Psalm 122

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.

A psalm of David.

¹ I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” ² And now here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem. ³ Jerusalem is a well-built city; its seamless walls cannot be breached. ⁴ All the tribes of Israel—the Lord’s people—make their pilgrimage here. They come to give thanks to the name of the Lord, as the Law requires of Israel. ⁵ Here stand the thrones where judgment is given, the thrones of the dynasty of David.

⁶ Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. ⁷ O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces. ⁸ For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “May you have peace.” ⁹ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.

I want to propose what may be a revolutionary thought to you this morning. Are you ready for it? Here it is: Sunday was meant to be the best day of your week.

Many of us grew up in situations where Sunday was boring. Or Sunday was a rat race. Some of us grew up in homes where Sunday was just another day. Others grew up in homes where Sunday was a disappointment, because it was supposed to be a family day, or a day off, but nothing ever happened because the family never did anything together. Or the wrong thing happened, like you had to do yard work with dad or chores with mom all day. For some of us, Sundays were awkward days because they were the day we had to go stay with our non-custodial parent whom we didn’t know very well. Others of us grew up in homes where Sunday was full of conflict because church was mandatory but no one was ever ready to leave on time, so the whole family competed for the bathroom, bumped into each other scrambling for breakfast in the kitchen, wolfed down our food, bolted for the door, and argued with each other all the way to church—where you were miraculously healed and acted like saints as soon as you hit the parking lot.

Well, I have good news for you today: Sundays were never meant to be that way. God made Sundays for you! Jesus said in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” And yet today we live in a world where the pace of life is killing us.

I want to suggest to you today that Sunday is a solution to that.

It feels like we always have too much to do. God said that Sunday is the antidote for that. It seems like we always feel pressured. God made Sundays as the relief for that. We rarely have time for the really important things. God thinks Sundays can take care of that. There’s never enough time for family … or for the people we love … or for the rest we need. God designed Sundays for that. With so much going on in our world, it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters. God created Sundays as the cure for that.

Open up your Bible or your Bible app or a pew Bible to Psalm 122. Psalms is in the middle of the Bible, and Psalm 118 is the chapter exactly in the middle of the Bible, so open just about to the middle and you should be able to find Psalm 122 fairly easily from there.

In a manner of speaking, one time, somebody invited King David, who wrote this psalm, to attend church with them. David’s response is recorded here in Psalm 122. Listen to this: “I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” (Psalm 122:1)

Does that sound like a guy who was turned off by church? No. David got excited when he was invited to church. Why? Why was David fired up about the thing that so many people are turned off by today? David couldn’t wait to get there. What does he know about church that aren’t making clear to those around us?

Well, let’s walk through this little psalm together so we can find out.

David says: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” He’s pumped about going to church, wouldn’t you say?

Verses 2-3: “And now here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a well-built city; its seamless walls cannot be breached.”
He’s describing his physical surroundings: He’s inside the city of Jerusalem. It’s well-fortified. He’s feeling safe there.

Verse 4: “All the tribes of Israel—the Lord’s people—make their pilgrimage here. They come to give thanks to the name of the Lord, as the Law requires of Israel.” David’s describing what the people are doing: They’re going up to worship God. And there are lots of them—tribes of them, in fact. They’re going to give God thanks, to give Him glory, “as the Law requires of Israel.” In other words, “because God told them He’d like them to come.”

Verse 5: “Here stand the thrones where judgment is given, the thrones of the dynasty of David.” Again, he’s describing what he’s seeing: The Congress and Supreme Court of Israel!

So that’s what David’s been seeing and feeling. Now we get to hear what he’s thinking about. In verse 6 he sings: “Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper.” Why does he want that? Because he cares for the people he’s worshiping with.

“O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces,” he goes on in verses 7 and 8. “For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, ‘May you have peace.’”
He’s singing, “God, I want you to keep my people safe. I want you to bring them peace whenever we get together, and even when we’re not together. I want this for my family gathering with me, and for my friends that are all around me.”

He closes by saying, “For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.” That is, “God,” David is singing, “I want this for You and for Your sake too. In fact, I’m going to do something to make this happen. I am going to seek your prosperity.” Why? “Because I love Your place, I love Your people, and I love You.”

Let’s unpack that for a minute. In this little psalm, David gives six great reasons to go to church.

First – look at verse 4 – he says that he wanted to go to church because he liked being with God’s people. “That’s where my tribe goes,” he’s saying.

Second, also in verse 4, David wanted to honor God: “I want to go to church to give thanks and praise the name of the Lord.”

Third, again in verse 4, David says that he wanted to go to church because he wanted to do what God asked him to do: “I want to go to church because the commandments given to Israel tell us to.”

Fourth, now in verse 6, David wanted there to be peace and security in the house because he wanted peace for those who love God. He just wants good things for God’s people. He wants peace for those he loves. Don’t you?

Fifth, in verse 8, he admits that he wanted peace for them because God’s people were his family and his friends: “For the sake of my family and friends,” he says.

And sixth, in verse 9, he makes this decision: He’s committed to doing whatever is best for the house of God (v. 9).

I want to tell you why I want there to be people in church and why I want what’s best for the house of God, and why I want Sunday to become the best day of the week for each and every one of us.

Once upon a time in our country, everything stopped on Sundays. People went to church and worshipped God, then ate together, hung out together, rested and recreated together in the afternoon. Sunday wasn’t an extra day to get things done or a bonus day to put our kids in high-impact activities so they could get ahead. Sunday was a day of rest and worship.

