Good morning.
We are going to focus on some psalms this morning. You will be familiar with these, but here is one major point. I will read first from Psalm 87:2, and note the emphasis:
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Then Psalm 132. This is one of the Songs of Ascents. I will read it. It is a two-part psalm, and you will understand that shortly.
Lord, remember for David
All his affliction;
How he sware unto the Lord,
And vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob:
Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house,
Nor go up into my bed;
I will not give sleep to mine eyes,
Or slumber to mine eyelids;
Until I find out a place for the Lord,
A tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob.Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah:
We found it in the field of the wood.
We will go into His tabernacles;
We will worship at His footstool.
Arise, O Lord, into Thy resting-place;
Thou, and the ark of Thy strength.
Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness;
And let Thy saints shout for joy.
For Thy servant David’s sake
Turn not away the face of Thine anointed.The Lord hath sworn unto David in truth;
He will not turn from it:
Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
If thy children will keep My covenant
And My testimony that I shall teach them,
Their children also shall sit upon thy throne for evermore.For the Lord hath chosen Zion;
He hath desired it for His habitation.
This is My resting-place for ever:
Here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
I will abundantly bless her provision:
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
Her priests also will I clothe with salvation:
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
There will I make the horn of David to bud:
I have ordained a lamp for Mine anointed.
His enemies will I clothe with shame:
But upon Himself shall His crown flourish.
The last psalm I would like to read is Psalm 137. I am purposely reading these last two psalms in full.
By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept,
When we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in the midst thereof
We hanged up our harps.
For there they that led us captive required of us songs,
And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her skill.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
If I remember thee not;
If I prefer not Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.
Remember, O Lord, against the children of Edom
The day of Jerusalem;
Who said, Rase it, rase it,
Even to the foundation thereof.
O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed,
Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee
As thou hast served us.
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones
Against the rock.
That may be a little upsetting to you, but you will understand it in the context.
Lord, Your Word is precious. Your Word has great and deep secrets. We can only know them by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Your words are spirit and life.
As we come to You this morning, we ask You to open Your Word to us. Do what man cannot do. Make us understand, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what we cannot understand and do not see. Lord, open our eyes to behold the mysteries in Your Word.
We ask this all in the precious name of our Lord Jesus, and for His sake. Amen.
Most of you know that I began a series just a short while ago, Onward Toward Jerusalem. That is a burden the Lord really impressed me with after a conference I did in San Antonio this past summer.
Onward toward Jerusalem. In fact, I believe the Bible is consistently full of that theme: onward toward Jerusalem.
You can see it in the early history, when God found the king in Jerusalem—His king—and his whole burden, passion, and longing was to have Jerusalem.
You can see it at the end of the Old Testament, when those of the remnant, whom we read about in Psalm 137, came back from captivity. God used them and that longing to restore what He wanted for Jerusalem.
Then you can see it in the New Testament. Remember when the Lord came? I do not know if you have seen this, but I have seen it numerous times when I have read the Bible: there is that phrase, “He went on toward Jerusalem.” It is there for a purpose.
He went there to accomplish what we heard about this morning: His ultimate work. And there, when He accomplished His ultimate work, He brought into view God’s heart for Jerusalem—what it really means.
Now, I hope you know already that I am not talking about a physical city. I am talking about a spiritual reality in Jerusalem.
Think of it: when you come to the close of the Bible, in Revelation 21, there is a wonderful, wonderful revealing of Jerusalem with all its glory and all its fullness. We can hardly imagine what awaits us. Yet we can know today the reality of it, the foreshadowing of it, if you do not mind me using that word.
I think the whole Bible is related to Jerusalem.
The Lord gave me three thoughts when He gave me this burden concerning onward toward Jerusalem.
First, looking toward Jerusalem. In Hebrews 11, often called the hall of faith, Abraham was so caught by this. Hebrews 11:10 says that he looked for a city whose Builder and Maker is God.
For he looked for the city which hath the foundations,
Whose builder and maker is God.
It was what possessed the man, motivated the man, and changed the man.
When you read after Abraham in Hebrews 11, you discover that all those saints referred to from the Old Testament were looking for that city. They were sojourners. They were pilgrims. They were wandering in a world, but they were looking for a city.
