Entering Zion

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he.”

Zechariah 9:9

On the 20th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood, Bishop Dale Howard visited our parish to help us commemorate that milestone.  In his sermon at the Eucharist he compared me to an ass.  He said that the ass upon which Jesus sat as He came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday thought that the celebration was all about him.  There was much for the residents of Jerusalem to celebrate that day, but the appearance of an ass was not one of those things.  He was a necessary part of the event.  His presence was a fulfillment of prophecy.  But the ass was not the focal point of the celebration.  Bishop Howard then said, “You are that ass. You may think we are here to celebrate you—your ministry—but this celebration is not about you.  It’s about Jesus.  This service is a celebration of Jesus.  But rejoice!  Our Lord spoke through an ass before; He can do it again.”

In this third week of Lent we will enter Zion.  But, we will not be the focal point of the entry celebration.  Nevertheless, in the same way that the arrival in Jerusalem of the ass upon which Jesus sat fulfilled prophecy, and like the return of the exiles from Babylon is a fulfillment of prophecy, so our entry into Zion is likewise a fulfillment of the prophetic word.  We enter into the New Jerusalem through the Person of Jesus Christ.  We were baptized into Christ, and we were marked as Christ’s own forever.  In the revelation given to St. John, the Apostle says, “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Rev. 14:1).  We are marked.  We have His mark on our forehead—on our lives.  And by His sacrifice we are made worthy to be numbered with the saints.  We enter Jerusalem through the Lamb.  Our entry into the New Jerusalem is about Jesus.  It is a celebration of Jesus.

We have left captivity.  We have made the journey to Zion.  Now it is time to enter.  And there is work to do.  We rejoice.  We build.  We establish our homes, our very lives, in Jesus.  It is a tremendous gift to call Jerusalem our home.  But every home requires care.  The exiles had much rebuilding to do once they had arrived in the Promised Land.  But there was opposition.  There were obstacles that had to be overcome.  What must we do?  As we continue our progress through the Songs of Ascent, let us look at what the Psalms of this third week teach us about entering into the New Jerusalem.

Jerusalem:  the land allotted to the righteous – Psalm 125

“Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts!”

Psalm 125:4

The latter part of this psalm stresses the ideal of what Jerusalem should be.  The Psalmist is certain that the faithful will do their part to fulfill the ideal, and that “those who turn aside to their crooked ways the Lord will lead away with evildoers.”  The returnees had already experienced the sadness of seeing some turn aside, never leaving Babylon, or returning to it for fear of the journey.  These fearful ones thought the demands of the trek were too hard, or the journey fraught with too many dangers.  They lost sight of the Lord.  But now upon entry into the Promised Land, those pilgrims whose persevered sing of their hope and make their prayers and promises to God.

Their prayer is that they may stand fast: “Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts.”  Their prayer is that the favor of the Lord may continue to fall upon them.  This is a prayer that is reiterated numerous times in the Psalms.  The exiles are looking to rebuild their homes, but they are also looking to reestablish their place of worship and renew their relationship with God.  In Psalm 90 verse 17, the Psalmist cries out:  “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!”   And in Psalm 102:13 the Psalmist declares his faith that, “You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come.”  

Too often, though, instead of trusting in His promises to us, we make rash promises to God in order to win His favor.  This is why it is so important, as we make our way toward the New Jerusalem, that we make the trek together.  We must hold one another accountable as we make our way through the treacherous terrain of this world on our journey to the heart of God.  The exiles’ promise is that “the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land”.  This is an admirable goal for the rebuilding of the “land allotted to the righteous”.  But that promise is made in the context of the previous verse.  Verse 2 declares that “the Lord surrounds His people”, and verse 3 begins with the word “For”.  This is an “if/then” promise.  If the Lord is with us, then the wicked will not rule the land.  If we continue to seek God “with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength,” then we will know God’s favor.  As Psalm 41:11 declares, “By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.”

Proverbs 11:27 declares, “Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor…”  For us to seek good is to seek God.  Jesus Himself said to the rich young man, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).  The ideal set forth in Psalm 125 is that Jerusalem will be inhabited with the righteous, those who seek God.  And God promises in return that “In a time of favor I will answer you…I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages” (Isaiah 49:8).  This is the ideal for which the returnees were striving.  It is an ideal for those of us on the pilgrimage to the New Jerusalem.

