Psalm 122
122 It made me glad to hear them
say,
“Let’s go to the house of the Lord!”
“Let’s go to the house of the Lord!”
When
did you first hear popular Christmas music this year? Listening to the radio? At the mall?
What was your reaction?
Oh my gosh!
Are they really starting the Christmas hype this early?!
I have a bit of that too. I am
occasionally annoyed that Christmas is often over commercialized, driven by
materialism, and thoroughly removed from worship and devotion to the one true
God. That bothers me.
But I hear that
first song, whether my secular favorite, “Wonderful Christmas Time” by Paul
McCartney, or my favorite worship song, “Do you Hear what I Hear,” and
something else happens deep inside me.
Joyful anticipation. Excited
waiting. I become aware of myself and realize I have, without meaning too,
inched to the edge of my seat.
My son I__ helps me with the magic and music and color of Christmas. He keeps Christmas lights in his room
year-round. He does nothing to hide his
enormous joy when the first Christmas songs come on the radio. He will play it non-stop all day and all
night if Candy or I don’t turn it off after he’s asleep.
I do not know
how much worship would infuse my sense of Christmas longing if I were not a
pastor. But I am a pastor. Much of my eagerness at this time of year is
directly tied to worship. We enter the
story of the world waiting for God to do something. But, our entrance comes knowing that God has
done not just “something,” but God has done the most incredible, wonderful,
unexpected thing.
God has come to
earth, come in the form of a real, living, breathing, touchable human –
Jesus. Advent into Christmas: we enter
the story, singing all the way. We know
the story is one of hope that includes a cross, but ends with resurrection and
the promise that in Christ we too will rise to eternal life in the embrace of
God. Yes, we know the ending! Yes, we want to watch the movie anyway. Yes, it gets us as much as it did the first
time.
I don’t know
how much worship would be part of your Advent and your Christmas if you were
not a Christ follower and did not come together with his family to
worship. But you are here, seeking
God. We feel the entrance into Christmas
in the songs. We join hands and walk
toward Bethlehem. It made me glad to say, “Let’s go to the house of the Lord together.”
We don’t always
feel it. Sometimes, whether it is Advent
or not, we have to drag ourselves to church on Sunday. Sometimes, the warm bed or the golf course
wins. We don’t make it. Sometimes we come, but it doesn’t feel
inspiring or wonderful. It’s flat and
our minds wander and if we are honest, we wonder, what’s the point? Pastors ask this very question
sometimes.
In his
reflection on Psalm 122, Eugene Peterson, who pastored for more than 30 years,
recalls an oft repeated experience.
He writes, One of the afflictions of pastoral work has
been to listen with a straight face, to all the reasons people give for not
going to church:
‘My mother made me when I was little.’
‘There are too many hypocrites in the church.’
‘It’s the only day I have to sleep in.’
There was a time when I responded to such statements with simple
arguments that exposed them as flimsy excuses.
Then I noticed it didn’t make any difference. If I showed the inadequacy of one excuse,
three more would pop up in its place. So
I don’t respond any more. I listen (with
a straight face) and go home and pray that that person will one day find the
one sufficient reason for going to church, which is God.[i]
Peterson goes
on to describe Psalm 122 as the Psalm for people who decide to go to
church. We choose to be here, to sing
together, to proclaim God’s reality and goodness and importance. We want this.
That does not
mean we feel it every Sunday. Peterson calls feelings “great liars.”[ii] I see myself as one who wants to worship God,
to connect with God. That’s me. I want to be a worshiper.
But then
Sunday, rolls around. Saturday night was
rough. Life is stressful. Maybe sleeping in would feel better. Or, maybe I need to go for a drive, visit my
favorite restaurant in the mountains. I
can be there in a couple of hours, enjoy the afternoon, and be back by bed
time. I’ll do church next week.
Or worse, maybe
in my mind’s eye, I see the people at church, and they all have it
together. They know all the songs. They are all expert Bible readers. They don’t have any problems. I don’t fit in. I don’t feel like being among them, feeling so
out of place. I’ll skip it this
week.
Feelings are
great liars. We yearn for God. We want the blessings God gives. We want the joy that can only be known in
God’s presence. But sometimes our
feelings drive us from the church. Or,
they kill our experience while we are here.
It made me glad to say, “Let’s go to the
house of the Lord together.”
Thinking about
Advent, I began writing the names of people who worship here every Sunday or
just about every Sunday. I started
listing names. As people popped into my
head, I wrote the names down. Then I
looked over the list.
I see teenagers
struggling for confidence and identity.
I see cancer
threatening death; such fear.
I see divorce
ripping families apart.
I see people
who have worshipped here less than and year and will be gone by Christmas,
moving on to other places.
I see members who
aren’t going anywhere; people who have been at the core of this church’s life
since the 80’s.
