Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Oct 13 2019 - Psalm 122 – Rejoicing in pilgrimage

A week ago we noted that Psalms 120-134 are "Songs of Ascents", psalms sung by pilgrims as they made their way up to Jerusalem for one of the major annual festivals. Psalm 121 reflected on the dangers of the journey and the help and protection that God would provide for his people on the way. Psalm 122 is a song of praise for safe arrival; the anxiety of the journey is over for the psalmist's feet are now standing in Jerusalem.

The psalmist looks back to the day when he was first invited to join others on their journey up to the holy city. He was filled with joy at the prospect (v. 1). Nor has his joy been disappointed for he is now filled with wonder as he looks around the city. Ancient Jerusalem may not have been a very large city but it was the place where the Lord's people gathered together to praise the name of the Lord their God. They assembled in obedience to his word ("according to the statute given to Israel", v. 4), but it was no mere duty; it was a joy. There in the city was the throne of their king, the successor to David (v. 5), and there was the temple, the house of God where sacrifice enabled them to approach God and know that he dwelt with them to bless them (v. 9). In the psalmist's estimation there was no better place to be.

We too are a pilgrim people on our way to the Heavenly Jerusalem. A chorus from an old hymn once popular among Christians went as follows:

We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We're marching upward to Zion; the beautiful city of God.

Moreover, the goal of our pilgrimage is not just a future prospect but is also part of our present experience. As Alec Motyer has expressed it:

The goal of the Jerusalem to come, the New Heaven and the new Earth, the City of the Lord God and of the Lamb, casts its radiance before it for those who live in its light… and importantly, to its present location in the local church to which we belong.

We are to delight now in the fellowship of God's people as we meet together to praise him. We are to delight in the perfect and final atoning sacrifice of Christ which enables us to come into the presence of the living God. We are to rejoice that Jesus, David's greater Son, is our Lord and King. We are a people who are on pilgrimage together and who have tasted already something of the power and joy of the age to come.

In the latter part of this psalm, the psalmist turns to prayer. He prays for the peace of Jerusalem and for the security of its people. We need to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters both here and throughout the world that they will be kept secure in faith and safe from those who threaten them.

The psalmist prays concerning Jerusalem that there may be "peace within your walls". We need to pray that those who profess to follow the Lord Jesus may be kept at peace with one another – enjoying the peace of God that breaks down all barriers. Pray that there may not be discord and division in the church or in relationships between churches. In-fighting discredits the gospel.

He prays for "family and friends", no doubt those who have travelled with him on the journey. We need to pray for family and friends that they might join us on the journey to the Heavenly City and, having joined us, that they might not drift away.

He seeks the prosperity of the city. We need constantly to pray that the kingdom of our God may come and the reign of our precious Saviour may be extended to embrace the whole world.

Father, help us to rejoice at the prospect of reaching our journey's goal and so devote ourselves to earnest prayer that the joy set before us may be part of our present experience, strengthening us on the journey. May we always encourage one another along the way and be earnest in our prayer that your kingdom may come.

Oct 13 2020 - Hebrews 8:1-13 – A covenant established on better promises

A large part of the chapter we are reading today consists of an extended quotation from Jeremiah 31 which speaks of a new covenant. God promises that this new covenant will not be like the one he made with the Children of Israel "when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt" (Hebrews 8:9 / Jeremiah 31:32). What a wonderful picture of the way in which God saved his people from the bondage of Egypt; he took them by the hand and led them out, like a father tenderly leading his children. What could be better than that? How could you improve on such a salvation?

The problem lay not with God's saving work but with the rebellious nature of those he had saved; "they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord" (8:9). Jeremiah's words of prophecy are spoken against the background of the fall of Jerusalem and the people of Judah being dragged off into captivity in Babylon. Their faithlessness had resulted in God turning his back upon them.

The new covenant is different and better than that made at Sinai in two vital respects. Firstly, as we saw yesterday, "Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant" (Hebrews 7:22). This new covenant does not depend on the faithfulness of those whom God now takes to be his own; it depends only upon the faithfulness of Jesus. He is the guarantor of this new covenant. He came and took the place of faithless Israel; he bore the consequence of its rebellion and suffered its judgment when God turned his face away from his own Son. Jesus' cry of dereliction rings through the darkness of exile that precedes the dawn of resurrection. Now he is risen; exile is at an end. He has become the guarantor of a better covenant. A covenant that cannot be shattered by the faithlessness of God's people because it is underwritten by a faithful Saviour who has stood in our place and endured the judgment that our faithlessness deserves. That is why he promises, "I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more" (8:12).

But there is more to this new covenant. God knows that, left to ourselves, we would soon become as faithless as faithless Israel. Therefore he promises, "I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (8:10). Jesus, our faithful Saviour, raised from death to the right hand of the Father, has poured out his Spirit upon his people. God has given us the Spirit of his Son to teach us how to be faithful children. He has enrolled us in the school of Christ.

The covenant by which God has made us his children is a better covenant because of Jesus. The covenant is unbreakable because it rests solely upon the faithfulness of our Saviour. Nevertheless it is designed to produce a faithful people, a people conformed to the image of God's Son by the power of his Spirit at work within us.

In Jesus, God has taken us by the hand and is leading us out of slavery and into freedom.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you have made us children of the new covenant sealed with the blood of Christ. Thank you that we have a faithful Saviour; faithful unto death, faithful in his resurrection life, faithful as our advocate in the heavens. Thank you that you have poured out your Spirit into our hearts to assure us of your love for us. Stir up our love for you and direct us in the path of obedience. We do love you Lord, and we long to please you. Help us to grow in knowledge of Christ, to walk in obedience to your commandments and to speak to others of your great faithfulness and love.

Peter Misselbrook