Drawing Near:  a Vision of the New Jerusalem – Psalm 125

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people, from this time forth and forevermore.”

Psalm 125:2

Take a moment and read Psalm 125.

During the pilgrimage that Miranda and I made to Israel in 2010, we took a bus from Galilee to Jerusalem.  As we headed south, we followed the Jordan river down from Galilee, which is about 700 feet below sea level, toward the Dead Sea, which is about 1400 feet below sea level.  Then we turned west past where Jericho once stood, and wound our way up the mountain.  After a climb of about 4000 feet we topped the mountains to the east of Jerusalem and had our first sight of the Holy City.  This is what the returning exiles would have experienced as they crossed this last geographical obstacle on the journey back to their homeland (though not from a bus).  The view is spectacular.  Jerusalem, like Asheville, is surrounded by mountains.  The Holy City is nestled in the Kidron Valley.  Zion, and the temple mount, are built on a rise above the valley, bordered on the east by the Mount of Olives, and on the west by Mount Herzl.  As the pilgrims gazed at the ruins of the city waiting to be rebuilt, they sang their praises and made their promises.  This is the “land allotted to the righteous” they sang, and “the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on it.”

There are both physical and spiritual mountains in our lives.  Some of these, like health issues and monetary problems, must be overcome like the physical mountains over which the pilgrims had to hike.  Some are spiritual mountains, like the disappointments and failures we all endure from time to time.  There are also the hard feelings we may have toward people who hurt us, loved ones who betray us, and lost opportunities which bring doubt and from time to time crises of faith.  But there are also those positive spiritual mountains, like our faith and worship of the Lord, which provide protection for us, like the mountains surrounding Jerusalem shelter the holy city.  But the physical and spiritual must work together.  Jerusalem was overrun and taken captive in the sixth century BC.  Why?  Because they had forsaken the spiritual shelter of their commitment to the Lord, trusting instead in the protection of the mountains and the help of men.  The Lord allowed them, then, to be overrun by Nebuchadnezzar so that they would recognize their need for the Lord.  The Psalmist is calling the faithful to return to both the physical and spiritual mountains of Zion.  “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people…”  It is a call, as the pilgrims begin again to settle in the Promised Land, to immerse themselves in the Lord.  He is calling them to remain loyal to God “both now and forevermore!”  When we practice fidelity toward our Lord then we will be like Mount Zion “which cannot be shaken but endures forever.”  And we can trust that spiritual mountain to provide protection from all forces that would come against us.

Our Help is in the Name of the Lord – Psalm 124

“Our help is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

Psalm 124:8

Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18).  All power and authority belong to the Lord.  As we saw in the early verses of this Psalm, the Lord who made heaven and earth, and who has given all authority to His Son, Jesus, is fully capable of saving us and setting us at liberty from every evil.  But we get scared, and we get confused when things go awry.  Then we take up the mantle of authority and try to correct the matter in our own power.

Sadly, there are many who believe that what Benjamin Franklin wrote in his Poor Richard’s Almanac is scriptural:  “God helps those who help themselves.”  This was not a new or unique thought for Ben Franklin.  This expression of self-sufficiency and initiative has its origins in ancient Greek mythology where the phrase “the gods help those who help themselves” is found.  Indeed, versions of the expression appear in several ancient Greek tragedies, and is stated as the moral of Hercules and the Waggoner, in one of Aesop’s fables (english.stackexchange.com).  But what does the Scripture say?  In Philippians 2:12-13, St. Paul says, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”  Yes, we are to “work out our own salvation”, however, we are incapable of doing that in our own power, and we have no authority to bring about the change necessary to secure that salvation.  “God is at work in us.”  It is His power and authority made manifest in His Son, working in us by the Person of the Holy Spirit, who secures that help which we so desperately need.  Paul goes on to say in the next chapter, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him…” (Philippians 3:7-9).

“Our help is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”  The Psalmist knows that he must make the effort to move out of the troubling circumstances of his captivity.  He must take a step in faith toward God and the land to which God is calling him.  Then, his faith assures him that God will provide all of the necessary provision and protection he needs for the journey.  We listen to His call, we take the step to show our good faith, and God works out the rest, if we will remain in Him.

The Celebration of Deliverance – Psalm 124

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side…”

Psalm 124:1

Take a moment and read Psalm 124.

