where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD. Sermons
I. THEY WERE DESIGNED TO PRESERVE THE NATIONAL UNITY. It should be kept in mind that Israel was not so much a tribe as a set of tribes, and there was always the danger of jealousies producing divisions. The times of the judges reveal how easily the national life could be broken up. Something in which the unity of the nation could be publicly recognized was absolutely necessary. This something must be in the nature of a command from the central authority; and it must take a regular and systematic form. Compare pilgrimages to Mecca, and even the country fairs and national holidays, which have their distinctly national uses. Show the moral influence of such blendings of people from different parts of the country; and explain that the preservation of the unity of Israel as a nation bore direct relation to the testimony it made for Jehovah among the nations. Statesmen still make it their supreme aim to secure the essential unity of the composite sections that make up the nations they govern. Their mottoes always are, "United we conquer; divided we fall." "Union is strength." A constantly repeated united national act is an important help to preserving national unity. II. THEY WERE DESIGNED TO PRESERVE THE RELIGIOUS UNITY. Unity is the key-note of the Jewish religion. It expresses the conception of God. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." So unity must be the idea everywhere and in everything. The primary idea of the religion must get representation in every conceivable form. A multiplicity of conceptions of God is condemned. A variety of altars is regarded as distinctly mischievous. And even an extension of sacrifice and service beyond Jerusalem was not permissible. The whole nation was required to join in the most solemn acts of worship - the Passover, Day of Atonement, etc. Subject to all kinds of disintegrating influences in their tribal associations, the nation was recalled to what may be termed its doctrinal and ecclesiastical unity three times a year. The formal religious unity so jealously preserved for the Jews should not be thought of as requiring our formal imitation. It was the outward and pictorial illustration of that spiritual unity which is the true religious unity, the family unity of those who have one Father. III. THEY WERE DESIGNED TO CONSERVE THE GREAT NATIONAL TRUST. Israel, or the Abrahamic race, was called out from other nations to be the depositories of those primary truths concerning God which were imperiled by man's being left to his self-development. "To them were committed the oracles of God," which include the threefold conception of God as one, spiritual, holy; and only to be served by righteousness. This was the national trust; and it must be kept ever before the minds of the people. In the most solemn way they were reminded of it at the great feasts. IV. THEY WERE DESIGNED TO SANCTIFY THE NATIONAL HOLIDAY-TIMES. The feasts of heathen religions are times of moral license, only suggested by the drunkenness and immorality of country fairs. Israel must realize that all life and relations are consecrated to God. They must see that the true relations and pleasures of life must be sanctified, must be kept within the holy restraints of religion. Their feast-times were their great holiday-times, and in them joy must blend with self-restraint, and freedom with purity. - R.T.
Whither the tribes go up. The church is still the centre of union. To this sacred place the tribes of God are ever going up, in accordance with the Divine statute, "to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." All local peculiarities, all national distinctions, vanish in the house of God. The Asiatic and the Esquimaux, the Red Indian and the Islander of the Southern Ocean, the African and the European, assemble here as one family; and, throwing aside all sectional feuds and rivalries, they worship on the same holy mountain. The great bond of union is Christ, and, joined to Him who is our living Head, we are members of one another. All one in Christ. There is one Father, one Redeemer, one Holy Ghost. There is one condemnation, and there is one redemption; one cross of atonement, one throne of grace, one home in heaven. Whenever believers meet, they can sing the same psalms, and repeat the same prayers. The New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the universe, where the Son of David is seated upon His mediatorial throne, is the eternal centre of worship and of union. To this true Holy of holies the tribes of Israel are always going up, "to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." Pleasant it must have been to witness company after company of pilgrims arriving at the earthly Jerusalem, to worship Jehovah at His solemn feasts. But how much more delightful to behold their disembodied spirits, borne upwards on the wings of angels, passing through the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem, and placed in triumph before the jasper throne! They come from the east and the west, from the north and the south. Each day, each night, accessions are made to the number of the redeemed, and new voices added to their jubilant songs. And then, too, the assemblies never break up, and the festivals have no end. There is peace within the walls, and prosperity within the palaces: peace flowing on as a majestic river, unruffled with storms, and unchafed with any impediment: prosperity, ample as the desires of the glorified spirit, and immortal as its nature.(N. McMichael.) People David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Companies, Decreed, Jah, Ordinance, Praise, Statute, Testimony, Thanks, Thither, Tribes, Whither, Witness, Yah'sOutline 1. David professes his joy for the church6. And prays for the peace thereof Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 122:1-4Library August the Eighteenth the Church of the Firstborn"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." --PSALM cxxii. And my Jerusalem is "the church of the living God." Do I carry her on my heart? Do I praise God for her heritage, and for her endowment of spiritual glory? And do I remember her perils, especially those parts of her walls where the defences are very thin, and can be easily broken through? Yes, has my Church any place in my prayer, or am I robbing her of part of her intended possessions? And is the entire Jerusalem the subject of my supplication? … John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year Religious Patriotism. For the Peace and Prosperity of the Church. --Ps. cxxii. Ps. cxxii. 7-9. O 'twas a Joyful Sound to Hear Of Four Things which Bring Great Peace Beginning at Jerusalem There is a Blessedness in Reversion Psalms Links Psalm 122:4 NIVPsalm 122:4 NLT Psalm 122:4 ESV Psalm 122:4 NASB Psalm 122:4 KJV Psalm 122:4 Bible Apps Psalm 122:4 Parallel Psalm 122:4 Biblia Paralela Psalm 122:4 Chinese Bible Psalm 122:4 French Bible Psalm 122:4 German Bible Psalm 122:4 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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