Psalms 132 His Presence, Our Hope

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service. This is a sermon series on the Psalms of Ascent by Pastor Don Filsek. Let's listen in.

The Psalms of Ascent and the Longest Pilgrim Song

We've been looking at the Psalms of Ascent, and this morning we come to the longest and probably the most complex one of all of the Psalms of Ascent. And I say this psalm is complex because it requires a fairly detailed understanding of some obscure Old Testament events.

And so, from that standpoint, at first reading, you might say, well, how does this fit in? And what has this got to do with me? And boy, this seems strange and complicated. I'll move on to the next psalm.

Or I'll go reread the one that we just went over last week that was only three short verses. But this psalm is here for our need and because it speaks to a need that we have as the people.

Of God.

It speaks a lot in this text about the life of David. David is the central theme of this psalm. The psalm alludes to the time when David brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem for its final resting place.

It speaks of David's vow to find a location for the temple of God in Jerusalem. It quotes from the dedication service for the temple and speaks of the Davidic covenant that God made with the final hope that God would provide for his people in the future with this psalm ultimately culminating in one of David's line, who would be the strength, the victory, the light, and the rightful ruler over his people forever and ever and ever.

So with all of these moving pieces, many of us, many of those moving pieces that are unfamiliar to us, I want to set the table for us this morning by explaining what holds all of these events in common.

What holds, what is the glue that holds Psalm 132 as kind of the main point that all of this is driving for. All of these events are important in the history of God and are important for us to read here in 2015 because they all pertain to the place of God.

They all pertain to his presence. Not presence like as in gifts, but his presence as in his being with his people. From the Ark of the Covenant mentioned in the text, to the tabernacle, to the temple, to the promised rule of a Lion of David, God with us, the hope, Emmanuel, the child of, the son of David who would come and be with his people.

To the ultimate hope for a final Zion of God, a final resting place for his people. All of these, what could appear to be disparate stories, combine to show us that God desires to be with his people and our ultimate journey is to the place of God.

It's important at this point to remember that these songs were used as traveling songs. I've mentioned that all throughout this series. These 15 Psalms within the entire book of 150 Psalms are set aside with the specific script in the most ancient versions of this that we have.

The most ancient manuscripts title these off to the side as the songs of ascent, the songs of the travel upward is another way of saying that. And these were used by, it's very well documented in historical context and historical documents that these Psalms were used as songs for the pilgrim to Jerusalem on their annual pilgrimage up to Jerusalem to make sacrifices and to meet with God in worship.

And they are metaphorical for us then. We don't, if any of you have ever been to Jerusalem, maybe a couple of you have actually physically been there, but for most of us, we don't take a literal journey to Jerusalem.

And so these songs for us are a metaphor of our lives on the way to meeting with our God. They remind us of our journey. And as far as songs about journeys go, this one is very helpful because how many of you would acknowledge that when you embark on a journey, knowing where you're going matters?

Have any of you identified that before? Any of you got confused halfway there and forgot where you were heading? So I saw a couple of people ribbing their husbands, a couple of people ribbing their wives, you know, that kind of stuff happens, right?

Whenever we go on a journey, we might have an idea where we're going. And sometime in the next few days, me and my family are going to jump in the van and we're going to turn the van to the south and end up in Florida for vacation with our extended family.

We have a destination in mind that makes the journey lighter. To jump in the car and drive aimlessly for approximately 20 hours would get old in a.

Hurry.

Would you agree with me on that? Without a destination, how many of you like the idea of driving for 20 hours? Just kind of aimlessly around, not so fun. Some of you got a chuckle out of that. It's an obnoxious thought.

And for my kids, you know, I mean, you know, within the 20 hours, if they're lucky, we might stop once for a potty break, you know, I mean, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Some of you had a dad like that too.

But our song this morning intends to remind us and the original readers of this psalm where we are going. Where are we going? Why are we traveling this road? Why are we walking this life where there's pitfalls and there's dark days and there's times that just seem to almost crush us and then there's times of joy and delight and elation and we know that there's all of this mix of things in life.

Why are we traveling? Where are we going? We are on the road for the people of God. We are on the road to God's place. The destination is the very presence of the Almighty himself. One common traveling song, if you think about it, you probably didn't think of it as a traveling song, but I'm going to sing, I'm not going to sing, I'm going to just quote a part of it and then you're going to finish it for me and you're going to know exactly how to finish it because it's a traveling song and it goes like this.

Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go. A song about a journey, a song about a travel that ends in a location and right in the song is a declaration of where they are heading.

