The King is Coming

If you have your Bibles, if you would, turn to Psalm one twenty two. Psalm one twenty two. We're going to read that psalm together, and then we're going to turn over in just a moment to second Samuel chapter five. Okay? So you want to go ahead maybe and mark that because we're gonna go to second Samuel chapter five.

We've been studying David from shepherd boy to king. The last couple of sunny nights, we've been looking at some of the Psalms that he wrote. Tonight, we're gonna combine one of the Psalms, Psalm one twenty two in our study with some verses from second Samuel five that have to do with the city of Jerusalem. Okay? So, Psalm one twenty two.

I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, Old Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together, whether the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are for there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

They shall prosper that love thee. Peace within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren companion's sake, will now say peace be within thee. Peace because of the house of the of our of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. So this is one of a number of songs.

If you have a a Bible that has little titles, words under the psalm, you'll see it says a song of degrees of David. These were songs that were sung by Israel as they traveled to Jerusalem to worship the Lord for the Passover, the feast, or the feast of tabernacles, or the feast of Pentecost, three feasts that many of them traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate there around the house of the Lord and to worship him. And so, these were their holidays. These were times of refreshing, for them. They they all got together.

They traveled in caravans. They they talked. They fellowship. They sang. They rejoiced, in the blessings of the Lord, in in the Lord and who he was and what he had done, for Israel.

They worshiped him, and they praised his name. Sometimes, I'm afraid our our holidays today have more to do with other things. What is most refreshing to God's children is to spend time fellowshipping around the Lord and his word and praising his name together. Church and Sunday should be a time of refreshment as we come together and we are refreshed with the fellowship of other Christians and and with the Lord as we worship him and and praise his name and pray together and thank him for all that he has done. And so this is what Israel did as as a nation.

They got together these three times a year, and so they sang these songs. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. I was glad when it was time. Boy, they looked forward to that time to go to the house of the Lord. The word glad in Hebrew is a Hebrew word for laughter or delight.

It was a delightful time, a refreshing time. This, for the Jew, was a festive and joyful time, a time of worship together and and together and to celebrate the blessings of the Lord. In Acts three nineteen, Peter said at the conclusion of his sermon there, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Where is the the revival and refreshing and joy come from? It comes from who?

It comes from the Lord. And as we fellowship with the Lord and we spend time together around his word and praising the Lord, As we come to him to have our sins blotted out to forgiveness, it's wonderful to get that that burden of guilt that sin lays upon us, taken away by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The temple was the place in the Old Testament where they rejoiced in the atoning sacrifice, in the covering, and the forgiveness of their sin. Today, we rejoice in Jesus Christ who died upon a cross, who shed his blood, to pay the atoning price for our sin that we might be forgiven, that we might be released of that guilt, that we might be refreshed. And and as we we go to God's word throughout the week, as we spend time on our knees in prayer, as we come to the house of the Lord together, it is a reminder of all the wonderful things we have in Jesus Christ and how he has taken that burden from us, and how that he is with us, and all the wonderful promises in his word.

And that is what it was through Israel as well. Though the house of the Lord, I. E, the temple, was not yet built, in Jerusalem because you remember David didn't build it. It was Solomon, his son, that built the temple. Although the house of the Lord, the temple, was not yet built, David viewed Jerusalem itself, Mount Zion, in a fashion as the city as the house, of the Lord, where God had established the seed of his power on earth where God where David would later bring the ark of the testimony or the ark of the covenant back from where it was to Jerusalem to prepare for the building of the temple to for people to come and worship there as they remembered the testimony of the Lord, how he had brought them up out of Egypt, how he delivered them out of slavery, how he brought them into the land that he had given them.

This city Jerusalem is an interesting place. When I was over in Israel, we first went to Galilee. Galilee is North and I get my East and West mixed up. Northeast of Of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is on the coast, a little bit in the North.

North Central Israel. Galilee is to the north of that. Galilee is associated with the the lake that's up there that we actually call a sea, the Sea Of Of Galilee. Nazareth was a little town up there where Jesus was raised by his parents, his dad who was a carpenter there in the valley in in Galilee. Galilee is the the breadbasket of Israel.

Most of the land is farmed. There are our vineyards. There are all kinds of orchards. There are as you look from Mount Carmel, which is just a little bit inland from the city of Haifa. Eastwards, you look out into this broad valley between there and and Galilee.