The opening verses of this psalm are set in a liturgical format, a versicle and response.  The cantor sings:“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say…”; and the people respond, “if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us…”, and they conclude the thought with the remaining verses of the psalm.  This call and response format creates the sense of ownership of the truths found in the words of the psalm.  This is the same format that is used at the beginning of the prayer of consecration at Holy Eucharist, called the sursum corda. The priest says, “Lift up your hearts”, and the people respond, “We lift them up to the Lord.”  The people express their willingness to participate and “own” the thanksgiving being offered to God in the consecration prayer.

Here, in Psalm 124, the people are claiming their readiness to set out toward Jerusalem, even though their enemies, tormentors, and captors have done all they could to discourage them and keep them bound in their fears.  Verses 3 through 5 give examples in poetic imagery of the trials and tribulations the exiles have experienced in their captivity.  But they cry out, “if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive…”  The faithful are declaring their faith; they are proclaiming their trust in God’s deliverance and provision for the journey ahead.  They also recognize that what is ahead is a perilous journey where they will be under constant threat, but they are willing to stand on the promise that the Lord who has delivered them in the past will deliver them on the road ahead.

The pilgrims journeying to Jerusalem knew they could not make the journey alone.  In the same way we are helpless to make the journey to the New Jerusalem alone.  It is easy to become ensnared in the dangers and temptations of this world, and we are all too prone to take control of our lives rather than trust in the Lord.  The Jews knew that nothing human could save them, and there is nothing human that can save us.  St. Paul, in Romans 8:18, said, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  The Lord who made heaven and earth is fully capable of saving us and setting us at liberty from all evil.  Let us take a more in-depth look at that promise tomorrow.

We have had more than enough of contempt – Psalm 123

“Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.”

Psalm 123:3

Psalm 137 talks about the torment to which the exiles were subjected in their exile from the Holy Land.  The Psalmist says, “there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’” (Ps. 137:3).  And the author of that particular Psalm was not inclined toward mercy for his captors.  He concludes his lament with one of the harshest statements found in all of Holy Scripture:  “Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” (Ps. 137:9). Many are appalled by this verse, but we must remember that thoughts of this type, if we are truly honest, are not foreign to us.  The Psalmist has simply recorded, said out loud, what many of us have harbored in our hearts toward those who wish to do us harm, for those who hold us in contempt, and scorn us unmercifully.  The Psalmist is being honest about his feelings and his thoughts!

We all are guilty, from time to time, of the sin of scorn.  Before you quickly deny that, think about the last time you said something less than flattering about a politician.  There is a reason that the Lord commands us not to speak evil of (or to scorn) a ruler of the people.  It turns away the favor of the Lord from His people.  Solomon said that God is scornful toward the scorners! (Prov. 3:34).  When we speak against another, whether they hear our words or not, we stand in judgment over them and create division in the Body.  Yet, Solomon gives us an alternative: “but to the humble he shows favor” (Prov. 3:34).  And again, the book of Proverbs records that “Scoffers set a city aflame, but wise men turn away wrath” (Prov. 29:8).  There is blessing for those who avoid the scandal of scoffing.  “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful…” (Ps. 1:1 NKJV).

The author of Psalm 123, when faced with similar scorn and contempt, asks the Lord for mercy.  There is no prayer for punishment or retribution on his tormentors.  He is getting ready for a long journey to a renewed relationship with His Lord, and he wants to practice fidelity to God’s commands to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  The Psalmist is asking God for the grace to change his horizontal perspective into a vertically inspired perspective.  He is asking that he may see the world around him and those who dwell in it with the eyes of God.  This is reflective of the song’s first verse, “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!”  If we are truly focused on God, we will not be concerned with what others have to say about us, or what evil our tormentors have fashioned against us.  It is God’s job to deal with those who oppose us, and we have no power to change them.  But we can ask and allow God to change our hearts, to have mercy upon us.  And in so doing we place ourselves fully in His loving care.  He will bless and protect us if we keep our eyes focused on Him.

Praying for Protection on the Journey – Psalm 123

“To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!”

Psalm 123:1

Take a moment and read Psalm 123.