And it concludes that God will give them that city. How wonderful. Their eyes were on that city. They were looking.
The second part, which we will deal with today, is an indispensable part of this onward toward Jerusalem: longing for Jerusalem.
You may have seen something—and you have to see something. When you see something, looking toward Jerusalem, and it apprehends you, captures you, and changes your life, there has to be something more. Otherwise, you just end up being a visionary.
We have too many visionaries in the church. We need people who are much more practical in the church. Not only have they seen something, but they are longing for it. That is what I mean by longing for Jerusalem.
Finally, another time, we will get into the practical part: living in Jerusalem.
You may have seen something. It may be very real to you. You can explain it to people. You can talk about it for days and days, go to conferences, and say, “This is what Jerusalem is. This is God’s thought for Jerusalem.”
But if you do not have that longing, and you do not know the reality of living in it, then you have missed God’s intention. God never meant for it to be a message. God never meant for it to be a conference word. God meant for it to be a reality among the saints.
In the end, His heart, His burden, His longing, and His desire is that we would live in Jerusalem. In other words, we would experience it today while we are on the earth, and it would be a natural transition when we come to the glory spoken of in Revelation 21.
The first thing that came to me, as I meditated on this and considered it and thought much about it, is God’s longing for Jerusalem. You have to see that. If you do not see that, we are off from the beginning.
In the very first place, the Bible is clear about His longing for Jerusalem. To God, Jerusalem has a special place.
We read Psalm 87:2:
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Quite a statement, I think you might agree. More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
There is something in the heart of God about Jerusalem that is so real to Him, so important to Him, that He gave His Son to bring about in His people the reality of Jerusalem. I think that is very clear when you study Scripture.
Psalm 87:2 tells us what God loves, and it also tells us how much He loves it. Nothing in Israel could compare. Nothing could even begin to come up to this thought of Zion, to this thought of Jerusalem, which is embedded in and inseparable from the heart of God.
I think of Hebrews 12:22:
But ye are come unto mount Zion,
And unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Is that not a wonderful verse? It explains, brothers and sisters, in New Testament language—not in Old Testament types—what we have come to and what God has for us. You have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.
Sometimes I think people get hung up in their study and say, “Well, is it Zion? Is it Jerusalem? Is there any difference between Zion and Jerusalem?” People have taken much pains to differentiate.
Of course, you hear it often: Zion is the mount, and Jerusalem is the city. But if you look at the Word of God, they are inseparable. When God speaks about His love, it is Zion. When He speaks about His desire, it is Jerusalem. When He tells the people what He will do, it is all for the sake of His righteousness and for Jerusalem. They are one and the same.
Isaiah 4:3 says:
And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion,
And he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy,
Even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem.
You get the last point already. He is looking for the living in Jerusalem. That is what that verse means.
Why does God love it so? You have to think about that. What is it about Jerusalem?
If you look at earthly Jerusalem, it is a dusty little city. I know the gardens have done wonderful things, and the Jews have transformed it. But remember, we are not talking about the earthly city. If you think I am trying to turn you all into Messianic Christians, you have missed the whole point.
There is a reason God loves this so much: it is His gift for His Son.
You remember Revelation 21. At the end, the city is coming down as a bride prepared for her husband. It is God’s gift. The city and the bride are one.
Psalm 2:6 says:
Yet I have set My king
Upon My holy hill of Zion.
It is the place of His authority. It is the place where God has chosen to set His King. That is why it means so much.
It is the place where the house of God is built—on Mount Moriah. It is the expression of the church. It is the expression of God with a people for all eternity.
Do not think I am talking about the natural city. It is His dwelling, His eternal home. That longing in His heart is for the full expression of all that Jerusalem and Zion mean.
It is not simply that the Jews would be returned to the homeland. Thank God, I think that is an illustration. For those of you who do not think I care a whit about the natural Jerusalem, I do.
I believe 1948 was the sovereign hand of God to call people who had been scattered back to a place, to be an earthly expression of the heavenly reality that He was after.
I would say to people who have moved on from that whole Old Testament matter and say, “Oh, there is nothing to do with it. No longer does God have any heart for that place,” I hardly find that acceptable.