It stretches out for miles, and it's checkerboard with all of these little plots of land that people farm. And it provides for much of the sustenance of the nation of Israel, and it did back in Old Testament times and in Jesus' day as well. So as you move from Galilee South, you come down Jerusalem. It gets a little more desert like as you come further south, and it gets more hilly. The mountains in the North are kind of spread out.

As you come south, they get closer and closer together. When you get to Jerusalem, it's like it's like somebody took a bunch of hills and just kinda smashed them together. And so, you know, you're kinda winding around these steep steep hills as you're coming into the city of Jerusalem. You come around a bend, and where we came in, there's actually an overlook they've made so you can look at the at the city of Jerusalem. What stands out right now is the Mosque Of Omar, the dome of the rock that sits on the Temple Mount that has a a golden dome on it that kinda glistens.

That is approximately where the temple sat, which was vastly, more beautiful, than that mosque that sits there, now. And we're told in the scripture, one day, the temple will sit there again, as testimony, to the Lord and to Jesus Christ. So this is their travels. They traveled through into the into this beautiful city. This city was inhabited for thousands of years.

One of the reasons it was inhabited for that long is it was a it was naturally fortified. There were the hills that surrounded it that the army had to come through, which wasn't easy. And then when you came towards the city, there were two valleys that went around the city, the Valley Of Hinnom and the Valley Of Kidron. And these two valleys were deep valleys. And in order to get up into the city, you had to scale these slopes of these valleys to get up into the city.

So it was naturally fortified. And then, when they built walls on top of that, well, then it was even more fortified and hard to get into the city. The people that inhabited that city when Israel came into the land were called the Jebusites. And while Israel had driven out many of the other Canaanites that were there, they couldn't drive out the Jebusites. The Jebusites had fortified themselves in that little city.

There was a spring that was outside the city that ran through a tunnel underneath the city. It was underground springs, you couldn't get to it from above ground. And the water ran through a tunnel they had built and to a well. And they would lower their buckets or whatever down through the the top well of the well in the city and down to the water that they had brought in from the spring. Later, king Hezekiah would build another tunnel adjacent to that one that brought the water not into a well, but into a pond of sorts, a pool, where they could come and just dip their water out, in the city of Jerusalem.

So, anyway, you couldn't stop their water from getting in and it was naturally fortified. So up until the time that David became king, the Jebusites still lived in the city of Jerusalem, which they called Jebus. And so though Israel controlled all the land, most of the land around it, the Jebusites still claimed that city. But David felt clearly it was the Lord's will that that city was to be his city, was to be God's city, was to be the capital city, was to be was to be David's city. So one of the first things David did when he was when he came to the throne of Israel, when finally all of Israel came together in Hebron to crown him king of Israel was to take that city from the Jebusites and to make it the city of the Lord where the Lord would be worshiped in the city of Jerusalem and not the gods of the Canaanites.

And we read about that if you wanna hold your place in Psalm one twenty two. We read about that back in second Samuel chapter five. So just following, the coronation of, of David, it says in verse six of second Samuel five, and the king and his men went to Jerusalem under the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, David which spake unto David saying, except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither thinking David cannot come in hither. In other words, they mocked David. There's no way that you're gonna even conquer the blind and the lame in this city.

It's just too well fortified. The Jebusites weren't worried. They mocked David as his army came into view and said, there's no way. Just go home. Verse seven.

Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, which is another name for Jerusalem. The same is the City Of David. There are two cities actually that are called the City Of David in the Bible. One is Bethlehem, which is a few miles away from Jerusalem where Jesus was born, is called the City Of David because David grew up there. He was from the City Of Bethlehem.

And then Jerusalem is also called the City Of David because it's the city that he and his army took and took it for the Lord and for the throne of of Israel. Verse eight, David said on that day, whosoever getteth up to the gutter and smiteth the Jebusites, the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. So David dwelt in the fort and called at the city of David, and David built round about from Millo and inward. And David went on and grew great, and the Lord of hosts was with him.

And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and mansions masons, and they built David an house a palace. And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people, Israel's sake. So just a note, Hiram, king of Tyre. Tyre and Sidon were two cities north of Israel on the coast called Phoenicia. Today, that is the area of Lebanon.

