Assistance for the Resistance

THE PSALM

What's in a number? In this case, Psalm 122 contains a profession of the King's love for his people in community.

That's a profound passion, so don't miss it. Let me give you three C's of Christianity: community, commission, and compassion. Okay, since you're not into postmodern-speak, let me throw down some Old School terms next to them: church (community), cross (commission), and Christ (compassion).

If that's not what it's all about, I don't know my Jesus very well. Watch this.

Fifteen songs of ascent. Solomon authored the one in the center. David authored two on each side of that central anthem. The rest are orphans, but probably compiled by Hezekiah. Psalm 122 is said specifically to be by David, who is said specifically to be a man after God's own heart (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:11). So Warren Wiersbe provides a neat outline of what was on the king's heart (which is what our heart should beat for) in this Psalm.

David had a heart for God, 1-2

David had a heart for praise, 3-5

And David had a heart for prayer, 6-9

Slick. Sweet. Right now the King is coming, but he's not back yet. He fought the battle and won it all. Want to be a complete subject in the kingdom? It's a trinity—three C's: community (the spiritual kingdom), commission, and compassion. Psalm 122 provides divine assistance to the Resistance. Come here and let me show you.

First, start with determined dedication (a heart for God). Then, deepen your devoted adoration (a heart for praise). Finally, follow God's purpose in desperate dependence on him (a heart for prayer).

Most issues of life are heart issues. I don't mean to diminish doctrine or deprecate the need for knowledge, but I am with Donald Miller on this one. He doesn't quite say it this way, but truth is impotent until heeded. So you don't just need to read your Bible every day; you need to heed it every day. And that has to do with what goes out from your heart.

That's when you will begin to see the fruit of the Spirit start to work. Joy (v 1), love (v 6), peace (vv 7-8). Peace is the sign of true prosperity. Sunshine and glory. You ain't blessed if you stressed.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Our last Psalm (121) was sung when the city was sighted from a distance. But this one was chanted as they got up to the gates.

Hold it; you missed that. Too many times you have gone to church, heard the sermon, shouted Amen from the distant pew, but then walked out and promptly stepped out of the gate God invited you to enter. His word corrected you and his Spirit convicted you. You agreed mentally (and perhaps even vocally), but when you walked . . . you went back the other way. Look, if you're going to get to the gates, GO IN!

DOCTRINAL APPLICATION

Okay, I know some of you are type-D personalities. I haven't said nothing if I haven't said something doctrinal, prophetic and deep.

The church is a bride. It is also a city (Rev 22). She is "built" (like a Brick House, the Commodores would say). Matthew Henry points out that means the houses strengthen and support one another (a "closely knit unit," Unger says), as "a type of the gospel church." And its real strength came because justice was administered there—by a man after God's own heart.

Peace is in the walls (for the citizenry). Peace is in the palaces (for the ruling gentry). Prophetically, the nations will sing this Psalm to one another antiphonally as they go up to Jerusalem during the Millennium (see Isa 2:2-3; Jer 50:5; Zech 8:21-23, and for a complete statement of the process, Zech 14:16-21). Gotta go!

What is their hurry? To get to that justice administered by a king after God's heart. That's what blessing is, because his justice will mandate peace. The authority of the twelve apostles, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, will derive from their King (Isa 32:1 cf. Matt 19:28; Luke 22:30). Are we deep yet?

INSPIRATIONAL APPROACH

Go Old School with my girl, Pat Benatar. Worshiping in community with the people of God gives assistance to the Resistance.

Many times I've tried to tell you

Many times I've cried alone

Always I'm surprised how well you

Cut my feelings to the bone

Don't want to leave you really

I've invested too much time

To give you up that easy

To the doubts that complicate your mind

We Belong to the light

We Belong to the thunder

We Belong to the sound of the words

We've both fallen under

Whatever we deny or embrace

For worse or for better

We Belong, We Belong

We Belong together

Step INSIDE the gates. Faith makes present what grace promises. Trust in your trouble and you will triumph. Our High Priest pleads for us. Our Prince delivers us. Our welfare (community) is bound up with our King. Be soul-conscious in sensitivity (compassion, v 8). And exercise that compassion in fulfilling the commission (v 9).

