God With Us

I do seem to mix that up every afternoon. Psalm 132 is our text for this afternoon. Remember, O Lord, in David's favor all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob, I will not enter my house or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob.

Behold, we have heard of it in Epratah. We found it in the fields of Ja 'ar. Let us go to his dwelling place. Let us worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.

Let your priests be clothed with righteousness and let your saints shout for joy. For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back.

One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant, my testimonies I shall teach them. Their sons also forever shall sit on your throne. For the Lord has chosen Zion.

He has desired it for his dwelling place. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provisions. I will satisfy her poor with bread. Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.

There I will make a horn to sprout for David. I prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine. God bless the reading, and now be his will, the proclamation of his word, please be seated.

So once again, as we go through these songs of ascents, these exilic psalms written for the people of Judah as they were released from their exile in Babylon and are returning to Judah, we come across them once more on this journey back to their homeland, and they're going to do a great work.

They have a great work ahead of them, the one that Cyrus, the Persian king, commissioned them to do when he released them from captivity, and that great work they had to do, and I'm stealing from Nehemiah, who said, I have a great work ahead of me.

How should I stop doing it to meet with you? He kept at that great work because it was a great work that he was doing, and it's a great work that this people was going to do, to rebuild the temple of God, to restore the temple that had been ransacked and pillaged and desecrated by the conquering Babylonians some 70 years before, and as they go back to Judah, to their homeland Israel, to Jerusalem, the place where the temple was, as they go back, they sang these 15 songs of ascents, these psalms that made their way into Holy Scripture that were for them a balm for their souls and a reinforcement for their spirits as they endured the hardships of that journey, as they went from that place some 900 miles to their northeast, now traveling back home, this difficult path, this long path, fraught with perils, bandits and such, and they sang these psalms, these songs of ascents, to strengthen themselves, to remind themselves of God's goodness, to remind themselves of their purposes, just as we come together on Sundays, to remind each other of our great purpose of becoming like Jesus Christ, of building His church.

Was Christ who's building His church, but does He not use our hands and our feet to do so? These people on this journey to a great work, as we in our pilgrimage here are involved in a great work, we being this body, the temple of the living God, a place where God chooses to reside, a place where God, by His Spirit, because of Jesus Christ our Savior, resides with us and dwells amongst us.

This is the work that these people were heading for, to make a place for God to reside, a place where His name would dwell. God chose this place, and we know from Stephen's great sermon in Acts 7, God does not dwell in a place made with hands.

He doesn't need a building. And yet, in that day, at that time, this is how God met with the people, by and through the temple and the rites and the processes of the temple, and here they're going to restore that temple.

And this psalm is, for us, a great example. This psalm, as they go on this journey, they recite their history in their prayers to the Lord. The psalm is a prayer to God, a prayer to God calling out His glory and remembering what He has done, reminding Him, as it were, though God needs no reminding of anything, reminding Him of the history that they have with David, and in a sense, the history that He has with David.

David, the one who desired this temple to be built, this one that they are going to. Of course, David's son, not David himself, but his son was the one who built the dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob.

What we find here is how David succeeded through all the trials that he endured. He didn't get to build the temple, but he did find the place for the Ark of the Covenant, which is perhaps the most important symbol of the temple, the Ark of the Covenant, over which the cherubim were, the mercy seat.

As David, who succeeded even through all that he endured, as David, who vowed to build this dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob, and Yahweh, for his part, as I just read a moment ago, for his part, he also made a vow.

To David, he said, one of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. See, Christ is building His church today through His people. And where is our confidence in the building of this church? Where is our confidence that we will succeed?

Now, we all think, well, we don't succeed in anything. It's God who succeeds. True, right, correct. And yet, as I said a moment ago, it is we who must succeed because we are the hands and feet that Jesus has chosen to use as He builds His church through our making of disciples, through our growing together into His image.

Christ is building His church today through His people. Our confidence that Jesus will succeed, even while trusting us doing His will, is the same as was theirs, the singers of this psalm, these people coming back to Jerusalem to rebuild that temple.

The confidence that we have is the same as theirs, the sure promises of God, achieved through us by the work of His Holy Spirit in us. What is our confidence? That Christ will succeed as He uses us, as we, imbued with the power of His Holy Spirit, submissive to Him through that Spirit, following the Word of God, Jesus Christ succeeds through us.