Okay? So if you think of Lebanon, Lebanon is the place where Tyre was, on the coast above above Israel. And, the king in Tyre decided rather than being, enemy of David, that he decided it would be better to be a friend of David, which was wise on Hiram's part and helped David to build the palace there. So reading from and I'm gonna return to first Chronicles 11 real quick. And I wanna read first Chronicles 11 records the same the same event except it gives us just a little bit more information here.

So, first Chronicles 11 verse four, and David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus, where the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land. The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, thou shalt not come hither. Nevertheless, David took the Castle Of Zion or the Fortress Of Zion, which is the city of David. David said, whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain, meaning chief and captain of his army. Remember, this was right after he he took the throne.

So Joab, the son of Zeruiah, this would be David's nephew, went first up and therefore was chief. And David dwelt in the castle therefore, and they called it the city of, David. So if you wonder how Joab cemented his place as David's top general, he did it by defeating the city of Jebus, by being the first one to do something absolutely incredible. He found his way into the tunnel where the spring was, where the water led into the city. And he went and led his troops through that tunnel, and I've walked in that tunnel.

There's no water going through that because now the water goes through Hezekiah's tunnel. But I walked through that tunnel, and at one place you get and you can look up and you can see the hole where they lowered the buckets down. So what Joab did is he went through the tunnel and somehow he scaled the well from the bottom up. And he came out the well at the top with his men following him. And that's how they defeated defeated the city of Jebus and took it for David and for the Lord and called it the city of peace, Jerusalem.

So it was a very interesting manner in which they took the city. And, of course, they took it not because just of the strategy and the strength and the cunning of Joab, but in the power and the might of who? Of the Lord. Okay? Because the Jebusites were no match for the Lord, And that was to be his city and still his his city and will be his city until there is a new Jerusalem one day.

So so David took the city Citadel Of Jerusalem. A bold plan he implemented, and the city became the new capital of a united Israel. It was the place it was the place David and his soldiers took for God. It was the place where the palace or the citadel was built and the walls of Jerusalem. It was the place which would later be called the City Of David, the holy city, the city of the great king, the Lord our righteousness.

All of these names for Jerusalem, this city, which remains to this day. It is the place where David would bring the Ark of the Covenant. It is the place where David would prepare to build the temple and Solomon would later build it. It is the place where the Messiah will one day rule the nations. It is the place where Jesus died on the cross and rose triumphantly from the tomb.

It is a special place. It's not special because of its geography, though its geography is kinda neat. It isn't special because of the buildings that were interesting buildings and a lot of ruins that you can visit there today to be reminded of what was there in the past and what will be there one day again. But it is a special place because it is the city of God, because it is the holy city. It's a city that God set apart for himself and for his people.

And in the kingdom, in the thousand year reign of Christ, it will not just be the city where the Jews worship the Lord, it will be the city where the king where people from all over the world come together to worship and to praise and to serve the king of kings and Lord of lords. It is a special place. So back to Psalm one twenty two. David says, I was so glad when they said unto me, let us, what, Let us go to the house of the Lord. This special place set aside to fellowship with the Lord, to praise the Lord, to be reminded of the wonderful Lord that we serve, the true and the living God.

Unlike the false gods of the world, he is the true and living one. The one who defeated Goliath with David's sling and the one who defeated Jebus as Joab climbed up the whale from the tunnel underneath. There's a declaration concerning the beauty of the city here in verse two. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, o Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact.

Together, whether the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. Several declarations here. First, it's centrality. Jerusalem was central, to Israel. It was central because, well, it was the where would you where would you put the capital city and the city where people come to worship the Lord?

Well, you would probably put it centrally located and and and that it was. It was compact. As as I explained, when you're driving up to it, the hills just seem to get more compact, and crammed together. The, the city itself is all on this in this hill between these between these valleys, and it is built up compact. When you think of Downtown Tampa or any of the metropolises here, There's sort of modern day version of that.

Everything's kind of compact. Okay? Why? Because, well, it's a special place to be. Personally, don't like living downtown amongst the skyscrapers myself.

I grew up out in the country, but it was a special place to be and a special place to be. A lot that goes on in this world takes place in those compact metropolises. Its surrounding structure speak of unity. The words compact together could be either speaking of the density of its population, magnificent structures fortified within its walls, or the tightly packed surrounding hills. Or some interpret the unity found among its people in worship of the God who so who so ordained it to be his city.