Kingdom Come

Ready to rumble? Got on your thinking cap? Want to be stretched beyond your comfort zone? Actually read verses that are referenced for a change? Use your brain and do some real Bible study?

The kingdom, like our salvation, has three tenses. In salvation, on the cross we have been justified, by the Spirit we are being sanctified, and one day we will be glorified. The kingdom is also 3-D.

1. The kingdom had a past territorial dimension, because it is based on the Davidic covenant.

2. The kingdom has a present abstract spiritual dimension, because Christ has inaugurated "new covenant" salvation. (There is a sense in which we are translated into the kingdom of Christ right now because the Spirit has already come, Col 1:13).

3. The kingdom has a future concrete and material dimension, because Christ brings it in at his Second Coming and judgment. (There is a sense in which the kingdom has not yet come, and will not arrive until Jesus' return, Matt 26:29).

John the Baptist had the same concept of the kingdom as the OT prophets (that it includes salvation plus judgment), and naturally fused together the second and third dimension, because he did not see the church age in between. Hence his "at hand" kingdom included a strong spiritual element (Matt 3:6,11).

"Preaching the good news (or the gospel) of the kingdom" (cf. Matt 4:23; 9:35, both summary statements of what Jesus was preaching in Matt 1-12, which the disciples also preached, Matt 10:7) meant announcing the good news that the return of the Davidic kingdom was finally at hand. In each case just listed, the proof that follows are the miraculous signs of healing and casting out demons.

As the King is rejected and events unfold in the course of biblical progressive revelation, Jesus begins to make clear that the salvation aspect of the kingdom would be accomplished during his first coming, and the judgment aspect would be suspended until his second advent. The mystery that lay hidden in between was the opening-up of the spiritual aspect of kingdom blessings to the Gentiles by faith in Jesus Christ, even (and only) without the works of the law. It was the revelation that the inclusion of Gentiles was not a last-minute adjustment to God's plan, but actually something he predestinated before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4-5,11).

• At hand meant the kingdom was being offered in the person of the King, but could be rejected (Matt 13).
• At hand meant the kingdom existed wherever Jesus himself went, because all things were subject unto him (Matt 12:28).
• At hand means the hour of decision, to submit and join it has already arrived.

Today it means that the kingdom is present temporally to all who submit, and is approaching spatially when Christ returns. The foreshadowing of his coming (Matt 16:27-28) was his transfiguration (Matt 17:1-3).
At hand means it is inevitable (Matt 26:46-47).

We do not fight to bring in the kingdom (in the absolute, concrete sense; only Christ does that at his return). Instead, we fish and bring men and women into the kingdom. The kingdom is coming; until then, we are to get men and women coming into the kingdom (Acts 14:22).

The King craves subjects. Are you one of them? The goal of discipleship is to make kingdom subjects. Are you ready for the King's dominion to come?


George Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, revised, Donald Hagner, ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993, reprinted 1997).
Craig A. Blaising and Darrrell L. Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993).
Blaising & Bock, ed., Dispensationalism, Israel, and the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992).
Charles Ryrie, Dispensationalism (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1995).
G.E. Ladd, "Kingdom of Christ, God, Heaven" in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1984).
Alva McClain, "The Greatness of the Kingdom - Part I" Bibliotheca Sacra 112, no. 145 (1955).
Paul Enns, Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1989).
Herman A. Hoyt, "Dispensational Premillennialism" in The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views, ed. Robert G. Clouse (Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1977).
Robert L. Saucy, The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993).
Robert Saucy, "The Presence of the Kingdom and the Life in the Church," Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 145, issue 577 (1988).
Craig A. Blaising, "Development of Dispensationalism by Contemporary Dispensationalists," Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 145, issue 579 (1988).