When I read Romans 9, Romans 10, and Romans 11, and see how He will yet again provoke the Jews to jealousy, and He will save all Israel, I still do not know what that means, but I believe it with all my heart.
This is what was anticipated in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. It was always this living experience of Jerusalem. This is what we see throughout the New Testament. This is what God is for, and He includes us in it.
Do you understand? We often think, “What is in it for me?” I am not getting on you, because it includes me. Christians can be the most self-centered people in the world.
You may not think so. You may not agree with me. You may want to yell at me, and if you do, feel free to yell; I will talk over you.
But we can be the most self-centered people in the world: “What is in it for me? It is all about me. I am the center of the universe.”
When you read carefully, you see that it is all for God. It is all for His Son. But you see a wonderful mystery: it includes us. Is that not marvelous?
You are included in that biggest thing in His heart for His Son. You are to be a living part of it, part of the full expression of it. And it will be for all eternity. That is what Jerusalem is.
I believe that is exactly what Galatians is talking about when Paul wrote to the Galatian church and was dealing with the two covenants. You remember Galatians 4.
He said that the two children of Abraham are allegorical. Now, it is hard for an engineer even to say that word, much less understand what it means. But these are allegorical; they mean something. They speak about the two covenants expressed in the two sons of Abraham: Ishmael and Isaac.
It goes on to say that Ishmael tends toward bondage. This is the Jerusalem that now is. But when it speaks about the other Jerusalem, it does not mention Isaac. It goes way beyond Isaac:
But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother.
God has His view on that Jerusalem. Everything else is an illustration.
Look at Psalm 132:13:
For the Lord hath chosen Zion;
He hath desired it for His habitation.
Think about that. Does that not speak volumes? He has chosen Zion—Jerusalem. He has desired it for His dwelling.
If you look up the Hebrew word for desired, it speaks about ardent love. It speaks about longing. He is longing for Jerusalem.
And He does not just say it once. Look at Psalm 132:14:
This is My resting-place for ever:
Here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
Twice. Twice. It was not enough to say it once; the God of heaven and earth had to declare it twice: “I have desired it.”
It is unmistakable what the longing is in His heart. Jerusalem is His passion, and He is committed to it. How wonderful that is.
If you want to talk about desire, talk about God’s desire. Think about what is in His heart. Think about what He is doing. Think about His end, and you will begin to see so clearly what His longing is.
And, of course, the question—the anxiety I have when I pray to the Lord, when I seek the Lord—is this: “Lord, is this my longing? Is this the spiritual ache in my heart?”
If this is Your longing, if this is the spiritual ache in Your heart, let it be the spiritual ache in my heart.
Beginning in Psalm 132:15, He shows us how much He loves Jerusalem and how much He desires Jerusalem. In verses 15 through 18, He tells us what He is going to do for Jerusalem:
I will abundantly bless her provision:
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
Think of it. He will abundantly bless her provision.
Think about it, brothers and sisters. You in Christ—could He have blessed you any more? Remember Ephesians 1:3:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing
In the heavenly places in Christ.
Now, I am a numbers guy. You know that. I like numbers. When it says every spiritual blessing, it is innumerable. It includes all of it. You cannot add to that list.
Linda will not send me to the grocery store alone, because she is afraid of what I will come back with. So she gives me this numbered list: get these things, exactly where it is, what the label says, what the weight says. I can even follow those directions.
Then, if I bring back cookies that I liked, she says, “You were not supposed to get these. You were not supposed to add to the list.” You cannot add to the list.
So when you think of God and His list, He will bless us with every spiritual blessing. “I will abundantly bless her provision.” Notice that adjective. It is an adjective, right? She did not hear me. Forget adverb—adjective. What is this between friends? I got an A in English, I will have you know, young daughter. I think it was mercy.
“I will abundantly bless her provision.” How abundantly? Think of what we heard this morning in Romans 8:31. Could He love us more?
Then He says:
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
That is you and me. We have been talking about what is in God’s heart, but that is you and me. We are the needy ones.
How much will He satisfy the needy ones with bread? He did not hold back from giving to us His only begotten Son. Can you imagine? That writer, that brother, read this morning: “How shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?”
