Well, do please open your Bibles this morning to the Psalms. Psalms, crack your Bible open in half, you'll be right there. Psalm 122, it's on page 656 in the Pew Bible, 656. This is the third in a series through the Psalms that are known and titled as Songs of Ascents. Psalms 120 through 134, our first morning exposition. The Israelites sang these psalms as they journeyed from their homes up Mount Zion into Jerusalem to the city of God, to the house of God, to worship. And together with the saints in all ages, we can see ourselves moving through these psalms in the Christian life. In Psalm 120, we see that life in this hostile world causes us to yearn for the peace of God that comes only in His presence. In Psalm 121, we look to the Lord our Keeper to uphold us and to guard us all the way home to glory. In Psalm 122, a Psalm of David, the first of four in this series, we're pointed to Jerusalem, the city of David. The city of God founded on Mount Zion. When we enter into Psalm 122, as we will do as we read it, we find ourselves standing within the gates among God's people in the city of God. And here we will see and be reminded that we do rejoice. That we are united. And that we pursue peace in the city of God. Hear now the word of God from Psalm 122, a song of ascents of David. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, built as a city that is bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. There thrones of judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they be secure who love you. Peace be within your walls and security within your towers. For my brothers and companions' sake, I will say, peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. Here ends the reading of God's Word. It's glorious. Thank you, Lord. We begin in verses 1 and 2 of this psalm with the setting. The psalmist tells us right where we are, right where they are and what's happening. We find ourselves in the city of God. We find that we do rejoice. In verse 2 is the scene. A group of pilgrims has entered inside the gates of Jerusalem. Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. The psalmist speaks for all of those standing there, those who have arrived firm and secure after trekking from homes in hostile places through many snares and toils and dangers into the gates of the city to stand within the protection and the provision of the city of God. No longer exposed to the elements and enemies they are brought within, safe and secure. It's not hard to imagine someone stooping down to kiss the ground, as we've seen people do, and perhaps you've done, after surviving an arduous journey. Joy, now complete, has been theirs from the beginning, and all along the way. As verse 1 recalls, it says, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. I was glad when this all began. From the moment each was called to join the happy throng, they rejoiced in knowing. In knowing that not only Yahweh, the Lord, was their God, but that he was calling them his people to come to him, to gather before him to worship. The psalmist's joy anticipates our joy as Christians. We who are joined through faith to Jesus Christ, we who have already entered into the heavenly Jerusalem in Him, even into the Holy of Holies with Him. Jesus Christ who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, endured the shame and is seated at the right hand of God the Father on our behalf. We too were glad when we were called through the gospel and we believed the good news that Jesus Christ came into this world to call sinners to repentance. To save sinners, of whom I am the worst. And through faith in Jesus, we have become children of God. Children of promise. Who have, as our mother, Paul says, the Jerusalem above. One day, our joy will likewise be complete when we stand, body and soul, resurrected in the heaven, the new Jerusalem. in this holy city that will one day come down out of heaven when Christ returns. We too will look back at our pilgrimage among hostile neighbors through difficult circumstances and count it all joy, as James says, because through it all, the Lord has worked in us steadfastness and he has made us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, so that we may stand before him spotless, without wrinkle, without any other blemish, amongst his people forever and ever. In the meantime, however, here and now, we don't have a lasting city here. We seek the city that is to come. Therefore, we press on. Even though we're in the city, we're not in the city. We're in Jesus. And we look to Jesus. We look for him to bring us home, and we answer his call week by week when we come here together for worship. week by week we meet here together with the heavenly hosts, angels in heaven the saints who've gone before our brothers and sisters in Christ and we come here to hear his word to partake of the sacraments to fellowship and to pray and to experience a foretaste of the heavenly Jerusalem to come do we understand that's what's happening right now do we understand that we have entered in through Jesus Christ into the city of God do we hear that call from our elders who speak the voice of Jesus to us to come as his call for this I know for myself the more I understand that the more my joy expresses in coming to worship before our God truly we do rejoice in the city of God already. Even here and even now. And yet our joy is not yet complete. It waits for the day when our faith will be sighted. The psalmist then in verses 3 through 5 turns to ponder, if you will, Jerusalem. The city of God. To ponder its nature and its purpose. How the Lord has established it. How the Lord uses it. And we see how in the city of God we are united. We are put together. Jerusalem, he says, built as a city that is bound firmly together. It certainly has in mind its structure, it's the way it was built. It's built on the crest of a mountain between two valleys. It's compact, about the size of a postage stamp. I'm sorry, about a half a mile. It's a small place, bound firmly together. And in Psalm 2, verse 6, the Lord declares, that as for me, I have set my king on Mount Zion. on my holy hill. The Lord