I think people had a greater sense of peace in those days. And a greater sense of hope. I think their pace of life all week wasn’t as frantic as ours because they slowed their pace of life one day a week and rested and refueled and refocused on what really mattered.

Imagine a graph in your mind. The vertical line represents happiness and prosperity. The horizontal line represents years on a calendar. Plot the percentage of our nation’s church attendance year by year. You’ll notice it’s been going down for the last few decades. Now plot the percentage of societal happiness and peace over that same length of time. What you find is two lines that run parallel, because the two are directly related. The higher the church attendance, the higher the happiness quotient. Why is that?

The Bible tells us that it’s because there is something you can’t see, touch, taste, or smell about being in church and worshiping God that makes it the most powerful investment of your week. Something about being in church and Worshiping God that makes us better and qualifies us for special blessings and provisions from God.

Once upon a time, Sunday was the best day of the week for almost everybody. And life was better for almost everybody. I want that again for our country. And I want that for you.

Way back at the beginning of Time, the Bible says that God created the heavens and the earth. After it was all done, after He made the sun and the moon and the land and the plants and animals, Genesis 2:2–3 says, “On the seventh day God had finished His work of creation, so He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when He rested from all His work of creation.”

God rested. Do you think He rested because He was tired? God doesn’t get tired! The reason God rested on the seventh day was because He knew that we would need to rest every seventh day (remember that Jesus told us that He’d made the Sabbath for us?) so He set the example for us.

When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, His fourth commandment was, “Remember to observe the Sabbath by keeping it holy.” But there was more. in Exodus 20:8–11 we read: “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day He rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”

Let me give you seven reasons why I want to invest in a Sabbath every week.

First, I need it, and God knows I need it. That’s why He rested and that’s why He gave the commandment. God doesn’t want to flatten our fun or lessen our lives by taking away a day. He wants to increase our joy and improve our lives by giving us a day to refresh, refuel, and refocus with Him because He knows we need it!

The second reason I want to invest in a weekly Sabbath is because God asks me to. The fourth commandment says to keep the Sabbath “holy.” (I’ll talk about that more in a couple of weeks.)

Third, I want to invest in a Sabbath because God blessed the Sabbath. (Genesis 2:3) For reasons only He fully understands, God says that He blessed the Sabbath. It’s a special day, not an extra day. When we cooperate with what God blesses, we get blessed!

Fourth, my life goes better when I Sabbath. So many of us think that if we can just get more done we can get ahead faster… But that’s not how God made the universe. Did you know that the most prosperous fast-food restaurant in the world is Chick-fil-A. No one makes as much money per location as Chick-fil-A. And Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays because the owners of Chick-fil-A know that if they honor the Sabbath, God will honor their business. So they make more money in six days a week than McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, and Taco Bell do in seven!

Here are some statistics I think you’ll find interesting. Secular sociologists have studied the benefits of church attendance. Follow this for a minute. What they’ve found is that those who attend church regularly:

Live seven and a half years longer than those who don’t. (And yet some people say they don’t have time for church. J)

Are 56 percent more likely to have an optimistic life outlook than those who don’t.

Are 27 percent less likely to be depressed.

Are 35 percent less likely to get divorced.

Have higher average levels of commitment to partners, higher levels of marital satisfaction, less thinking and talking about divorce, and lower levels of negative interaction.

Achieve higher grades, practice better time management, and experience a better sex life.

Sociologists, who aren’t necessarily going to church themselves, are finding that life goes better for those who go to church regularly.

The fifth reason I want to take a Sabbath every Sunday is because my Mondays go better when I Sabbath. Does anyone here dread Mondays? Does anybody here get out of bed saying, “Ugh! I have to go back to work today!” Anybody here exhausted and unmotivated because you used all your energy on Sunday instead of receiving new energy from Sunday?

Today I’m starting a series called I Love Sundays. We won’t be going straight through because, for instance, next Sunday I want to talk about all the end of the world predictions, especially since we might not get the chance to do so again, if the world ends.

But during this series I want to teach you two things from God’s perspective. Number one is how to have a great week, and number two is how to have a great life. The next message is called “Good Sundays Make Better Mondays.” We’re going to learn is that if your Sunday is lived the way God intended, your Monday will go as it was intended too.

The sixth reason I want to take a weekly Sabbath is because my family does better when we Sabbath.  It really is true that the family that rests together does best together. A family that attends church learns skills from the Bible about how to do relationships better and how to do life better. And great families become great by building great memories together. If you develop the habit of doing church together, and then take the Sabbath to invest in family and relationships, you will build a storehouse of goodwill, happiness, and rich memories that will last a lifetime. My family is a far better family because of church, and because of those Sundays we’ve protected and invested in the Lord and one another.

And the seventh and last reason for Sabbathing is because I know that my eternity will go better if I Sabbath. God promises to bless me if I bless Him. And I bless Him when I show up at church to worship Him.

I heard someone tell of a friend who once said that they hated Sundays. But that one day he heard God whisper to him, “I love Sundays, because that’s the day when my children sing to me.”

Can you imagine what that would feel like? You create a planet for people and you do things for people all week long, and then they spend a morning a week recognizing you and thanking you for what you’ve done. Wouldn’t that would be great?

Yeah, God loves Sundays. And He wants us to love Sundays, too.