And our confidence that He will succeed is the same as was theirs, a confidence that begins with God. He is our foundation. We can do no good thing without Him, as Jesus Christ said in John chapter 15.

And yet, as we look to His Word, as they did, as we remember the history they have with God, as they did in their prayer, we are strengthened, we are buttressed, we are reinforced, we are reminded that weak and stumbling as we are, as faltering as we can be, as often as we fall into sin and have need to repent and come back and come back and come back to Jesus over and again, ultimately, He is our confidence.

And our history with God is the same. It is one of those buttresses that we have. This Psalm sets an example for us, for our own hopes, our own aspirations, for our prayers for the church, as we will pray when this message is over and spend the rest of the afternoon together in prayer.

This is an example. Our hopes, our aspirations, our prayers, buttressed and reinforced and encouraged, much as theirs were. Their prayers were infused with God's Word. You see, to pray God's Word back to God is to pray God's will on earth as it is in heaven.

How much closer can we get to God's will from heaven to enact on earth than to pray back His Word to Him? This used to bother me. Like, why do you say, God, you know, and then we go on with the prayer?

God knows, He knows all things. Why are we telling what He knows? But as I've studied this, I've abandoned that position. Because this prayer tells God what He already knows. And this is the way we can pray.

We can pray for our church, pray God's Word back to God's Word, for ourselves, for our spirit, for our reinforcement. And yet to be sure, that as we're praying God's will for us, we're praying God's will from His Word, which is that will.

This Psalm, taken as a prayer, recites God's promises, which they didn't yet see, as though they had those promises in hand. Is that not like us? The church, that we pray for what we do not yet see? We hope to see Jesus, and as Paul says, why would one hope for what he already sees?

Because you see it, hope is no longer necessary. These people prayed for what they were looking for, what they were trusting in, but they were praying for it as though they had it in hand. Not the what the Lord had done yet, but full trust that He would do what He said He would do.

And again, how much more like the church can this be, than for we, who are working towards a Savior, whom we have not seen, and yet we love Him. A God we cannot see, yet we know by the faith He has given us, and the working of the Spirit within us, that He is, and He's a faithful, and just, and prayer-hearing God.

They recall David's promise, and commitment to the Lord's house. They recall that God would help him through his hardships, as He had helped them through their hardships, as He helps us through ours. So why remember David and his afflictions?

What has that to do with this psalm? It's because they're embarking on the same mission that he had, when he said, I will not let sleep enter my eyes,.

I will not slumber, I will not rest.

I had given my whole life, and all my energy, and all my thought, to finding a resting place for God. Now at that time, he was speaking of the Ark of the Covenant, just that Ark that the Philistines had had, that had been away from Jerusalem for those 20 years.

You can read about that in 1 and 2 Samuel. This is what he had in mind, he wanted to bring that Ark back to Jerusalem. First he had to conquer Jerusalem, and take it from the Jebusites. But they're embarking on the same mission, a resting place for God.

They started well, but at one point, as they let sleep enter their eyes, they slumbered while God's house was ignored. Once they got there, you can read about that in Haggai chapter one. But what do they say?

They remember David first, as they go on his same mission. Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord, and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob.

Excuse me.

So David swore, and he vowed. The word swore, to swear something, in Hebrew is shabba. Now you don't have to remember that, but I just wanna put that out there, because you're gonna hear it again in a few moments.

David shabba, he swore, and vowed. This amplifies the commitment that he had to this idea of bringing God into his resting place, the place that God had chosen. Hardships that he faced were self-imposed.

This would include setting aside the funds, procuring the materials from neighboring nations, even the wars that he fought, to secure those borders. He may not have known it, but those secure borders would be one of the reasons, if not the reason, Solomon was able to build the temple after him.

To actually build it from ground up, because he didn't have to worry about his neighbors and his enemies around him, because of the security, the borders, that David gave to him. I will not enter my house, or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob.

This is his priority,.

As it is ours.

But their history, again, shows how difficult it can be to stay on task. And again, is that not true for us? You read in Haggai chapter one, this same people, who when they got to Jerusalem, and were under the prophetic ministry of Haggai, and Zechariah, but Haggai chapter one, shows how they abandoned that first priority.