picked that little city in that faraway land in the middle of nowhere to set his king. The book of 2 Samuel in particular tells the story of David being set there by the Lord. And in 2 Samuel chapter 5, we're told how the Lord gave the city to David. David conquered Zion. He took over the stronghold. He inhabited the stronghold and he built up a city. And through King David in that city the Lord bound his people together in worship. He bound them together as a holy people to come before his face. The Lord had decreed to Moses long before that three times a year all your men will gather before me in whatever place I choose. And it wasn't until David. It wasn't until David that the place that God chose was fixed in one place year over year over year over year, and that was Jerusalem. Through years of wandering in the wilderness, they went from place to place to place, but the Lord gave David the city, and he used Jerusalem to bind them firmly together in their worship. 2 Samuel 6 tells us that David and all the house of Israel brought the ark of the Lord into the city, into the city of David, into a tent that David had built. And it would not be until Solomon that the temple would be built, but it was there in Jerusalem. And it was there for, the psalmist says in verse 4, it is Jerusalem to which the tribes go up. It is Jerusalem that the tribes of the Lord go up as was decreed for Israel to give thanks to the name of the Lord. And so Jerusalem, the city of God, was used by God to bring his people together for worship. But not only that, through King David, the Lord also used Jerusalem to bind his people together firmly, tightly, as a nation. As an undivided house under his appointed king. Ever since the Exodus, the people of Israel had functioned and traveled as 12 tribes, 12 families. The tribes of the Lord were not bound firmly together as a nation until David was given Jerusalem and he was enthroned there as their king. 2 Samuel chapter 8 tells us that David reigned over all Israel and he administered justice and equity for all his people. Therefore the psalmist says in verse 5 of our text, there in Jerusalem thrones of judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. Jerusalem, the city of God, the city of God by which he used David to bind his people together as a nation. King Solomon set these things in stone. He built the structures that we marvel at when we read the Old Testament. He built the house of the Lord, the temple. And he built the palace complex, which included the hall of the throne, the hall of judgment that's referred to here. And Israel as a nation, in its unity and in its peace, reached its pinnacle in Solomon. The land was given rest. They enjoyed the fullness of this picture, as full as it could be experienced in this world. And yet, because of sin, it didn't last. Because of sin, the earthly Jerusalem did not stay bound firmly together in their worship or in their service to God. But even so, because we have the story of it in Scripture, it was set down for us to serve as an anticipation, a model, a picture of the heavenly Jerusalem that is and will forever remain bound firmly together in Jesus Christ, our King. The Lord God who set David on earthly Zion, King of Israel, has set the Son of David, Jesus Christ, on heavenly Zion, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The angel Gabriel foretold his birth to Mary and Luke saying he will be great, will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end. And when he entered the earthly Jerusalem, as Zechariah foretold, the crowd shouted Hosanna to the Lord our God, Hosanna to the son of David. They recognized who he was. But instead of lifting him up in Jerusalem on the throne of David, they took him outside the city and lifted him up on a cross. And so Jesus died there and was buried like King David. But unlike King David, who remains in the grave, God raised up Jesus. He exalted him at his right hand in heaven, and he made this Jesus, Peter said, both Lord and Christ. King and Savior. And so Christ has entered the heavenly Jerusalem as Hebrews 9 declares, not into holy places made with hands which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Therefore, in light of Hebrews chapter 12 through faith in King Jesus this morning you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and you are bound firmly together with innumerable angels and festal gathering and in the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and the spirits of the righteous made perfect. You are bound firmly together in the worship of and in subjection to God the judge of all in Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior. That's where you are right now through faith in Jesus Christ. You're in the city amongst his people. And so Paul says our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await our Savior. This is what we confess when we confess that we believe a holy Catholic church. When we recite the Apostles' Creed together, we're reciting this reality when we say we believe a holy Catholic Church. We believe that the Son of God, through His Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to the end, gathers, protects, preserves for Himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community, I am. And you are. And always we'll be living members. Truly, we are already united in the city of God. And we'll remain united to Christ forever. The psalmist now turns from relishing in the joy of belonging in the city of God. The unity that we enjoy as the people of God in Jesus Christ. to call us to pray for the peace of this city. Verses 6 through 9, we find that in the city of God, we pursue peace, and we are to pursue peace. Why? It sounds so good, right? It sounds so good, and it is so good. But we're still in this world, and sin still clings, and peace doesn't always prevail. According to Genesis 14 and Hebrews chapter 7, Jerusalem, which was known by the name Salem when Melchizedek was the priest, has as its root meaning peace. Of all places in the world, Jerusalem should be peaceful. However, Scripture testifies that earthly Jerusalem has rarely been peaceful. We