But this journey of life doesn't fortunately end at grandmother's house. We are on the way to Zion, God's house. By the time we get down to verses 13 through 18, we will find the personal invitation of God himself expressing the amenities of his place.

Like what's it like at his place? And it's a glorious, beautiful picture of what he has for his people waiting for them at his place. So let's open our Bibles to Psalm 132. If you need a Bible, you can raise your hand and there's a couple guys in the back that will bring you a Bible and we want everybody to have a copy of God's Word and so you can take that with you.

But I want you to specifically have a Bible on your lap. This is a longer text and it would be good for you to have it there, especially after we worship and sing praise and come back and have it there to follow along.

Recast, this is God's Word. I am convinced that God orchestrates these things. He brings these texts at the right time, at the right place and this is God's Word for us this morning. Recast, this is what he wants us to hear from him.

Psalm 132, a song of ascents. 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 heard of it in Ephrathah. We found it in the fields of Jar.

Let us go to his dwelling place. Let us worship at his footstool. 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 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 and my testimonies that 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 have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame. But on him his crown will shine.

Let's pray.

Father, I know our hearts are heavy and we come to worship you. We come to sing songs before you. And Father, I believe that you can lift us up. You can lift our hearts as we contemplate and consider reality.

We contemplate and consider the destination of those who are your children. We contemplate and consider where Paul is right now. He doesn't feel sorry for himself. He feels sorry for us. Father, he is experiencing the amenities of your house while we're left here.

But Father, I pray that we would see with eyes of faith this morning as we have an opportunity to believe and trust that this journey ends well for your children. That we have a hope because there is a destination in mind.

This is not wandering aimlessly for 80 years to nothing. But Father, it is a journey focused on a direction towards you. I pray that that would be reality for all of us and that our worship would reflect that delight that you have a hope for us and a plan for us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Thanks to Dave for filling in in Josh's absence.

Grateful for that.

And I encourage you to get comfortable during the next half hour or so as we are going to walk through Psalm 132 in a little bit more depth. Be sure you have your Bible open to that Psalm on your lap there, your device navigated over there or whatever so that you can follow along and see.

The things that I'm talking about are coming from God's word, not just my thoughts, my opinions. Boy, that would be pretty lame if you gathered together to hear my thoughts and my opinions. But we've gathered together to hear a word from the living God and so that's a glorious.

Reality.

So, remember if you need more coffee, juice, donuts, you can take advantage of that while supplies last. So those are available at these two places up here. If you're just brave enough to come up front, you can get something.

David's Zeal for a Dwelling Place for God

Verses one through six of our text this morning in Psalm 132 set the stage for us talking about King David, talking about David and his zeal particularly for finding a place, a dwelling place for God, a place set aside for the worship of God.

In this section, we find that the songwriter at a later date than the life of David, David is now gone and he at a later date is writing, asking throughout the psalm for God to remember David, which is kind of a strange request if you think about it.

This is years removed from the life of David and this dude is writing a song saying, hey, could you remember David? But there's something that causes this to be a good reason why he would be saying, could you please remember King David?

David was set up in the nation of Israel as more than just a hero, more than just the killer of Goliath, more than just a good king, but he was considered by Scripture, even in that ancient time, to be a specific man through whom the divine reign of God would come to earth, that one of his offspring would be one who would ultimately bring the kingdom of God and the kingdom of earth together in his reign.

God revealed to prophets and even to David himself that his reign was not strictly about his however many years he lived on this planet, but even indicated that one would come from his kingly line who would possess the throne eternally, an eternal king, an eternal ruler.

So when an entire psalm is taken up with a discussion about King David, it's more than meets the eye that's going on here. It's more than just, hey, okay, let's reflect on him killing Goliath, or hey, let's talk about some of his amazing battle sequences, or let's talk about his, you know, failures and repentance and things like that.

But when Jews far removed from the life of David heard that name, they thought Messiah. Reasonably, they thought, oh, the son of David. We are waiting for one to come who is of the descendant of the lineage of King David.

God's kingdom will come to this earth. They thought about an eternal reign when the enemies of God would be destroyed, and good would finally triumph over evil, and God would settle on his throne for eternity over his.

People.

And so from some vantage point in the future from the life of David, this songwriter humbly and politely requested to God, could you remember your King David? Could you remember, in essence, saying, could you remember your promises, God?