They left God's house desolate. They started well. They sang these psalms well. They came to church, and they sang the hymns, and they sang with us, and they listened to the preaching. And they attended the prayer meeting.

And yet, slipped a bit off the path. And Haggai, when you read how they took care of their own homes, they paneled their houses, while God's house lay desolate. And God, through the prophet,.

Rebukes them.

And God, through the prophet, brings them back. And God, through the prophet, reminds them why they came.

And God, through Haggai,.

Tells them, get back to work, and I will bless you. Get back to work, and I'll end the drought. Get back to work, and your fields will once again bring forth crops,.

And you'll be able to eat.

And your pockets will no longer have holes in them, where you lose all the money, and so forth. Know that God knows how hard it is for us to stay on track.

How the cares,.

And the trials, and the tribulations of the world, and just the worries that we have, can overtake us, and get us off track. And we slip just a little bit, maybe not falling off the rails completely, as we say, but not staying on that straight line that God has us on.

What do they do here to remind themselves? What do they remind themselves? What's this, historical review? They recall that the ark was successfully brought to the temple from Ja 'ar, with the Kiriath Je 'arim, 1 Samuel 6, 21, to 1 Samuel 7, verse two.

That's where it had been for some 20 years. David will have none of that.

David says,.

I'm not going to rest. All my energy, all my focus,.

Is to bring the ark of the covenant, that symbol of God's presence, within which we have some of the manna, the two tablets of the Ten Commandments, Aaron's rod that budded, the symbols of God's presence, and his ministry, and his work amongst that people,.

In that ark.

And God,.

David would have that away from the Philistines, and away from anywhere, but that one place where God chose for his name to reside, Jerusalem. This is what they recall. And in verse six, behold, we heard of it in Epirotah.

This is David's hometown. This is where David was born. Perhaps, probably Bethlehem. We found it in the fields of Ja 'ar. And then they say, let us go to his dwelling place. Let us worship at his footstool.

Now this psalm was written after David had died, so for God to go there seems out of view. He had gone there, if you will. He had gone there when David brought the ark to Jerusalem. He showed his pleasure over the whole project when it was installed.

In Solomon's temple.

Remember, his glory fell down upon the temple, and the priests couldn't do their ministry until the glory left. It was too much for them to be around. If the psalm is distinctly exilic, as I believe it to be, then this is the returning.

He's asking the Lord to go ahead of them, thus reliving how the ark went ahead in the hands of the Levites and the priests when David and the other armies went to war. Remember, it was the ark and the priests who were the vanguard of the army.

The ark by this time was gone and missing. To this day, we don't know where it went. The Babylonians seem to have some hand in his disappearance when they sacked the temple. Yet they're asking the Lord by his presence to go ahead of them, which is the true meaning of the ark.

So he's saying, we heard of it. We heard that David succeeded. We heard in his hometown that David had gotten the ark from where it had been in exile, as it were, for 20 years and brought it to Jerusalem.

We found it in Ja 'ar, Kiriath Jerom. They say, let us go to his dwelling place. Let us worship at his footstool. Let us fall down in obeisance before him to worship at the footstools, to worship at the feet of the greater, of the suzerain.

And in that day in the Middle East, vassals would bow down and actually kiss the feet of their suzerain, of their king. We read of this in John and Matthew, where Jesus' feet were washed by those women.

Tears fell on them and they kissed his feet. Complete obeisance, complete humility, complete submission to this Lord. Here's his people. Let us go and worship at his footstool. Let us show him that we are his people.

Let us demonstrate it physically by literally getting on our knees and falling down at his footstool. The place where he rests his feet is he sits on his throne. Somebody would always want to say here, we worship in that same way.

We fall down on our knees and bow down before him in our heart,.

In our spirit.

Is that not true? And you may be falling down on your knees before Jesus Christ at this moment, in your heart and in your spirit. But I wonder, I'm not gonna tell you to get up from your seats, but I wonder, what would it do to my spirit, to my heart, to your spirit, to your heart, if we actually got up out of the stools and actually got on the ground where we have room, on our knees and literally bowed down before Jesus Christ?

There's nothing in the Bible that says we must do that and I'm not saying that now. I just put the question out there. I wonder what that would do to our worship if we literally bowed down. What would happen to our worship, to our unity together, to our love for each other, if in John chapter 13 where Jesus says to the disciples, I've shown you an example of how I want you to be with each other, how I want you to treat one another, how I want you to submit to one another.

