come together. Verse four, the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, an ordinance for Israel. And even according to verse five, for the Old Testament Jew, they knew that the kings of the Davidic line ruled. There was a throne in Jerusalem. That's where the king ruled. But why were they so excited? Why was there such an excitement to gather together? It's because of the middle of verse four, and it's an emphatic phrase. It's a purpose clause. Here's why we're here. Here's why we've gathered. Verse four, in order to give thanks to the name of the Lord. Ponder that. The primary purpose that God has for the worship of his people is for thanking God. In fact, I think it's one of the distinguishing marks of true Christian worship is God-directed thanks from the humble sinner's heart. Does our singing reflect a thankful heart? Does our conversation reflect a heart of thankfulness? Does our attention to the Word of God, read and preached and applied, does it reveal a thankful attitude and heart? In our conversations, our singing, our praying, our preaching, our testimonies, I mean, it ought to burst forth with thanks to God. Do you have any reasons to thank the Lord tonight? How many reasons do we have? I mean, we have innumerable reasons to thank God, don't we? And if you need help, let me help. We have a triune God who has created everything for his own glory. Every raindrop that fell brought him glory. Everything that happened in your life today, I may not know how it all fits together, neither may you, but it brings God glory somehow. Our Father has elected and predestined His own people before the world began to be His own forever, according to Ephesians 1 verse 3 and 4. According to the scriptures, Jesus took on human flesh to live a human, obedient, perfect life. Philippians 2. And then we read in the Bible that Jesus died for our sins. He took our punishment. He absorbed the vengeance of God. He quenched all of it. And then he said, it's finished. According to Isaiah 53 and John 19, But that's not the end. A dead Savior does no good. Then He rose from the dead and forever crushing Satan and sin and death, according to 1 Corinthians 15. That's the hope that we have. We can thank God that we have a living God and a living Savior. And if that wasn't enough, You have the infinite almighty God in heaven praying for you by name right now. According to Hebrews 7.25. I mean, what reasons do we have to thank the Lord? What abundant reasons do we have to thank our amazing God? And if anyone is here, not a believer tonight, if you're here tonight and you don't have this hope, here's the savior. You can receive him. Beg this God to forgive you. You can find a full forgiveness in him. You can run to Calvary and ask the Lord to wash your sins away. And he will. And he will. And then the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates. He gives life. He makes you born again. That's good news. And then he baptizes you, meaning he joins you to this body of Christ, the church, according to 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12 and 13. Not to mention your life, your provisions, your family, your food, your shelter, everything in life. We have many reasons to thank the Lord. We gather to praise and thank our God. But sometimes, when people gather for worship, there can be a temptation for someone to say, well, I didn't get much out of that today. That's not for me, that church is too big, it's too small, the service is too long, it's too short, it's too cold, it's too old, whatever the excuse might be. But what I find in Psalm 122 actually has nothing to do with the building. It has nothing to do with the band. It has nothing to do with entertainment or size or ministries. It's not man-focused. It's not about being funny or feel-good sermonettes. I think the proper question is, was God glorified today? Was God praised today? Was God honored today? We don't want the worship to become about me or you. We want it to be about the Lord. And you know what? In our self-absorbed culture, we need as many reminders as we can get about that. Living for Christ. So the psalm, the Jewish pilgrims are traveling, let us go up. And then here we are, we are here to thank the Lord, to give thanks. Number three, in your notes, not only do we go up and do we give thanks, number three, we wanna seek God. We want to seek God. The word pray is used. but it's actually a word in the original language. It's not just, oh, I'm saying my prayers. It's more of, I am seeking the face of God. There's an earnestness here. I want the presence of God. I want to know my God more. I want to know the character of God. Verse six, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Meaning seek, seek the peace for Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. Verse seven is another prayer. May peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces. Maybe in modern vernacular for the church, we might say, pray for the unity of the church. Pray that not only would there be unity on the outside, but pray that there will be unity from within. Pray for unity. seeking the face of God. Now, the Old Testament worshiper prayed for peace and he prayed for unity, he prayed for the house of God and for the worship of God, but I think for you and I, I think the application is, oh Lord, we pray for peace among us. We pray that there will be reconciliation. We pray that we will serve in peace, that we will live in peace, that we will pursue peace with one another. I love that verse. Let me just read it real quick, Ephesians 4. talking about walking in a manner worthy of the call. Ephesians 4 verse 3, we are to be diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now, I think all of you know the Hebrew word for pray for the peace of Jerusalem. It's the Hebrew word shalom. Shalom, you go to Israel today and they don't really say, hi, how are you? Like we do, they say shalom. That's their way of saying hello. But the Hebrew word is fascinating. The word for peace is far more than just absence of war. It's far more than just absence of war. Peace, according to the Bible, is completeness and wholeness. