Psalm 122

Psalm 122, verse 1. This is the first of songs which are called the songs of degree. And very interestingly, when you're looking at these psalms from number 120, rather, to 134, they all run in sets of three. And the interesting thing is, even in keeping with what we've been hearing this afternoon, they're all in relation to singing and worship, and they're all in relation to extolling their God.

The first psalm that you will read of the set of three is a confession of weakness and need. And dearly beloved, we need those times also. We need times of self-searching and confession of need.

In the second psalm of the three, you will find a psalm that's occupied with the abilities and the provision of the Lord for that weakness. And when you come to the third psalm, it's a psalm of praise. They're rejoicing in the fullness and the experience of the God who is their God, who is with them.

I want to notice with you in Psalm 122, in this psalm, that we're looking at one of the psalms that they were singing when they were going up to the festivals of the Lord. The times, three times a year in Israel, let me just say this for the sake of those who are younger, God gave to his people Israel seven festivals a year. And the word festival means a partying time.

That is, there were times of celebration, not partying like we think of, but they were celebrating unto the Lord. Some of them were a whole week long. Some of them were for one day.

And each of them in their position consecutively is the program of the unfolding of God's working for his people Israel. And he brings us into the blessing of them. And that's where I want to try and notice with you a little today.

And the people of God going up to Jerusalem, particularly the men are charged to go up. And interestingly, when you read in the Old Testament, the book of Numbers and Leviticus, they went up in groups of 50. 50 families would be in one group.

And what are they doing? They're singing. They're singing these psalms. They're bringing themselves again into a revival of the great provision that God has made for them.

And the result of it was that they were able, thus, as they returned to their places, they were worshipping God. So I trust indeed that, particularly for those who are young in the faith here today, that you will realize that God has a manner in which he develops in us the idea of worship, as well as an understanding, even as we've been hearing, of proving God in the experience of our life. And I'm just going to add this.

It's not an endeavor whatsoever to add what my beloved brother has just mentioned to us. But when you find God dealing with his people in their feeling of smallness and their limitations, he uses the title of the Lord of Hosts. And consecutively, the Lord of all hosts is with a remnant.

And the greatness of the God of whom we are hearing, he is the backbone and the power of but he is with us in all his fullness to meet our need. And that's what they're going to be occupied with. That's one of the titles, in fact, that they will use.

Read Psalm 122, please. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. That's the king, speaking, of course, of our blessed Lord, the king of kings, as he will fill that throne.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls.

Prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.

I want to notice with you for a very few minutes the three occasions when God required the males of Israel to go up to Jerusalem, singing these psalms and their families in these groups of 50, going up to Jerusalem to extol the Lord their God. The first one was in what the second festival that is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it commenced on the very day of the Passover. That's where we all commence, on the day of our salvation, our redemption, the day of the Passover.

And it lasted for seven days, and actually an eight-day period. It started with a Sabbath, and it ended with a Sabbath. And within that week was the Feast of Firstfruits.

That's the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. So there is a principle that God is wanting to teach us, and this is to be the character of this festival. It should be a time of rejoicing, because in that week, they couldn't allow any leaven in their houses, in the cupboards of the kitchen, nothing in their vessels.

It had to be all cleansed. Now, leaven in the Scripture always speaks of evil. It has the potential of inflating.

It has the potential of pervading, and it is evil. And in this first festival, we find that God's people, he intends us, beloved, to be rejoicing in our separation from sin. He wants us to keep our lives, and our homes, and our experiences with our families, to keep out the leaven.

There are many different types of leaven that are mentioned in the Scripture. Some of the leaven has to do with wrong doctrine, wrong teaching. Some leaven in the Bible has to do with what is fed to the family.

And some leaven in the Bible, the Lord Jesus is even teaching, has to do with the attitude of pride and self-righteousness. And the Lord Jesus calls that leaven. Now, he says, you make sure you keep that out of your dwellings, and keep it out of all the service that you do, all the vessels of service for eight days.

But here they're singing. And the occupation of their singing is, as we have noticed in the three different kinds of psalms, they're occupied with the greatness of their God, to supply for their need, to be with them in this time of separation from leaven. Dear younger believer, let me say to you kindly, the fashion of your entertainment before you were saved should leave your life now.

You cannot be occupied with the things that occupies that world out there in an entertainment field. Nor when it comes, either beloved, as to how you spend your time as a believer in the Lord Jesus. That is your vacation time, even.