I see people
fighting to save their marriages.
I see people
without jobs, anxious, uncertain about the future.
This is who
chooses, Sunday after Sunday, to come. Please
don’t think you don’t fit in or you don’t have it together the way everyone
else does. This church is for broken to
find lasting joy in Jesus. The hurting,
the frustrated, the confused: this is who God has gathered to create our church
family. This is who we will stand with
as we sing “Joy to the World, the Lord has Come. Let earth, receive her King. Let every heart, prepare him room, and Heaven
and nature sing.” This is who we pray
with and who we pray for; this is who we embrace. This is who, in the name and the power of
Jesus, we love.
We are together
throughout the year. But Advent, the
season of hopeful waiting, allows us to more easily express our affection for
one another. God uses green and red and
candles and trees to open our hearts and our mouths. For some reason, we find ourselves expressing
our love for one another. We are able to
give it and receive it.
Psalm 122 – the
worship Psalm for people who come and come gladly, even when we are quite
feeling it. We choose to come. In the Psalm we read “Jerusalem.” In that name, think of where the people of
God gather. We’ve been invited to be
among the nation of priests. Jesus draws
us into Jerusalem. Thus the prayer for
the gathering place is our prayer.
Psalm 122
122 It made me glad to hear them
say,
“Let’s go to the house of the Lord!”
2 Jerusalem, we are standing inside your gates.
“Let’s go to the house of the Lord!”
2 Jerusalem, we are standing inside your gates.
3 Jerusalem, what a strong and
beautiful city you are!
4 Every tribe of the Lord obeys him and comes to you
to praise his name.
5 David’s royal throne is here where justice rules.
4 Every tribe of the Lord obeys him and comes to you
to praise his name.
5 David’s royal throne is here where justice rules.
6 Jerusalem, we pray that you
will have peace,
and that all will go well for those who love you.
7 May there be peace inside your city walls
and in your palaces.
8 Because of my friends and my relatives,
I will pray for peace.
9 And because of the house of the Lord our God,
I will work for your good.
and that all will go well for those who love you.
7 May there be peace inside your city walls
and in your palaces.
8 Because of my friends and my relatives,
I will pray for peace.
9 And because of the house of the Lord our God,
I will work for your good.
In
the coming of Christ, justice rules, and there is peace in the city walls and
all goes well for those who love God. In
another translation, that phrase, ‘all goes well,’ is translated
prosperity. But, this word is not about
economic gain. The actual meaning is
leisure – “a relaxed sense that everything is alright because God is over us.”[iii]
Again
my mind reviews the names and faces of all who make up the HillSong family. Seemingly every sort of human struggles
visits someone among us. There is
sickness of body, death of relationships, disappointment in life. We feel it all. Our gladness in worship is completely
dependent on that baby in Bethlehem becoming who the Bible says he is – God
with us. Our dependence on him is
rewarded with life and Spirit; His Holy Spirit fills our songs and takes us
residence in our hearts. Even in our
difficulties, we know the truth in the prayer that everything is alright because God is over us.
“May
there be peace inside your city walls.”
The Hebrew notion of “Shalom,” often translated ‘peace,’ has a fuller
force than simply the absence of conflict or violence. Eugene Peterson thinks of Shalom in this way
– “God’s will is completed in us.”[iv]
Let
that settle on the heart. All that God
intended in creating the world; all God’s purposes in fashioning human beings
in God’s image; all God’s hopes in calling Israel to be God’s chosen people and
a light drawing the world into the worship of God; it all comes together in
Shalom. When we have shalom, God’s will
is completed in us. When we have Jesus,
we have shalom.
The
prophet Isaiah offers a vision of shalom.
Isaiah 2:3-5 (CEV)
3 Many people will come and say,
“Let’s go to the mountain of the Lord God of Jacob
and worship in his temple.”
“Let’s go to the mountain of the Lord God of Jacob
and worship in his temple.”
The Lord will teach us his Law from Jerusalem,
and we will obey him.
4 He will settle arguments between nations.
They will pound their swords and their spears
into rakes and shovels;
they will never make war or attack one another.
5 People of Israel, let’s live
by the light of the Lord.
and we will obey him.
4 He will settle arguments between nations.
They will pound their swords and their spears
into rakes and shovels;
they will never make war or attack one another.
5 People of Israel, let’s live
by the light of the Lord.
The
light of the Lord began shining with a new brightness that night in
Bethlehem. Now in Advent, the theater is
dimming and our favorite movie will begin shortly, one that lasts from now to
Easter Sunday and gets better each time we watch it. Yet, more than watch it, we walk in it. Our walk happens in worship as we read and
the Psalm for church goers who worship together. We bring all our burdens, cares, and
worries. We leave with Shalom, knowing God
us with us so all will go well.
In
glad anticipation, we step toward Bethlehem.
AMEN
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