Now these are my words, but what am I talking about? When I said John 13, most of you know. When Jesus took off his clothes and wrapped himself in a turban and got down on his knees and washed their feet.

I'm gonna say, well, I'm washing your feet by my submission to you, my love for you. True enough, but I wonder, would it amplify our mutual love, our mutual submission, our unity together if we literally washed another one's feet?

Or in this case, if we literally bowed down before Jesus Christ? I'm not saying to do that, but I just put the question out there. In their day, they literally did. In our day, it is a matter of spirit.

It is a matter of the heart.

It's a matter of faith.

So I just put the questions out there as hypothetical, but I would have you think about them. What have they done here? Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you in the ark of your might. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.

For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed. You see, they secure their hope on God's promises, on David's enduring house. They're not holding him to his promises, as it were.

They are faithfully praying God's word to him as we do when we pray, prayer according to the will of God. To pray on earth as we would like it to be from heaven is just that, reciting God's word to him.

Kiel and Dillich, the 19th century German commentators say this, the prayer for the priests, for all the saints, and more especially for the reigning king that then resounded at the dedication of the temple is continued so long as the history of Israel lasts, even at a time when Israel has no king, but has all the stronger longing for the fulfillment of the messianic promise.

See, they didn't have a Davidic king before them at that time. They'd kept the records. If you read Matthew's genealogy in Matthew chapter one, yeah, I'd been taught early in my Christian life that he got that from the temple before it was destroyed.

I don't think so anymore. It was the faithful remnant in Babylon who kept the record, who kept the genealogy, who knew who the line of David was devolving to. And so when they speak of their anointed one, the servant, the son of David, they didn't actually have him as king yet.

They were going to land where the Persians were the governors. And yet with faith, remembering David's promises or God's promises to David. Because in the very next verse, the Lord swore to David a sure oath.

Now here's that same word, the word I told you before. If David Shabbah swore a vow to God, here is God Shabbah swearing to David a sure oath. And it's called sure oath in your ESV, in your English translation, because he swore Shabbah with amen.

The way we end prayers, with a so be it, with a faithful yes, let it be, that strengthening of it. So both David and the Lord swear something. The Lord swore a sure oath from which he will not turn back.

One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne, that was Solomon, that was Rehoboam, Esau, and so forth all the way through to all the kings of Judah. One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.

If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies thou shall teach them, their son shall forever sit on your throne. Now who's the one who sits on the throne today is of course Jesus Christ. The final son of David, the ultimate son of David, David's greater son.

And if God is going to teach the sons of David, the ones who were on this earth, the physical sons of David in that time, who's the ultimate, who's taught by God is of course, again, our savior Jesus Christ.

In John chapter 8, 28, what does Jesus say? The Lord God, God and man, the Lord God himself, Jesus Christ the Messiah said, what I say is what I was taught. Same word that is used here in the psalm. What I was taught by God to say.

Jesus Christ, the ultimate, the final, the greatest son of David, the one in whom all the promises of David become yes and amen. The one whom all the promises of David are fulfilled and completed, and yet to be completed.

They secure their hope on God's promises. They're on their way to build God's house, but why do they know they're going to succeed? What's their hope of succeeding? God's enduring presence. Verse 13, for the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling place.

He said, this is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provisions, I will satisfy her poor bread, her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.

There I will make a horn to sprout for David, I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine. What is the temple of God? They were going to build the temple of God and ultimately they did succeed.

You can read about it in the histories in Haggai and Zechariah and so forth, but 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse 19 says what about the temple? About God's dwelling place, where God has chosen to dwell, what God has desired, where God blesses provisions, where God satisfies the poor with bread and gives us what we need.

1 Corinthians 6, 19 says, do you not know that your body is the temple, a temple of the living God?

It's here.

It is this. It is this beautiful stucco and stone place that if you looked on the outside would not look anything like the second temple even. As much as that looked drab compared to the first temple, I'm sure it's more grand than this building.

And yet, here we are, dwelling with God. God dwelling with us. God by his presence, calling this very place, you and me, together as we worship Jesus Christ, the temple of the living God where he has chosen his name to dwell.