You're not on vacation from God. We're going up. We're singing.

We're glad for the beauty and the purpose of our separation. It begins with a rest on the day of the Passover. That's our salvation.

And it will end with a rest. When the week is done, that's a little picture of our little lifetime. And when that week is closed, we will land in rest.

And brethren, when we begin, he wants us singing. And when we end, he wants us still singing. Let nothing of leaven interfere with that, because it would defile.

And God said, if you don't clean out that leaven, it's going to cut you off from communication, from communion with him. So there is a very definite blessing that is attached to these songs and these festivals. So the first one has to do with our lifetime being separated from the sins, the former lusts of our sins.

You remember how beloved Paul, when he's writing to Timothy, he says, flee also youthful lusts. Now when we think of the word lust, immediately our mind goes to immoral things. And make sure you keep yourself clean there.

That leaven will not only spoil your communion, but it will spoil your fellowship with the assembly and with your brethren. It could tie your hands for service. Make sure, dear young Christian, on the internet or whatever other means, make sure you keep your hands clean and your mind.

Keep the leaven out of the house. God wants us to be a singing people, not a weeping people. He wants us to be able to rejoice as we go up to the house of God, and not a people that has to stay home, because we've indulged in leaven.

The second occasion was on the day of, he calls it the festival of weeks. It's the 50 days after the Passover, and that we find, excuse me, and the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 is that second feast. It's the 50-day period, and it's on a Lord's day.

It's on the first day of a week. That's what God has in mind, and we know how he fulfilled that on the day of Pentecost as far as we are concerned. But the picture that he's bringing before us, I want you to notice.

They're to be rejoicing in this festival because it's the beginning of harvest time. That's the beginning of barley harvest. That's when it's going to commence.

The last occasion, the last festival we're going to have is at the end of the wheat harvest. So in between there's a great harvest time, and this 50-day period on the day of Pentecost, he wants the people of God to be occupied with this beginning of harvest. It's a time of festival, and my beloved brother has been bringing before us of God working with us in the gospel.

You know, beloved saints, the harvest is still being carried out. Sometimes we have a tough time, it seems, and we find that visiting door to door is a very tough business. But you know, it's one way that we learn how to approach people, because if it all went easy, we would never learn.

We would never learn how to be able to get in touch with people and be able to entice them to listen, at least as you recite a verse of scripture to them. That's the most important thing of all, is to get the Word of God into their ear. But here God is wanting them to rejoice in that, come up to the house of God singing, because there's a brand new beginning, and it is the day of the birth of the church.

It is a very precious truth, brethren, in the New Testament to be a member of the body of Christ. Very, very precious to realize that we have a place in an everlasting revelation that's going to portray the Lord Jesus and every believer in this day of grace, to compliment him, to justify him, and to glorify him forever and ever. And he says that should give you joy.

But while we are waiting, while we're still here, there is what is spoken of in the New Testament as the church of God. That's the assembling of believers in a locality, gathered unto the name and the person of the Lord Jesus. And he wants that to be a time of joy, a place of singing, a place of understanding of our weakness, therefore our dependence, the fullness of the greatness of God and his provision through his Word, and the great experience of seeing his power amongst us.

That's in the last of the three Psalms. And so it is that he intended for his people at that time. Now the dear Jewish people would have no conception of that.

They'd have no understanding. It was only a one-day festival. It was in there and sing, celebrate, and back home again.

And dear brethren, when we realize that as we come into the New Testament and see the greatness of the Lord building his church day by day, souls being saved, added to that wondrous masterpiece of which he speaks, a new creation in our world entirely, something that was never there before and will never be duplicated again at any further time, a masterpiece of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ of his body. Now he says that should give you joy, that you are in that relationship. Now let me note with you as well, when the people of God were intended to go up to Jerusalem with their singing, they had to go prepared.

In each of these festivals, they had to bring things for the festival. They would bring food, of course, but they would bring sacrifices, because the sacrifices are the expression of their appreciation of the greatness of their God as they've been singing. And so with us, brethren, our life, it takes us to Romans 12 and verse 1. To me, that is a most touching verse.

Sometimes we almost think that it's a commanding verse that really is taking us out of sync with our life and demanding something beyond. No, brethren, it is one of the loftiest moments of your experience and mine. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

Living sacrifice? Yes, my whole being, my whole life laid upon the altar for God. Like the bullock or like the lamb that is brought and its head is taken and laid upon that altar. That's your mind, beloved, dear younger believer.