It is incalculable what He did. Everything we need—not one need is left out, not one need is overlooked. Abundant blessing and innumerable needs met. This is His love. This is what He will do for Jerusalem.
Then:
Her priests also will I clothe with salvation:
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
I do not know what you think of your salvation, but it is the most grand thing.
I remember Hebrews, one of those great warnings. It asks, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?” So great. What salvation will He give us? So great salvation.
Then think of Hebrews 7:25, where it speaks of this great High Priest:
Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost
Them that draw near unto God through Him.
I like that word, uttermost. I do not quite understand it, but I love it. It sounds like a word Brother Sparks would say—“uttermost.” He would say it three times, and I would say, “What is he saying?”
But, brothers and sisters, He will clothe His priests with salvation—not just saved from death. Often we say, “Well, are you saved? Are you going to heaven?” Do you know that is only a minor part of salvation?
He is able to save us even to the uttermost. He is able to bring us into a full salvation, so great salvation. Because He loves Jerusalem, that heavenly Jerusalem, so much, this is what He will do for her.
The result is that they shall shout aloud for joy: joy inexpressible and full of glory.
When we discover that, as needy ones, every need has been met, every blessing has been given, and salvation is even to the uttermost, we have to conclude that it is beyond anything we could ask or even imagine, as it says in Ephesians.
I was getting too excited, and I do not think I know where I am anymore, but I will try to carry on.
This psalm is so precious. Psalm 132:17 says:
There will I make the horn of David to bud:
I have ordained a lamp for Mine anointed.
Now, what does that mean? Sometimes we get into the Old Testament—words about horn and bud—and we puzzle and think, “What on earth does that mean?”
It is Messianic in nature. The horn of David that shall bud forth is the Lord Jesus. It is a great Messianic prophecy. “I will send My only One, and He will make sure; He is the guarantee that all of this will be done.” How spectacular.
He goes even further:
I have ordained a lamp for Mine anointed.
Do you know what that means? Do you know what the lampstands stood for in Revelation? All those seven churches, with all their various problems, with all those things the Lord tried to adjust as He walked in their midst—it stood for a living testimony.
In every one of those places, we could name them and go into great detail, there was a testimony there. In the end, the Lord says, “This is what I will do. I have ordained a lampstand there—a testimony.” You are part of it. You are part of it. How wonderful that thought is.
The last verse in this psalm speaks of the Lord’s desire twice, the Lord’s longing, the Lord’s passion:
His enemies will I clothe with shame:
But upon Himself shall His crown flourish.
His enemies I will clothe with shame. Do you know the wonder of Revelation 20?
When Satan and his arch-enemies, before the kingdom, are cast into the bottomless pit—you know the story, it is the abyss. Some of us are reading Luke now and studying Luke 8. Those demons were so afraid; they said, “Do not command us to depart into the abyss. Send us into the pigs.”
Brothers and sisters, the abyss is really for Satan. It was never meant for you or me. God has something far greater.
Satan is cast there. Then, a few verses later, in Revelation 20:10, it speaks about the beginning of eternity. It talks about Satan, the false prophet, and the beast, and they are all cast into that fiery place, never to be worried about again.
Is that not wonderful? This is a promise. This is a guarantee. The enemy will be done away with. You do not have to think about this happening again, because His promise in His longing for Jerusalem is to do away with His enemy forever.
I think these few verses open our eyes to see how great His longing, how great His intention, and how great His love are for Jerusalem.
There is another thing: not only does He love Zion and Jerusalem, and not only does He long for Zion and Jerusalem, but He is jealous for Zion and Jerusalem.
Turn to Zechariah 1. This is near the end of the Old Testament, the next-to-last book. Zechariah 1:14–17 is a marvelous passage. This is what God says He will do for Jerusalem.
The great day of the Lord is near—it is near, and hasteth greatly. The voice of the day of the Lord—oh, I am reading Zephaniah. Pardon me. I knew it did not sound right. It is true, the great day of the Lord is near, but that is not the point we were trying to make.
Zechariah 1:14–17:
And the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
And I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.
Therefore thus saith the Lord: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; My house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem.
Cry yet again, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.
