Word of Salvation – December 2025
A PSALM OF JOYFUL WORSHIP!
Sermon by Rev John Haverland
Text: Psalm 122
Readings: Ex 23:10-17; Heb 12:14-24
Theme: The psalm expresses the joy of worshipping the Lord to praise him and pray.
Purpose: To encourage to come to worship with joy to praise the Lord and to pray to him.
This Psalm describes the joy of the people of Israel of going to the house of the Lord, that is, the temple, in the city of Jerusalem. Hopefully, this describes your joy at being here, with the people of God, in the presence of the Lord, to worship him.
Many of our Christian brothers and sisters in the world do not have the freedom or opportunity to meet together for worship as we do. Many Christians are living in countries where there are severe restrictions on worship, and some live in countries where they are not allowed to meet together at all.
Many of us a taste of this in the covid pandemic in the closing months of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 when many cities went into lockdown and we were all instructed to stay at home. As a result we were not permitted to gather together for worship. Months later we were able to meet together again!
This psalm expresses the joy of worshipping the Lord, to praise him and to pray! “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’.” (v 1)
We’ll note three features of our worship – our joy, our praise, and our prayer.
1) OUR JOY, v 1-2
This psalm is one of a collection of the Songs of Ascent. To ‘ascend’ children, means to go up. These psalms were sung by the people of Israel as they made their way up to Jerusalem to worship God. The men of Israel had to do this three times a year for the three main festivals – the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering (Ex 23:14ff). But often the whole family would go up to Jerusalem.
As the time for these festivals approached, people in villages and towns all over Israel would say to their family members, their friends, and their neighbours; “Are you going to Jerusalem for the feast?”
Many they spoke to responded gladly and said they were certainly going. They would travel from their villages or towns in groups, both for company and for safety. When they set out they may have sung Psalm 121, often known as the “travellers psalm”, as they looked to God for his protection on their journey.
When they arrived in Jerusalem they forgot about the dangers and weariness of the journey described in that psalm and they were thankful to have arrived. They said, “I was glad when they said to me,
‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’.” (v 1)
Do you regularly say this when you are at worship? Maybe you had to make an effort to get here. Maybe your children were difficult at home or in the car. But now that you are here, can you say; “I’m very glad I came! I’m very thankful to be in this worship service”?
The house of the Lord and the city of Jerusalem in the Old Testament are pictures of the New Testament church. The worship of Israel at the temple has shifted to the worship of Christians as the church.
We read about that in Hebrews 12: We “have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God… to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven …to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Heb 12:22-24) New Testament worship is much better than the worship in the Old Testament.
The people of Israel entered the city gates – the older men and women, mothers and fathers and little children; they looked up at the gates of the city and the high walls and the temple set on the hill. They paused in awe and admiration. This was Jerusalem, the City of David, the City of God; the City of the Great King! They said, “Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem” (v 2).
Today we are not admiring the gates of a city or high walls. We worship in a modern, beautiful, functional church building. Our feet are standing on a solid floor. We have our feet in church, in worship.
Sadly, many in our society do not. On Sunday mornings they choose to keep their feet in bed, or on Sunday afternoon their feet are propped up in front of the TV, or they are under a table at a local café or restaurant, or they are running around on the sports field.
Thankfully you are here! But it is not enough to be physically present – you must come with the right attitude and with a good motive.
Are you here only out of habit, because this is what you usually do on a Sunday morning or afternoon? Are you here out of duty because you feel you ought to? Are you here because of other people’s expectations? Are you here, children, because your parents told you to come? Are you here, young people, because you want to catch up with your friends? Why are you here? Are you glad to be here? Are you here cheerful and thankful?!
It is important that you are here, but it is also important that you are here for the right motive. This is important for those of you who are parents and grandparents, because your children and grandchildren are watching you, and will copy you.
If you come to church reluctantly and complaining then they will do the same; but if you come with gladness and joy then, by the grace of God they will do the same.
The opening two verses express our joy in worship.
2) OUR PRAISE, v 3-5
“Jerusalem – built as a city that is bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord… to give thanks to the name of the Lord…” (v 3).
a) The city of Jerusalem was surrounded by a high wall. All the buildings had to fit inside that wall and so were all close together, compacted. This is the word used by the KJV and by the NIV.