This journey requires that we change our perspective, to focus not on the things of this world but to have a vertical view of life.  “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!”  But breaking the chains that hold us to a horizontal view of life, to cease looking at the things around us which draw our attention away from God, is a difficult process.  David Craig, in his master’s thesis for Bakke Graduate University, said, “Why are so many Christians not living in a Christ-like manner? The primary problem is Christians have become more influenced by a secular worldview than by a worldview that is Theocentric. Secularism has made a literal beeline to the heart of the Christian faith. Our culture has a greater impact on Christians than does Christ. Man-centered thinking has infiltrated the heart and soul of the Church and Christians are more concerned about pleasing men than God.”

This is not a new problem.  The Old Testament is rife with stories of kings, priests, and the people of God who abandon God and seek to be like the nations of the world.  That is why they asked Samuel for a king! (1 Samuel 8:19-20).  This was a continuing problem among the exiles in Babylon.  The Psalmists of the Songs of Ascent are all calling upon the people of God to turn from their earthly preoccupations and “lift up your eyes”.  It continues to be a problem for God’s people today.  But what the Psalmist is calling for in Psalm 123 is for the people of God to look up, to look to the Lord in Whom we have every provision for our lives.  For it is in Christ that we have life.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!  Karl Barth, the early 20th century theologian said, “There exists what we may call a vertical view of true service of God or the true Christian life.  When we understand the Christian life in the light of its origin and object, it is simply and without reservation the life of Jesus Christ Himself, so far as men through God’s Holy Spirit are united with Him in faith, so far does His life become theirs and their life His.”

How do we do this as we set out on this pilgrimage to the New Jerusalem?  The Psalmist says that we are to “look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy upon us” (vs. 2).  We pray earnestly.  We keep our eyes fixed upon Him, not on the things of this world.  It takes effort, discipline, and patience.  We persevere “until He has mercy upon us.”  It takes the Grace of God.  So the Psalmist reminds us to look to God “as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master…so our eyes look to the Lord…”

We will get distracted.  We will look away from time to time.  It is a long journey through some difficult terrain, but whenever we find we have strayed, when our attention has wandered, we can turn back.  For as the Chronicler declares, “For if you return to the Lord, your brethren and your children will find compassion with their captors, and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him” (2 Chronicles 30:9).

Beginning our Journey

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  

Jeremiah 29:11

During this second week of Lent we begin our journey.  It is time to begin to move out of captivity and exile into freedom.  The hopeful expectation we have experienced this past week becomes the reality of the journey in the following three psalms.  We have looked toward the New Jerusalem; now we begin to take steps to come home.  Our eyes must be fixed on the goal, the object of our desire.  We must begin to develop a vertical view of life.  Jesus said that if we want all of the good things in our lives we must first seek Him, for it is in Him that “all these thing will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

But there are many who are reluctant to step out.  For some there is fear.  It could be fear of the unknown, fear of losing friends in this world, of losing themselves, or simply fear of change.  For some, they have become comfortable in this secular world and their reluctance is in reality a rejection of the Lord’s plan for their lives.  This journey makes too many demands on the pilgrim, they say, religion should make me comfortable, not miserable!  But the Lord says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).  In truth, we do not know what we need.  We have never walked this path before.  The quote from Jeremiah above should be a comfort for the reluctant.  And this hope is reiterated by St. Paul: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

And it is not simply that the Lord will be with us.  Scripture tells us that He is to be our dwelling place.  He is the goal.  Our journey is to grow into a fuller life in Him.  As we begin, we take a step up and move further in.  In the The Last Battle, the final book of the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, in chapter 16, Reepicheep, the warrior mouse, greets the travelers as they come into the New Narnia, saying, “Welcome, in the Lion’s name.  Come further up and further in.”  And Lucy, standing with Mr. Tumnus, the Faun, observes, “The garden is like the Stable it is far bigger inside than outside.”  The Faun answered, “The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets.” But Lewis says that “It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then he cried: ‘I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this…Come further up, come further in!”

God is faithful.  If we earnestly seek Him, He will always give us more, and it will always be better than we could have imagined.  We need only wait upon Him.  He will protect and provide for our every need.  St. Peter said that “according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).  And the Psalmist said, “Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:9-11).  There is simply no reason to not take this journey.  The Lord is with us, and we are on this journey together.  So, let us step out and come further up and further in.

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem – Psalm 122

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they prosper who love you! Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers!”