That's what God is wanting to see from us. And then the legs and the inwards, that's my heart and that's my manner of walking in our world, bringing and laying upon the altar. He says it's good and it's acceptable.

It is the will of God. And make sure, he says, make sure that you don't conform or be conformed by this world. That's the world putting on you so you look like it, so you talk like it, so your goals are like it, so you act like that.

No, brethren, we're acting as one who is offered unto God, coming up with song unto the Lord, unto the house of God. In both of the first one, by separation, and in the second one, it is consecration, giving oneself unto the Lord at that marvelous single day of festival. But there's one more with which I close, and I notice with you it's at the end of the wheat harvest.

It is called the festival for a seven-day period as well, the festival that relates to the coming glory of the Lord Jesus. It's the festival of the harvest, the booths. And the were in relaxation, as if they were in the time of peace, and they put the branches on the top of the booths that they made.

And even the names of the trees to be used are all significant, relative to the glory of the Lord in his coming. And brethren, our blessed God wants us to live in the light of his coming, to be singing of the greatness of the fact that we, in all our unworthiness in the first psalm that we're going to sing of, we're not worthy that to be related to this day of glory. But because of the glory of the one whom we worship, because of the greatness of the man who is our redeemer, our great high priest, our God, our Lord, we're singing.

And what are we singing of? The day of glory. He is coming, beloved. He is going to step to the air from the side of the Father upon the throne, and to the air he will come with a shout.

You know, when I read 1 Thessalonians 4 and read of the shout of the Lord Jesus, I love that statement. It almost sounds to me like as if he just can't wait to get it out. As he calls, and the word is resounding through the hearts of believers and those who have gone before, who are asleep in Christ, the marvel of that day of triumph.

What a vindication, what a justification of the claims of our great redeemer in the power of his resurrection glory. And we shall rise to meet him in the air. And brethren, we'll sing then, and he wants us singing now regarding these glories.

That is the character of our life, to be occupied with the fact that we're going up, brethren, he says, let's go up to the house of the Lord. I was glad when they said, let us go up to the house of God. A time of singing, as the groups of believers are going home to heaven.

Put the little three of them together, and we have a little picture of our little lifetime as a believer in the Lord Jesus, from the day of the Passover until the day of the coming. And in each of those three different periods, in the time of unleavened bread, the separation of our life from evil, and the putting away of very particulars. And as the Spirit of God makes you sensitive, dear younger believer, and something says to you, that's not right for you because you're a Christian, put it away.

That's leaven, see? He wants you to have the joy of holiness. He wants us to rejoice and be happy in the cleanness of being put away of that which is unclean in his sight. And likewise, as we think of our position in the body of Christ, occupying with the greatness of being a part of the masterpiece of the Lord of glory, to occupy our hearts with its pleasure, as well as its testimony in relation to the assembly of God, it should be a place of singing, and a place of rejoicing, and a place of sacrifice unto himself, as we've been hearing.

And likewise, dear saints, what a joy I'd like to be in a place of sacrifice when I think of the Lord's coming. I really would just love, as you know, most of you know anyway, and it doesn't matter, I'm not going to go over any detail, but I had an experience in my life when I was very, very close to death, and going home to heaven, and it was a very, very extreme position. But on my recovery, I remember wrestling with God as to why, Lord, what were you trying to teach me? What is it that I must get out of this for God? You know, one day I remember being upon my knees in the presence of the Lord, wrestling with this thought of my experience, and why was I spared, and I don't want to miss the reason for it.

You know the verse that came to me, and it has never left me, and I pray that my blessed Lord will continually remind me in my heart. This is what he said. First, they gave themselves unto the Lord.

He's not asking for my time. He just wants me. I marvel, brethren.

He wants me to be in communion with him. He loves. I hear the voice of the bridegroom and the bride in the Song of Solomon.

He says, let me hear thy voice. He just wants you. Yield to him, brother.

That's the altar. Dear sister, bring yourself into his presence. Put away the leaven.

Rejoice in the marvel of where he has put you in the body. And remember, he's coming. And what will we have best of all, just in our little lifetime, to give ourselves unto him? The marvel of his wondrous grace that he wants to use me.

May God help me to be trustworthy, to be faithful to his name, and keep singing. Keep the joy in our soul going up to the house of God until we hear the shout. I'd like to be singing when Jesus comes.

May God help us, brethren, to rejoice and to live in the light of divine purpose for our life with a song at the beginning and a song at the end as we make our way home to heaven.