Could you make those things come to pass soon? He speaks of, even in this text, the suffering that David endured in obtaining the location of God's temple. In 1 Chronicles 28, 2 through 8, you don't need to turn there, but you could just jot that down and read it later if you'd like, but we have recorded for us that David was zealous for a temple for the worship of God.

He felt guilty having a palace for himself, he even declares that to God in prayer. I live in this immaculate palace and there is no place in Israel, you basically, your ark rests in a tent outside, while I have this great palace, God, I want to build a wonderful temple for you.

He wanted a dedicated place, a focused location for the worship of the mighty one of Jacob as the text says. And so David took what many see as a rash vow, some people see this as a rash vow, others see this as a songwriter embellishing a little bit on David's promises, but whichever is the case, he declared he wouldn't sleep until he located a place for the temple of God.

But verses 3 through 4 exist to indicate and to clarify the intensity of the zeal that David had for finding a place where God's presence could be manifested among his people. One thing is clear in this opening six verses, David wanted a place set aside for the worship.

Of God.

He wanted a place set aside for the worship of God. Now I want to be clear that I'm sure that David, if he were standing here and could preach this message instead of me, you should listen to him instead of me because he's the one who this is about.

But if he was standing here, I'm convinced that he would say, God can be worshipped anywhere. I really believe he would say that to you. He would say, I'm not building a temple so that God could finally be worshipped because God can't be worshipped outside of a temple or something like that.

We know that David was a man who was a shepherd in his youth and sat outside under the stars worshipping God night after night after night, writing these beautiful psalms about God and his worship flowing out of his heart.

So we know that he worshipped God and spoke with God when he was on the run from Saul and all throughout his life in a variety of different difficult situations and glorious situations, he worshipped God wherever he was.

In other words, God doesn't need a crib. God doesn't need a place to crash at the end of the day. He doesn't dwell in houses made by human hands. I don't think that David hoped to contain God in a location in the same way that many of the pagan cults of that day and age would have a place to house their idols, their little.

G-gods.

But David did indeed want a place dedicated to the worship of God. We can worship and glorify God anywhere, right? Very clear. But just because we can worship God anywhere doesn't make it pointless to dedicate a specific place for his worship.

I look forward to a time when as a church we have a dedicated and devoted location for the worship of our God. Obviously we currently worship, look around you, we currently worship God in a cafeteria, a school cafeteria, a very old school cafeteria.

I don't know if you guys realize when this was built, I think the plaque right outside on the wall says 1939, 38 or 39, I think it's 39. You can see it on the way out. This is an old building. And there's something that's beautifully symbolic, as I mentioned earlier, about taking common places and seeing God meet with us in those common places, right?

There's something cool about that. Have any of you ever had God meet you in like a majestic location, like you're out on the beach and watching the sunset and it's like God just meets with you there? Early in the morning as there's like fog coming, you see the sun rays coming through the fog or whatever and it's just beautiful and God meets with you there.

God meets with me often, to be honest, I would say one of the times that he's spoke to me the most and just really encouraged my heart is when I'm out running, when I'm out on a run early in the morning and God meets me in those times and in those places.

So you can worship God anywhere, but I also look forward to a time when Recast can meet in a facility set apart for the worship of the mighty one of Jacob, when we have a set-aside dedicated place for that.

So I look forward to that.

And it's not something that I think is bad for us to set our eyes on. Some people in our culture and our society would say, oh, that's kind of a poor goal, that's a poor thing to shoot for. I don't believe so and I think David had a zeal for that.

David had a passion for that here in our text. A place where the presence of God is consistent. So in verses 1 through 5, we see the songwriter appealing to the zeal of David for the temple and now in verses 6 through 9, the songwriter fast forwards to remembering the dedication of the temple.

The temple is already built by the time we get to 6 through 9. Verses 6 through 8 particularly speak of two different events. The first, it alludes to David bringing the Ark of the Covenant back into Jerusalem after it had been stolen in war by the Philistines and then they returned it.

And they found the Ark in the fields of Jar. So if you remember the story, I'm not going to get too much into detail, but in war Saul and his sons had died and the Ark was stolen by the Philistines and they took it to the temple of their god, Dagon.

He was part human, part fish in all of his statues. He was a merman. But amazing sequence of events and the priests of Dagon come in and they've set the Ark of the Covenant there in the temple of Dagon as one more treasure, one more artifact that their god has conquered for them.

And when they come back in the next day, Dagon has fallen in worship before the Ark of the Covenant. It might have been an earthquake or something. So they go and they set their statue back up and help their god up.

