Expository - Songs of Degrees

Psalm 122

Now the Psalmist is on the move. Jerusalem is in sight. The walls are visible, built compact together; the gates can be seen, so much so that believers can confidently assert that their feet will stand within those gates. The House of the Lord can be espied from afar. Progress is being made. It is not now just a question of the upward look alone, but there is actual movement towards the house of God.

However, movement is not the main theme of the Psalm. Certainly that is happening and, as a result, there is much gladness. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." In Psalm 120, there was distress. How things change when we take those initial steps in the right direction back to God! Jerusalem is the city of peace, the city of righteousness. That is where we want to be, in the place where peace and righteousness rule.

I would say that the major theme of this Psalm is fellowship. One key word is "together". The idea of fellowship comes out very much in this Psalm. This seems to be the next step - the fellowship of saints. When we get away from God we tend to persuade ourselves that first we must get right with God and afterwards we shall be ready to join the people of God again. God puts it the other way round. He brings us back to the place of fellowship that we might be restored to communion with Him. John speaks about "having fellowship with us" and that "our fellowship is with the Father." (I John 1 v 3) That is where we left the track when we forsook fellowship with God's people. That is where the Lord returns us. "Just me and the Lord" fellowship is a pretence. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. (Hebrews 10 v 25)

This Psalm introduces the idea of movement back to the place of blessing in the Lord. However, that move is in fellowship with the people of God. The Lord indeed is our help but He meets us in the fellowship of His people. "I was glad," says the Psalmist, "when THEY said unto me, Let US go into the house of the Lord." In Psalm 120 and 121, he is very lonely but here he joyfully receives the invitation to join together in a fellowship. He cried out for help and the answer came through God's people. The invitation to go to Jerusalem, to the house of God was the answer he needed. That was the beginning of moving back to fellowship with the Lord. Was he expecting a flash of lightning, a vision or an angelic visitation? He did not get them. But he got an answer through the people of God.

Paul points out the same principle at work in Ephesians 3 vv 20,21: "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages..."

Do not neglect meeting together with the Lord's people. Meet together as often as there is occasion, otherwise you will miss those opportunities to hear what the Lord is saying and to progress in communion with the Lord. Here, there is no place to glory about individual answers to prayer or about personal revelations, for in the Church the glory is to the Lord. There we are workers together with God. In the church, which is the Body of Christ (I Cor. 12) we are dependant on one another so that none can glory.

In the Song of songs, where this same upward climb is traced, the Bride is seeking her Lord. She cries out in her despair to know where He is. The reply comes immediately: "If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock..." (Song of Songs 1 v 8). In other words, the instruction comes to us that we are to go where the people of God are, for where the flock is, there will the Shepherd be also.

We have seen so far in this Psalm that, if you have fallen out of fellowship with the Lord, then, by getting back in fellowship with the people of God, you will find that you are on the way back to communion with the Lord.

Now in this Psalm, there was not only a going on together but also the anticipation of a standing together. "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." Isaiah calls the walls of Jerusalem, Salvation, and all her gates, Praise. (Isaiah 60 v 18). There is security there and worship. In Nehemiah, where the Lord's people built up the walls and gates that had once been broken down, we can discover that each gate is named and has a special significance, reflecting in type the complete work of our salvation. Within those gates, all is secure, complete and provided for. Every aspect, in each name and in all the names, is totally catered for. Outside those gates we shall surely fall; inside WE shall stand. There is stability.

Do you recall those words from Galatians 4 that instruct us that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all? That is where we belong. That is home. That is where we experienced the new birth, where we have and can grow and where all the love and care we need is to be found. That is where we can stand.

In Ephesians 6, Paul exhorts us to stand: "...that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.." (v11) "...and having done all, to stand..."(v13) "Stand therefore..." (v14) We can stand nowhere else than in Christ Jesus, in heavenly places, together with all the people of God.

The gate was also the place of justice in those days. In Psalm 130 the question is asked, "If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" None could, of course. But in the gates justice is dispensed. Here we learn that through God's grace and the precious, shed blood of Jesus, another has borne the penalty. We can enter within salvation's walls. We can stand. We can praise.

Standing together with God's people we may praise and exalt His Name in a way that we do not attain to on our own. If you move away from the place of "all saints", you move away from that praise. You cannot stand on your own. Together, there is a wonderful assurance of His grace and salvation. Let us go on together, to the house of the Lord. Let us stand together within those gates which are praise. The Lord has purposed it. He baptised us into one body that we might be strong in the Lord and that we might rejoice together.

Backsliding often starts with neglecting the fellowship of God's people. The idea may come that you can praise Him on your own, where you are. Gradually you will slip away. You could praise and worship Him but more and more you will not. Your reading of the word of God will slip away; your prayer time will get briefer and briefer until it is practically non-existent. Worldly things and values will take over. The Bible actually tells us who those people are that will separate themselves from the assembly of God's people and stand by themselves, those who think they can go along on their own. Jude 17-19 says, "Beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, not having the Spirit." They think they need no one else; they are guided by their own bodily appetites (sensual) and are not the Lord's. The letter to the Romans makes it quite clear that if any have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. (Romans 8 v 9).

Jude, however, goes on to encourage: "But you, beloved, building up yourselves (together) on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves (plural) in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Do not forsake that assembling of yourselves together with the Lord's people.

As the people of old looked towards Jerusalem, they saw the place where God wanted them to be. In it was an example, for the city was built compact together. That is what the Lord wants for us. The Hebrew word translated 'compact' really conveys the idea of 'joined' in 'fellowship'. The people of God are not thrown together in any old fashion; they are joined together. There is a wonderful order and provision, just as there is in the city of God.

It is God's dwelling place, as it says in Psalm 48: "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God,...Beautiful for situation, ..., the city of the great King." In verse 12 it says: "Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces..." There is strength, security and wealth. So also for us.

The purpose of this marvellous building, of 'being fitly framed together' is so that it may be told to the generation following (Psalm 48 v 13). We are that generation, the generation of those who are born again of the Spirit. We are being told something here. Ephesians explains it for us: "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly framed together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth ...maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." (ch4 vv 15,16) Here is the revealed purpose of fellowship - that He might supply every need. God has joined us together in fellowship in a perfect plan for supply and provision.

There is a place for you in this building. There is no need to compete for position and power; God is the Master Builder. Further, there are thrones of judgment. In this fellowship there is government and order. Where there is order there is peace. Let us also pray for the peace of the place where God's people are. Then we shall see prosperity and blessing as we journey together on our heavenward way. Then shall the Lord be exalted and praised in the midst of His people.