Do you see the mercy in that? God was a little angry—it is real—and those enemies stepped it up a notch.
But listen to this assurance: “I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall be built in it.” Then, “The Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.”
Is that not wonderful? At the very end of the Old Testament, this is the proclamation of the Lord. Do you see in these verses God’s longing for Jerusalem? Can it be more? Do you see what He promises to do for Jerusalem? Can it be any more? I think it is evident.
I think of another time in the Bible concerning God’s longing for Jerusalem. Do you remember when the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem just before that period of His greatest sacrifice?
Do you remember as He stood and looked at Jerusalem? Do you remember His longing? I cannot imagine it. If I were the Lord—and you are grateful that I am not—I would only be thinking about the agony. I would only be thinking about that separation our brother read about this morning. I would only be thinking about what faced Me in Jerusalem.
But that is not what He said.
In Matthew 23:37, and it is in other Gospels, He said:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets,
And stoneth them that are sent unto her!
How often would I have gathered thy children together,
Even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
And ye would not!
I do not think He said “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” quite as calmly as I just did. He must have cried out with the highest voice: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets.”
Can you imagine what He was about to face? There was no one like Him. He was the Son of God.
Yet He said, “How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not.” Do you think that is longing in His heart for Jerusalem?
He was about to pay the infinite price, but His longing was for Jerusalem.
This is the first thing that is in my heart. Brothers and sisters, I had to confess. I had to weep. I had to cry out and say, “Lord, give me this passion. Give me this longing. Make it real.”
If it is a message, do not let me share it. If it is real, let us consider it.
The second part of Psalm 132—which is actually the first part; now I know I confuse you—that Song of Ascents is all about David. I think that is remarkable.
In that psalm, where God’s heart is so expressed for Jerusalem, where His desire is mentioned twice, and where we see all that He will do for her, the major part is about David: those first twelve verses.
Is that striking to you? If I were writing that psalm, and not David, I would have had two separate psalms.
But in God’s heart, He is after men and women who have that same desire in their hearts. He is looking. His eyes go to and fro throughout the earth. He is looking among His people, wondering: Are there some who will catch this vision? Are there some whom it will capture in their hearts? Are there some whom it will constrain?
The first part of that psalm is about one who was like that. You remember what God says in 1 Samuel 13:14:
The Lord hath sought Him a man after His own heart.
When Samuel was sent to Saul and told him, “You are rejected,” what a day that was for Saul. But God said, “I have found a man after My own heart to be king.” Is that not marvelous? There was such a man. There was a man like that.
God did not say merely a follower. He did not simply say, “The one I will anoint and make king.” He said one of the strangest and most wonderful things in the Word of God: “A man after My own heart.”
Then, in Acts 13:22, He says it again. It is the New Testament summary of David:
I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who shall do all My will.
Paul’s understanding, as he meditated on the Old Testament—all he had—was that God was seeking a man. God was seeking a man after His own heart, who would do all of His will.
I think that is the explanation of the first part of Psalm 132. You see David’s longing. It is quite remarkable.
It is not only God’s longing that we are talking about. It is the longing of men and women. What is your longing? Will God say of you, “I have sought a man. I have sought a woman. One who is after My own heart, who will do all My will”?
I think it is one of the most precious verses in the whole Bible.
It captured David. It controlled him. It constrained him. He pursued it, and he possessed it.
When you read Psalm 132, you discover the intensity of his longing. I know I am an intense person, and probably half of you, like me, need to take a nap when I am finished. But David was intense. He was intense. That passion was so great, he was intense.
Look at Psalm 132:2:
How he sware unto the Lord,
And vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob.
Think about that. Do you remember in the New Testament, in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s prohibition about swearing? He said not to swear by heaven, because it is God’s dwelling place; not to swear by the earth, because it is God’s footstool; and not to swear by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the living God.
There was no rebuke here. Oh, I tell you, I think we are so legalistic sometimes. We would say, “Oh, he should not have sworn. Another fault of David.”
But he swore to the God of heaven. What he swore was that he would find Him a place. What he swore was that he would not rest. What he swore was that he would not give sleep to his eyes or slumber to his eyelids until he found a place for the Lord.