Can you imagine? Get that? Helping. He kind of fell over and he couldn't get up so they helped him. Set him back up on a pedestal and the next morning they wake up and not only has he fallen over but his head and his arms have fallen off.

Okay?

So they're like, okay, something is going on here. And then they all are struck with pestilence throughout the land of Philistia and all the Philistines are struck in that area where the Ark was being kept.

So they say, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a couple of cows, put this Ark on a cart, attach the cows to the Ark, and it's a lot more detailed than that in the text and you can read it.

But then they say, well, we'll just leave it up to the cows where they go and they make a beeline for Israel and some people are out in the fields of Jar with the scythes reaping the harvest and what comes up over the hill?

The Ark of the Covenant on its way back to the people of God. And so they found it in the fields of Jar and David indicates, or the author here indicates that David found out about it being returned while he was in Ephrathah, so he makes a beeline for Jar.

He was near the area of Bethlehem at the time. And in enthusiasm, the songwriter interjects now in verse 7, reminding us and reflecting to that time when the Ark was found and the presence of God was back in Israel.

He gives a cheer for all the pilgrims. Let's go worship. Let's go worship. With a zeal like David, with an enthusiasm like he had. Let's throw dignity and reputation aside and come to God's dwelling place.

Let's come to him with enthusiasm like David who danced before the Ark as it came into.

Jerusalem.

He was willing to make a fool of himself in the worship of God. One of his wives even mocked him to his face for how undignified he acted in the presence of the crowds as the Ark was being brought into Jerusalem.

Somewhat like my wife might say if I were dancing up here, hey cut it out, don't shame yourself. I got no rhythm. You don't want to see that.

That would get really ugly.

But to what degree in all honesty, how far is too far for you in the worship of God? How far is too far? We live in a culture that says a little faith is acceptable. Maybe even a little faith is still in our culture beneficial.

As long as you don't take it too seriously, right? Don't let it get in the way of your goals. Certainly don't let it get in the way of relationships. Certainly don't let your faith get in the way of your upstanding and dignified reputation and your progress up your corporate ladder.

But as far as pilgrim songs go, the psalmist is interjecting, let's go up and meet God.

At his place.

Let's go together, us. Let us worship at his, the text says, footstool. Footstool being a metaphor, another picture of the Ark of the Covenant. Also known as his mercy seat. That is the place where the blood was sprinkled by the high priest.

In essence, the songwriter is calling us to join him at the place of sacrifice and mercy.

Of our God.

And verses 8 through 9, our request for God to meet with us there, to come to the Ark.

With us.

Do you pray like this on your way to church? On your pilgrimage, your weekly pilgrimage into the presence with God's people? Do you pray to meet with God, that he would join with us here? Do you consider on your way, we are going up to meet with the mighty one?

And do you ask for him to show up? Certainly in asking him to show up, we ought not to think that there is anywhere that God is not present. But asking God to show up is to ask him to act on behalf of his people.

It's more than just some kind of presence of God, but it is his presence doing for his people. And that's shown specifically by verse 9. For God to show up in a gathering of his people is for the leaders to be clothed in righteousness and all his saints to be moved to joy.

Here in verse 9, we get a request for what will eventually be proven to be true of our future state in verses 13 through 18. So here we get a prayer and it's going to be shown that God is going to make true on it in 13 through 18.

But for now, right now, where we live, the best we can do is pray for it. The best we can do is ask for it. Currently we are in an era and a time of human history where we must pray for our leaders to be clothed in righteousness.

We must ask for God to show up and make a difference in our day. We must ask for joy to be the true expression of God's people. Especially when we have times that don't feel very joyful. I'm convinced that a church, as a gathering of messed up people, needs to pray regularly.

Needs to ask and beseech God, arise, oh Lord, and show up. Give righteousness and joy to your people, Father. We must keep asking because we live in a world where God's perfect presence is not yet realized.

Sin still clings to us. Our flesh wars against the spirit. But with enthusiasm we should say, let us go up to his dwelling. Let's worship at the place of his mercy. The first five verses spoke of the zeal of David for God's presence.

The second group highlighted the songwriter's zeal for God's presence and even invites us into that zeal ourselves. Verses 10 -12 are all about the covenant that God made with King David. In 1 Samuel 7, 4 -17, again if you're taking notes you can jot that down.

I encourage you to go over there and check that out. You can read about God declaring promises to David about the future of his offspring. Just like God had met in the Old Testament as we walked through the book of Genesis over a couple of years time.

God met with Abraham, talked about his offspring. God met with Isaac, talked about his offspring.