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for the people of God. What does that mean? Pray that there would be a wholeness about us in every area of life. It is a divine gift. It is a sovereign work of God. Of course, true peace comes by knowing the grace of God through Christ and his cross. We must be justified by faith and we have peace with God, Romans 5. True peace on earth will not come until Jesus returns and makes things right. But I think what we learn from Psalm 122 is, oh, let there be peace. Let there be prosperity. Let there be a great peace within the walls of the city of Jerusalem. Well, we can take that and apply that to ourselves. Let's pray for peace among the people of God. Let's pray for peace in the church, peace in the homes, peace in the marriages, peace among the worshipers. We ought to pray for peace. I was reflecting on this and kind of thinking on it a little bit. But how do you disrupt peace among the people of God? Because I think it's all too easy to fall into the trap of disrupting peace. What does that look like? Number one, lack of attendance. An unattending, non-attending church member. That'd be like a part of the body that just chooses to not be joined to the body. And that's not gonna function well, nor be complete. Another way to disrupt peace would be a lack of service. Lack of service. That'd be like a member in the body not fulfilling its role. That'd be like a part of the body not fulfilling its role for the good of the whole body. And what we want is we want to gather together. We want to serve together. And number three, I think another way to disrupt peace is to listen to and spread gossip. Hey, did you hear? Hey, did you hear? Hey, did you hear? And often that kind of listening to and spreading gossip and talking about others or just meddling in the affairs of others can often disrupt peace in the church family. A fourth way that we might disrupt peace would be suspicions and assumptions. Oh, surely I know why he did that. Oh, I know why she did that. And well, we really don't know the motives of other people. And so we don't want to do that. A fifth way that we might disrupt peace in the congregation is to tolerate sin, to allow danger, to allow sin within the people of God. And that's what the psalmist is doing. He recognizes we don't want to disrupt peace. We want to pray for it. We want to seek peace. We want to seek the face of God. Look at the end of the psalm, verse eight and nine. So why? Why do we seek the face of God? Why do we pray? Why do we pray for peace amongst the people of God? Verse eight, for the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will say, may peace be with you. For the sake of the people of God. I love the people. I love the people of God. I pray that there will be peace because I love the people of God. Verse nine, not just the people of God, but because of the place of God's worship. Verse nine, for the sake of the house of the Lord. Oh, we want the worship of God to be pure. We want it to be pure and God honoring. We pray for peace. We live in peace. We seek the face of God in prayer. On your outline, I give you right on the middle of page two, five final and specific applications. Okay, so Jeff, this is kind of for the Old Testament Jewish worshiper going to Jerusalem. What about me? Very practically, really practical. Number one, prepare well beforehand. Just prepare. We are worshipers and we want to prepare well beforehand. Number two, we want to approach God gladly. When we gather with the people of God, we approach God gladly. Come and rejoice. Third, we want to worship God thankfully with a thankful heart. Fourth, we want to serve others corporately. Serve one another. It gets the focus off of self. How can I serve today? Who can I serve today? And then number five, seek peace prayerfully. What a great Psalm, very practical. As I close, let me ask you to imagine something with me. Imagine the context of a gathering of God's people, a gathering of God's people, men and women, young and old. And they've gathered together with many, many differences, different cultures, different background, different socioeconomic status, different preferences, maybe different opinions, perhaps on different matters. What does that assembly need? Well, the Apostle Paul wrote to that kind of church in Rome. And in Romans chapter 14, verse 19, here's what Paul said to that church with all different backgrounds and all different cultures and all different preferences and opinions. Here's what Paul said in Romans 14, 19. So then we pursue, I love that verb, we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. May that be our attitude as we gather together. May the Lord help us to be faithful to him for his glory. Amen.