Psalm 122:6-7

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!”  The name, Jerusalem, means “City of Peace”.  The Hebrew word for peace is shalom.  This comes from the Hebrew word shalem, which means complete or whole.  But is Jerusalem a city of peace?  Is it whole?  Today it is a city divided between the Jewish sector, the Arab sector, and the Christian sector.  On the Jewish Temple mount stands the Muslim Dome of the Rock.  Jesus said that this is the city that killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to her (Matt. 23:37).  It is the city where our Lord was arrested and crucified.  And before His entry into the city, Jesus wept over her, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:42-44).

We are commanded to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  And we should pray for peace in the earthly Jerusalem.  Peace in the Middle East is dependent upon the peace of the Holy City.  But there is also a heavenly peace and a heavenly Jerusalem.  It is for this heavenly home of ours that we are obliged to pray.  In Galatians 4:26, St. Paul says that “the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.”  There is a peace that can be found in Christ, in the gathering of the faithful in the New Jerusalem, but we do not see that peace realized in the Church today.  The Church is as heavily divided as the earthly Jerusalem.  We need to pray for peace in the Body of Christ, that there may be unity found in the saints’ worship of our Lord, whether physically gathered or separated by denominations, color, doctrine, or economic status.  We need to learn to pray with one heart and one mind in Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:27), for it is only in Him and His heart that true peace will reign in His Church.  This is the peace that Jesus promised to give His disciples saying “my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27).  And He fulfilled that promise after His resurrection when He met the disciples in the upper room.  The Risen Lord greeted His frightened followers saying, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19).  The peace of God is found in His Son, Jesus.  Our responsibility is to pray that His peace may be made manifest in His Church, and through His Church into the world.

The psalmist begins his song with the words, “I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord!”  When the saints come together in worship, Jesus is present.  He has promised that “where two or three are gathered in My Name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20).  It is in His Presence that we find peace, and a measure of sanity in the midst of the discord we find in the world.  We need the peace of Jerusalem.  We need the concord and sanity we find in Christ and His gathered Body.  For it is in Christ and His divine Presence that we are freed from anxiety and fear.  When we lose ourselves in worship and adoration, we find our true self dwelling in the New Jerusalem, the City of Peace.

The Call to Pilgrimage – Psalm 122

“I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Psalm 122:1

Take a moment and read Psalm 122.

On the prie-dieu (kneeling prayer desk) in my home, I have a printed copy of this psalm.  It is a constant reminder for me that when I am in prayer I am in the house of the Lord; I am standing in the New Jerusalem.  In verse 2 of Psalm 122, the New American Standard Version translates the Hebrew as, “Our feet are standing within your gates Jerusalem.”  The Hebrew is difficult to translate, and the verb could be present, perfect, participial, or past tense.  The KJV makes it future tense:  “Our feet shall stand…”  Wycliff translated it as past tense:  “Our feet were standing…”  But regardless of the tense, the fact remains that for the exiles in Babylon, they were looking toward the Holy City and the future temple and were seeing it as a present reality.  For us today, we know that when we are in Christ, we are standing within the gates of the New Jerusalem, and worshiping in His Holy Temple.

There are three significant statements in the first half of this Psalm to which we can cling as citizens of Christ’s Kingdom.  The first was exposited in the previous paragraph.  The second statement which has an impact on our situation and relationship with the Lord is found in verse 3:  “Jerusalem…a city bound firmly together.”  Though we cannot physically see the oneness of the New Jerusalem, we know that in Christ we are one.  There is one body in Christ, and we all worship together in the one Spirit (Eph. 4:4; Rev. 5:11-14).  And thirdly, we go up to Jerusalem, “as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the Name of the Lord” (vs. 4).  We come together in the Spirit to worship, to give thanks, to praise His Holy Name.  All of this is present tense and fulfills the command to go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

There is abundant good news in this truth.  St. Paul gave us a glimpse of this in chapter 2 of his epistle to the Ephesians.  He said, “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (vv. 19-22).  In our worship of God in the New Jerusalem, whether physically together or separated by miles and time, we are being built up into a Holy Temple in the Lord.  When we come together as One Body in the Spirit, God richly dwells in our midst.  

This psalm celebrates the chosen city and the privilege we have in making our daily pilgrimage to Zion.  When we recite this psalm, or even better, when we sing it together in our gathered worship, we are fulfilling the task of pilgrim worship in God’s holy temple.  And when we are “bound firmly together” then Jesus, our Davidic King, is lifted up and is tangibly present with us, and our feet are firmly planted as we stand within the gates of the New Jerusalem.