Do you think that is wonderful? I think it is wonderful. If only there would be more like that—more ones like that.
I think this is what God is after: that spiritual longing, “Until I find a place for the Lord.” It was the longing for Jerusalem.
Everything was about Jerusalem with David. Do you remember how he came to the city held by the Jebusites, took that city with those who were with him, and called it the city of David? You remember that story in 2 Samuel 5.
I think it is remarkable that he called it the city of David. If I were David, I would say, “Hey, buddy, it is the city of God. Just keep those straight, will you?” But no. It was so much his. He possessed it. He owned it. He would say, “The city of David. This is my city too. This is just as real to me in my limited revelation.”
The city of David occurs in the Old Testament perhaps forty-five or forty-seven times. The city of David occurs in the New Testament two times. How wonderful that is. That city of the living God became the city of David because of his longing. Do you understand?
I believe this is what the Lord wants. I believe it is quite clear.
In Psalm 132:6, he is speaking of the ark of the covenant:
Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah:
We found it in the field of the wood.
Ephrathah is Bethlehem, by the way. “The fields of the wood” refers to Kiriath-jearim, if I said it right. You can correct me later.
What did he find? What did he find? It was the ark of the covenant. He says in Psalm 132:8:
Arise, O Lord, into Thy resting-place;
Thou, and the ark of Thy strength.
How he loved the ark.
The ark is an illustration of who the Lord is. The ark was overlaid with gold. That speaks of all of God.
There were three things in the ark. You remember the pot of manna. What do you think that means? Just that God can keep food longer than our modern-day refrigerator? It means, “I am the bread of life.”
There was Aaron’s rod that budded. What do you think that means? Miracle-Gro would love to have that formula: that old dead branch that budded.
It means that He is our resurrection life. Even when we are a dead old branch, we can bud forth in the power of His life.
And there were the tablets of stone. They were broken, and God inscribed them again when the children of Israel rebelled. But the Lord was the embodiment of the law. He fulfilled it. You never have to. I will give you a little secret: you cannot.
That is the ark. And David said:
Arise, O Lord, into Thy resting-place;
Thou, and the ark of Thy strength.
It seems to me that this is what the Lord is looking for: more Davids. If He finds them, He has those men and women after His own heart.
You can study the history, but if you just study the history in 2 Samuel 5, 2 Samuel 6, and the corresponding chapters in the books of Kings, you will miss much. You need to see the heart.
History is important. I love hearing about history. We see those who have gone before us, and we are encouraged by it. But what we have to see first of all is the heart. That is the difference. I think that is why this psalm is so important.
Well, let me end. Well, I will say one more thing, since I did not start until five after.
David so longed for Jerusalem, he made a fool of himself. You remember when he brought up the ark. You remember him dancing, and Saul’s daughter—David’s wife—rebuked the king for making such a fool of himself.
I thought of what Paul said: “We are fools for Christ.”
I have been a fool for a lot of things. Some of you prayed me through to take the whole credit from it. I used to go to so many Redskins games and make a complete fool of myself. I did not wear all the war paint and stuff, but I had all the attire. I would yell, and I would come home and could not talk. Linda would wonder what happened.
I would make a fool of myself for the things of this world that are passing. But are you willing, like David and like the Apostle Paul, to be a fool for Christ? I think that was what David did that was so remarkable.
The last bit I want to talk about is this matter of the captives’ longing for Jerusalem. Look at Psalm 137. It was not just God’s longing. It was not just David’s longing. It was the captives’ longing for Jerusalem.
We have already read it, but these ones were given up to captivity—God’s own children.
You may think that is really cruel. Maybe He should have just made them sit in the corner for a few hours. Maybe He should not have been so harsh.
But He had already said in His Word, “I was but a little displeased,” and the enemies extended it: “I am very sore displeased with them.” It was loving discipline.
Do we understand loving discipline? Do we understand Hebrews 12? Everyone He loves, the Word says, He disciplines and scourges, because they had turned away from this longing for Jerusalem. They had taken the idols of the land, and they had married the daughters of the land.
He had to do something. It was an emergency measure. He sent the whole thing into captivity. His beloved Jerusalem was ransacked, everything was carried away, and they all became prisoners of Babylon.