And how does his name dwell here? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, our savior, is his temple, it is his church, it is his body. Christ will build his church and his priests will be clothed with righteousness.

Who are his priests? Well, back then, he needed to know who the priests were by name. It was the Levitical priesthood, it was the ones who descended from Aaron. Who are the priests? Read 2 Peter 2, verses nine through 11.

He says, you, I'm pointing to you, to you personally, to you individually, and to us together. You are a royal priesthood. You are the ones who call out Jesus Christ's praises. You are the ones, when you sing, you're singing like the Levitical choirs of old, but with faith and with Jesus Christ on your lips.

The one who maybe they anticipated, the faithful remnant knew he was coming, they hoped for the Messiah.

You know him.

And God says, you are the priesthood. This is the temple. And so when we sing, and when I'm back there this afternoon, and I can barely get my voice going and I can't find the right tunes because somebody picked a hymn that I didn't know, and yet, I'm not speaking joyful noise here.

I'm speaking as a priest of God, by the blood of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for me, his sacrifice for you. This is the priesthood. These are the ones clothed with salvation, all of us, 2 Corinthians 5 .21.

For he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that in him we might become, what is it? Can you say the word? That we might become what?

What?

Nobody know, 2 Corinthians 5 .21? We are to become what? The righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. God in the psalm promises them he will clothe their priests with righteousness. He will clothe them with it, we are that.

God has given us that righteousness because as Pastor Tim was saying even this morning, he sees us through the lens of Jesus Christ, clothed with righteousness, and a crown. The crown, we read about that in Timothy where Paul speaks of the crown that is waiting for him.

The crown of life that is waiting for you and me when we see Jesus as he is, when we're like him and see him as he is. And we receive that crown of life and that wonderful, well done, good and faithful servant.

Can you imagine what it would be like for Jesus Christ to just give you that pat on the back, so to speak, to say, well done, well done. Is anything I've done deserving of that? You read in 1 Thessalonians, you can read in Colossians in the opening that we are pleasing to God, that you are pleasing to God, not because we have any merit, not because we do things perfectly, but because we do things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what it means to be clothed in righteousness, this is what it means to be God's priesthood, this is what it means to be God's temple even here. What's the horn and the lamp that God says he will sprout for David?

It's Jesus Christ, the horn that symbol of strength, that lamp that symbol of brightness and purity, that's Jesus Christ here in our priesthood. This priesthood I've been describing derives from him. Our clothing of righteousness is because of his priestly sacrifice.

Again, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, and 2 Timothy 4, James 1, 12, receive that crown. He speaks of those who will have shame. Those goats are told, get on my left side, and you go to everlasting condemnation, you get what you deserve.

And we, the sheep, the ones getting that crown, the one being clothed in righteousness, getting what we never deserved, but because of Jesus Christ, what he earned for us coming to his right side. God's oath, God's oath to them kept them going for 900 miles from Babylon back to Jerusalem into a very hard place.

God's oath to us that all the promises of his in the Bible, in Jesus Christ are yes and amen. We're going to pray in a few moments. Does this not strengthen our prayers? Does this not enliven us to pray all the more fervently?

Does this not remind us, as you have in the bullet, and I gave the verses for each segment of prayer that we're going to have, we're praying God's word back to him, and this is what it means on earth as it is in heaven.

Here's your will.

Here's what God has told us to pray for. Here's what God would have us to have here in this life, in this church. God's choice for us to be here this day, and God's promises, for sure promises, promises that we have in history as they had fulfilled in their history, but our promises are all the more sure, all the more certain, all the more founded, because our promises are based upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, that when he rose from the dead after having suffered for our sins, God certified that our sins had indeed been covered by resurrecting him and later bringing him back when he ascended back to heaven.

That's what this psalm is about, about a people secure in God, and through all the hardships they have, all the hardships that you have, that I have, things I've been going through the last couple months, well, you know what's been happening in my life.

Secured by what? God's promises that he, by his power, by his spirit, will bring us through as he will us in this church, amen? Heavenly Father, I thank you for your promises. I thank you for the certainty that we have in them, and thank you for Jesus Christ and our salvation in him.

And Father, for your spirit who indwells us, who unifies us, Father, for your spirit who empowers us to do your will. I pray it would be that case in this place, in this temple of the living God that we inhabit with you, Father, by your spirit.

In Christ's name, amen.