When everyone came together at Passover and at Pentecost and at Tabernacles to the city of Jerusalem, it was a packed city. It was a bustling city. But everybody was there together for one purpose, and that was to worship the Lord. Whenever you read about people traveling to Jerusalem in the Bible, they're always going up. You never go down to Jerusalem.

Even if you're in the North and you go to Jerusalem, which is in the South, you never go down to Jerusalem. You always go up. You go up because, well, it was built on a hill. But you also go up because you're going up to the presence of who? To the presence of the Lord.

So you always go up, to the city of, Jerusalem. He speaks of its beauty. He speaks of its singular purpose, a place to meet the Lord, a place to serve the Lord, a place to worship the Lord, a place to be reminded of the power of the Lord who gave them this city and who has returned it to them again. The 12 tribes ascended up its hills at least three times a year to celebrate the feast, appointed them to worship the Lord. There was the appointed place.

It was the appointed place to worship God and to assemble as a nation before the ark of the testimony, the ark of the covenant. It itself is a testimony to the power of the Lord as is the one who died there on a cross and rose again, as is the one who will return to make it his city in the future. It was more than a special place, it was a holy place. Now what made it holy? The word holy means it was set apart.

It was sanctified. It was dedicated. It was a city dedicated to the Lord. It was a city sanctified by the worship of the Lord. It was a city set apart for the people of the Lord.

It was the holy city as it is called in Nehemiah 11, in Isaiah 52, in Daniel nine, in Matthew four, in Revelation eleven two. Isaiah fifty two One, awake, awake. Put on thy strength, o Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments, o Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth, thou shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

It was a holy city dedicated to the worship of the Lord and to, his people. Is there anything special about this building? Is this building the church? No. This building is not the church.

Who's the church? You're the church. Who is the temple of the Lord today? You are because the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. You are holy.

You are a saint because you've been set apart for the presence of the Lord. And you can worship him and serve him, talk with him, communicate with him, thank him, pray to him wherever you are because you take the temple with you. But that doesn't take away from the fact that this is a special place. This is a special place. It is, in a sense, a sanctuary, meaning a holy place, not because we, anointed it or chanted over it or or laid our hands on it or no.

It is a special place because it's this place that we chose to build and to come together to assemble as the people of God to worship and to praise and to seek the refreshing of the Lord our God. And thus, these buildings are holy. They are holy because we are here, and thus he is here. And they're special, and they have a wonderful purpose. They should be beautiful.

They should reflect the majesty of our God. There's nothing wrong with that. They should be ever a reminder of what he has done for us. This is a special place, but not as special as the city and the place we will all gather in one day called the New Jerusalem, where we will all worship the Lord our God forever. It the Old Jerusalem, the the earthly Jerusalem, was a place central to Israel.

It was a place with a primary purpose, which was to worship the Lord. It was there for the people of the Lord. It was the seat of power in Israel. It was also the seat of the judiciary and the executive branches, climaxing with the throne and palace of David and Solomon and the kings of Judah. And one day, the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

Second Samuel seven sixteen, it says, to David and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. And how and where is David's throne? What where where is that? That is in the city of what?

Jerusalem. Now there isn't a specific throne that you can go and see or sit in today, but that is the place where David's throne was. And that is the place where his seed, his descendant, Jesus Christ the Messiah, that's where his throne will be when he comes to rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years. It was the seed of power, God's power among his people on the earth, and it will be the seed of his power where he rules from where he rules and reigns for a thousand years. It is a special place, but you are special.

You are a special place. This place is a special place. But it all has to do with a special one. That's what makes it special. What will make the new Jerusalem in Revelation twenty one and twenty two a special place?

Because Jesus will be there, and we will dwell with him. And he will be our God, and we shall be his people. The redeemed of all the ages, the redeemed of every tribe and language from the four corners of the earth will be redeemed by the blood of the lamb, will dwell together with him there in the new Jerusalem. He asks in the psalm, beginning in verse six, for prayer. The psalmist says, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

They shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces for my brethren and companions' sake, I will now say peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. I will seek the good of Jerusalem, of the peace of Jerusalem. We are told to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Why? Because the peace of Jerusalem is connected to the reign of who? Jesus the Messiah. For he is the prince of what? He is the prince of peace who will bring peace when he is sitting on the throne of David.