But He did that only to recover. He did it so that He might restore in the hearts of His own what they were missing. That is the story of Psalm 137.
It is like the story of the prodigal son. You remember the prodigal son went away from the father because he wanted to live it up for today. Then, as he was in that pigsty eating husks, he began to think about the father’s house. He began to think that the servants were better off.
It literally means the slaves were better off than his present experience among the corn husks. Now, I have slopped pigs before. I know how horrible it is. The smell is something horrible.
But God does it. God did it to His own. He sent them into captivity to cure them forever.
When you read Psalm 137, it begins to tell you how that longing for Jerusalem redeveloped:
By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept,
When we remembered Zion.
They began to think, “This thing of Zion is so great.” They wept when they remembered it.
Then they said:
Upon the willows in the midst thereof
We hanged up our harps.
For there they that led us captive required of us songs,
And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
It literally means they terrorized them. They mocked them. They ridiculed them. And the more they ridiculed them, the more, I believe, the Holy Spirit spoke to them about God’s love for Jerusalem.
Then it says:
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?
And then it says a remarkable thing in Psalm 137:5–6:
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her skill.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
If I remember thee not;
If I prefer not Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.
Have you ever thought about that?
Some people, as Christians, are way too legal for me. They say Jerusalem is to be your only joy. I do not think that is true. Above your chief joy—is that not a little bit different?
These ones were now captives. They had once experienced the wonder of Jerusalem in the land. Because of their disobedience and sin, they were carried into captivity by the loving hand of God, and by the mercy of God, to deliver them once and for all and restore in them that missing longing.
That is what this psalm means.
I believe it is very clear. God is looking for such a people.
When you look at these people, they changed the world at that time. God put something in their hearts, and it changed them. Then He moved.
I love to combine history with what God is moving and speaking into hearts. He moved on Cyrus, king of Persia. Can you believe it? Ezra 1:1–3 records it.
Cyrus said, in effect, “All of you, any of you whose heart stirs them, go back and build the house of God which is at Jerusalem, for He is God.”
Jerusalem once again became their view, and they had to get back. They paid a great cost to get back. Only about sixty thousand responded—rough numbers—to get back.
But with those sixty thousand who once again caught that vision of a longing for Jerusalem, they changed the world. The testimony of God was once again restored in the land. The temple was rebuilt. The wall around Jerusalem was rebuilt. Then there were those who began living in Jerusalem.
This is what was in God’s heart. May the Lord find it in our heart.
Just a few questions. Do you understand the longing of God for Zion and Jerusalem? Is it some strange concept?
Are you like David, a man or woman after His own heart?
Are you like these captives—wandered off, lost your passion, lost your longing, wandered into sin? He is calling you back.
Linda was reading to me this morning The Hound of Heaven, because I cannot understand it; the English is too high. Beautiful words. She will have to educate me some more.
He is the Hound of Heaven. He will never stop coming for you. He will never stop wanting to put in you His longing and His love. He is not going to go. He is the Hound of Heaven.
Sooner or later, if there is hope, if the fire has almost gone out, He will light that fire again. It will become a flame, and you will be constrained to give yourself to this. You will say, “I too desire Jerusalem and desire Zion.”
This is the burden the Lord laid upon my heart. It may be too simple, but I think it is real.
If you are going to journey toward Jerusalem, you have to have this indispensable quality. It was the quality of God Himself. It was the quality of the man of whom He said the most spectacular things: David.
When the New Testament starts and speaks about the Lord Jesus’ birth, the first name mentioned is “Son of David.”
You may be someone who has not fulfilled what God had in your life. You may have been one who turned away. You may have been one who chose other loves. You may have been one who turned from what you once knew.
He is the Hound of Heaven. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. He is calling you back.
This is what the captives did, and they changed the world.
Lord, we just come. So marvelous are the things, the mysteries contained in Your Word, we can hardly take them in. But we sense, even in our limited light, they are forever true.
Lord, I want to confess before You: I want to be one who has this longing that You have, whatever it takes, wherever I go. And I want my brothers and sisters to experience this longing, so that God would have a place for Himself that includes us.
How wonderful. Amen.