“Compacted” also has the sense of being joined together or knit together. This is the description of the church in Ephesians 4:16 in the KJV. As a church we are all joined together in and through the Lord Jesus. We share one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We confess one creed, follow one Saviour, proclaim one gospel, and we are united in one common goal, which is the service and glory of God. (Eph 4)
This also describes our order of worship. There is a definite structure to our worship services, an order of service; everything fits together; each part connects with other parts. The entire service is unified, whole, and complete.
b) Three times a year the men of Israel came together for these three festivals. They represented “the tribes of the Lord.”At times the tribes did not get on so well; there were even times of conflict and warfare.
Coming together to worship the Lord helped unify them, helped keep them together, gave them a common focus. It helped remove prejudice and misunderstanding. It reminded them they were “the tribes of the Lord.”
This is true of the church too. Sometimes we have disagreements with each other. When you disagree it is tempting to stay away from worship, to avoid that person or those people, to isolate yourself; or, if you do come to worship, to come in late and to leave immediately after the service.
But you ought to do the opposite: if we feel alienated from others you need to make even more effort to attend worship, to meet with others, to talk to them, to stay around after the service and fellowship with others and share what is on your mind and in your heart.
c) The people of Israel were also at the temple because this “was decreed for Israel” (v 4b). This was a command of the Lord. God called them to worship. Three times a year all the men had to be there in the city. And they were. Maybe they did not always feel so glad to go, but they went because it was “decreed for Israel”; this was “the statute given to Israel” (NIV).
In the New Testament church we don’t have any feasts or festivals that we have to celebrate. All of these were fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. But we are still required to worship the Lord. God has commanded that we set aside one day in seven and keep it holy. The Sunday is a day set apart for God so that we can gather together to worship him.
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.” (Heb 10:25) This is God’s command.
Let’s not neglect this assembling, this gathering together for worship.
We do this so that we can “give thanks to the name of the Lord”, as did the people of Israel. We come together to give him glory and honour; “to praise the name of the Lord”, to thank him for what he has done for us in and through his Son Jesus Christ and to worship him as our Almighty and Holy God.
d) v 5, “There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.” Jerusalem was the religious and civil capital of the nation. The people went there to worship the Lord, but they also went there to settle disputes and to get a judgment or a decision from the king. The king was the final administrator of justice and he based his decisions on the word of the Lord in the Scriptures, especially in the laws.
Our worship services are full of the word of the Lord, from the call to worship to the closing benediction. We hear God’s word and his judgments in the readings of the law from the Old and New Testaments. We hear God’s word in the sermon, and in the singing of our psalms and hymns. Our Reformed worship is saturated with God’s word, his truth, and his judgments. This too is why we are here, and all of this informs, guides and prompts our praise to him.
3) Our joy, our praise, OUR PRAYER, v 6-9
Prayer is an essential part of worship. In our prayers we thank God, we praise him, we confess our sins, and we ask for his help for ourselves, for our families, for the church and for the world.
Verse 6 called Israel to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” The Hebrew word for peace is shalom which means wellbeing, wholeness, unity and harmony.
Verses 6 and 7 urged Israel to pray for “security” which translates the Hebrew word shala, which has a similar sound and meaning to shalom. Shala has the idea of peace, safety and prosperity.
These were the prayers of the Israelites for their nation. This is our prayer for our church and the church of Jesus through the world.
We pray for our church family, and for our brothers and sisters in our denomination, and for the other churches in our nation, and for the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ. “For the sake of my brothers and companion’s sake I will say, ‘Peace be within you’!” (vs 8)
We pray that the church may enjoy peace and grace, unity and harmony; that she may grow and gather in the elect; that her good influence may extend far and wide. We pray that she may have faith, hope and love; that she will preach the truth, minister to those in need, and find those who are lost.
This beautiful psalm concludes, “For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.” (v 9). What Jerusalem was to the Israelite, the church is to the Christian. As the people of Israel sought the good of their city, so we seek the good of the church.
By nature we are inclined to seek our own good, to look after ourselves, to do what is best for my own physical and emotional wellbeing.
But David, writing this psalm, resolved to seek the good of God’s people. Will you do this? Are you doing this? Do you seek the good of the church by attending a Bible study group, by speaking to people who are new to the church, by putting up your hand when there is work to be done, by being willing to serve in some way in some position, by encouraging others in the work they are doing, by praying for the pastor, elders and deacons, by praying for the peace of the church?
Do you seek the good of the church by attending worship every Sunday as the Lord gives you health and strength? Each Sunday do you say? “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”
Amen