We should pray for the peace of Jerusalem because it is a special place that God has chosen to call his holy city. And despite the fact that it has been overrun time and time again by those who have no love, no knowledge, and no faith in him, it remains. It remains his city. And he will come back one day to claim it for his own. The psalmist calls for prayer that the city may have peace, that those who love Jerusalem should pray for its peace, that they shall prosper that love Jerusalem.

Remember back in Genesis chapter 12 where God said to Abraham, those who bless thee will I bless, and those that curse thee will I curse. Bless those that bless thee, I will curse those that curse thee. Pray for the peace and the blessing of Jerusalem because as God blesses Jerusalem, he also blesses the world. For peace and prosperity of those who inhabit the city, We're not in Israel and we're not in Jerusalem and most of us will not likely to be there in this life anyway. But we are also called to pray for peace in our homeland.

We're also to pray for peace in our house of the Lord. Because when there is peace and unity in the worship and in honor of the Lord, there is prosperity and blessing. I would love to be bursting out of these walls with people. And one day, I may yet see that. But you know something?

God doesn't just bless in great numbers. His blessing is in one person and another, in the fellowship that we have with each other, and in voices lifted in praise to our king, whether it be five or 10 or 20 or 50 or 50,000. It is sweet. It is a sweet savor. A sweet sound in the eyes, in the ears of our savior.

God desires for unity and peace within these walls, within our family. And he deserves that. And when he gets that, his testimony grows and so does his blessing upon this place. And I thank the Lord. I've been here nineteen years.

We've had some little ups and downs, but you know something? I think this has been a refuge of peace in the world as it should be. A place where people can be refreshed, where we can come together to get away and be refreshed in the presence and the fellowship of the Lord and his people. So pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And as you do, pray for the peace of The United States.

Pray for revival that others will receive the prince of peace into their hearts. And pray for the peace of Missouri Avenue Baptist Church because with peace comes blessing and opportunity and glory and honor to the Lord. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for our church, our nation, for true believers who worship the Lord, who aren't even part of this congregation because those who are born again in Jesus Christ, they're part of our family. And though they may not meet in this place, one day, we will meet together in the new Jerusalem where we will praise the Lord and be refreshed for all eternity. Because it is God's house, David doth pray for its inhabitants for the Lord's sake and not for theirs alone.

Most importantly, because it is the place to which Christ will one day return with his saints to rule and reign for a thousand years. Until Jesus returns, Jerusalem is not likely to enjoy a lasting peace. So as we pray for peace, we do pray for Christ's speedy return to bring it. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

As the people came together to go to the city of the great king, to the holy city of God, to the place where the temple would be built. They came with an attitude of joy and gladness, a similar attitude. Should we as Christians who are privileged to seek the Lord in prayer together to praise his name in song, to proclaim the truth of his word, and to worship him with other believers should demonstrate and should enjoy. All too often, we come not with joyous hearts or even a heavy heart, but with a dreary heart as though it were a chore. It is no wonder that so many Christian children or children of Christian homes quit going to church when they get older and recall it as drudgery because it wasn't a place of refreshment, and it wasn't a place of peace, and it wasn't a place of joy.

But it should be all of those things. And if it is, God will be magnified, and God will be glorified, and we will be blessed. And rather than pushing people away, it will draw people what? It will draw people in, and more importantly, to the God that is magnified in this place. I was so glad when they said unto me, let's go to the house of the Lord, to the city, his city, to worship him there.

Glad you've come this evening. I hope that you have put your faith and trust in Jesus, For he is your king, your savior, your redeemer, and the one who came to Jerusalem two thousand years ago to take your place and make a way for you. Let's praise his name together. Let's do it in prayer. Lord, thank you for Jesus Christ our savior, for the glory of the Lord that was revealed in this world and in this city, Jerusalem, that you called your own, where you sent your son to redeem fallen mankind, where you will one day come back to rule and reign for a thousand years, where you will gather the nations and you will bless your people, both Jew and Gentile, redeemed in Christ Jesus.

Lord, we thank you for the hope and the joy that we have as children of the king. We pray, Lord, for the lost around us that do not know you. We pray, Lord, that we might bring the gospel to them, that we might show them the joy of serving Jesus, That we might point them not just to a building or to a city, but to the one who makes it special, Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray if there's one this evening that's yet to trust Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of their life, that they may come to you in faith, trust in you to save them from their sins and give them eternal life in Jesus Christ. For it's in Jesus' name we do pray.

Amen.