look at our newspapers today, we know it's not now. We look at the Scriptures, Back as far as Jeremiah chapter 6, for example. He warned Jerusalem that the wrath of God was coming against them because of their lack of peace and unity. Judgment against them for not being bound firmly together in worship of him and service of him. And he chides them for saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. And Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to him. It's clear that Jerusalem needed prayers for peace. Therefore, the psalmist turns to the congregation and urges them to pursue peace in the city of God. Not only through prayer, which he says explicitly in 6 and 7, but also in word and deed, verses 8 and 9. In verses 6 and 7, the psalmist includes not only the command, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But he also includes how to pray. Not only for the absence of conflict, the absence of war, but also for security and prosperity in the city of God. And he presses this point by setting peace and security side by side in these two verses. Listen for it, verse 6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they be secure who love you. Verse 7. Peace be within your walls and security within your towers. Pray for the peace and security of Jerusalem. And in verses 8 and 9, the psalmist adds to his prayers his vows. His vows to say and do things that promote peace in the city of God. I will say, peace be within you. And I will seek your good. In other words, I will do what I can for your good. I will speak and I will act for the good of the city of God. Why? Why would he do that? Because clearly he loves the Lord his God and he loves the Lord's people. He says so. For my brothers and companions' sake, I will say these things. And for the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will do these things. I hear that echoed in Peter this morning, in God's will for our lives, that we would use the gifts he gives us for the service of his people, in service to our Lord. So the prayer was needed then, and the prayers that the psalmist raises here, and the prayers that they represent, were initially answered with Jesus Christ came into this world. Isaiah revealed Him to be the Prince of Peace, in whom we've been justified through faith so that we have peace with God, and who Himself is our peace, having brought us together as one people. And His prayers and our prayers will ultimately be answered only when Jesus Christ comes again in glory. When He ushers in perfect peace, perfect security, The fullness of the city of God. But in the meantime, we don't wait in a vacuum. Until then, even though sin clings to us closely and the peace of the church is often disrupted and the peace with our neighbor is often disrupted, we don't need to live there and stay there. We're sinners, yes. And we will offend, yes. But we're citizens of Jerusalem. We're citizens of the city of God. And by His Spirit, we have the capacity to To confess, to repent, and to forgive, and to restore, and to build up, and to foster peace in the city of God. So even though we struggle, we struggle knowing that Jesus promised that he will build his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against him. And even though he warned us that in the world we'd have tribulation, he encouraged us to take heart for he's overcome the world and he prayed for us he prayed for us that we may all be one just as he and the father are one and he's taught us to pray for one another our father who art in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and he continues to answer such prayers for us whenever a blessing from his word is announced to us and to you from this pulpit as it was in his greeting this morning and as that will be in his benediction in a few minutes those are words given by our Lord Jesus Christ to his church and often the blessing of peace is announced to us. Therefore, because we have been so richly provided for, we too can and we must pray for the peace of the church and add to our prayers actions that promote peace by what we say, by what we do, letting, as Paul says, the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, pursuing to make peace pursuing mutual ability, striving for peace with everyone. And so in Ephesians chapter 4, Paul urges us all to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we've been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Psalm 122, Brief and rich has helped us see that through faith in Jesus Christ we have already entered into the city of God. We're citizens here. And yet we still wait for what the Apostle John saw and heard in Revelation 21. A new heaven and a new earth. The holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. And a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man forever and ever. But in the meantime, already citizens of heaven, here on earth, we do rejoice. We rejoice in Jesus and in his church. And we are united to Jesus and to his body, the church. And we pursue peace with one another and for the entire household of God for the glory of his name and the building up of his church. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, how beautiful it is to know that we are standing in the city of God. That through faith in Jesus Christ you have already ushered us in to stand on solid ground. With the host of heaven and the multitudes of saints who've gone before, who with us wait for the day when faith will be sight and the bodies resurrected into life everlasting. And the new Jerusalem will come down from heaven and the dwelling place of God will be with his people. we thank you that you've accommodated our weakness as we wait here in this world that you meet with us and join with us in the church that you've established the church the city of God here help us to appreciate the reality of it the wonder of it, the glory of it the provision we find here, the safety we have here the calling that we have here open our eyes Lord that we would see beyond our noses and appreciate the wonder of being citizens of the city of God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.