God met with Jacob.

All of these guys back in Genesis and speaking about a descendant that would come from this line all the way down to David and then he met with David and spoke with him and declared one of your sons is the one who's going to rule forever and ever and ever.

How many of you think that David got that right away? Like he understood what that meant. I would imagine that would be somewhat confusing to him at that time when he read it. What we understand fully and what's been revealed to us through Jesus Christ and we are born at a time in human history where we have the ability to recognize a completed word from God where we can see back into the Old Testament all of these things that are abundantly clear to us now that Jesus Christ has been revealed.

He was promised that one would come from him who would rule and reign forever and ever and ever. And so the author from his vantage point here, the author of Psalm 132 believed this and he declares it to be a true oath from God even as he is writing years removed from the life of David saying God's going to make good on this promise.

A sure oath from which God will not turn back. The songwriter expresses explicit faith that God is working things out for the future reign of David's descendants. And you can read the books of Kings and Chronicles.

Have any of you ever read through the Bible in a year? And so you probably read Kings and Chronicles. Any of you? Any of you ever read Kings and Chronicles?

A few of us?

Okay.

You can get bogged down. If you're reading through the Bible in a year, if you make it past Leviticus then one of the next big hurdles is getting through the Kings and Chronicles and the Samuel section and stuff.

There's a lot of repetition that's in there and stuff. But if you read through Kings and Chronicles you begin to see the slide in very clear terms the slide of the Davidic line of kings into deeper and deeper depravity where they did not keep up their end of this conditional covenant that we see here in our text today.

A conditional covenant that says if you keep my covenant and you keep my testimonies and you keep my laws then I will keep an earthly king on the throne of David. But that didn't come to pass. And the reason that didn't come to pass is because there came a point where God held them accountable for their breach of covenant because they had slid they kept sliding desperately and desperately more and more into wickedness.

But there are echoes to our ears in this promise this promise of this descendant of a descendant of David who fulfilled this covenant who kept the testimonies of God who fully and completely kept the laws of God and obeyed completely his statutes.

So there's optimism in verses 10 through 12 and that highlights the God who we are on the way to visit. It's a reminder who is at the end of this journey. Not a what is at the end of this journey. I'm convinced that many Christians have in their mind a what at the end of this journey.

Streets of gold and mansions and we focus on those things and does scripture hold that out for us? Yeah, there's some really cool stuff there. But the most glorious thing is the who at the end of this journey.

God.

Who created you and loves you and has redeemed you and his presence with his people forever and ever and ever only ever for good towards those who love him.

That's where we're heading.

And this is a God who keeps his promise. And for the ancient pilgrim they were reminded that God chose Zion as a place to meet with his people. David didn't pick a place for God but God chose it through him.

And the God who chose to meet with his people in real time and space there in that tabernacle and then there in that temple now declares seven amenities that are true of his place. Seven really cool things that we can look forward to.

As we march through this life we ought to think of our destination in these terms and there's seven things just real quick and you'll see them all emphasized by the wills, the word will that you see beginning to multiply over and over again from verses 14 through 18.

Each one of these wills is one of these seven things. The first thing is that God has set up an eternal dwelling place. This is my resting place forever verse 14. Here I will dwell for I have desired it.

I will dwell there forever an eternal dwelling. His place is not a temporary place. Zion is often used in scripture as a double meaning. It's used for the hill on top of which the temple itself was built.

So when you hear Zion the ancient Jew would have thought about that place but equally in their mind would have been another location the eternal throne of God in heaven where he now sits and rules and reigns.

And it's almost like there's an imprint and there's a passage in Hebrews that talks about it like there's an imprint of a temple here on earth that reflects a temple that is in heaven. It's like a parallel, if you could call it that, like a parallel universe if you will.

Like there's an ark of the covenant here and there's an ark in heaven there's a temple here and there's a temple there and one glorious day.

That.

Place is coming here. In the book of Revelation it talks about the kingdom of God becoming coming down from heaven as the new Jerusalem and coming down to settle on this planet, here on this earth where he will reign and rule forever and ever.

And we pray for that, don't we? Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come Father, even now come Lord Jesus, come and bring your kingdom here where we dwell in pain and in difficulty and in suffering.

And that's the hope. He has an eternal dwelling place prepared for us that will one day come and be present here.

Forever and ever. The second.

I love the word will by the way, I didn't emphasize that on that one but the word will is a definitive term. When applied to God, how many of you know that when you say I will and fill in the blank, you don't have a whole lot of control over that.