May there be peace within your walls, and prosperity inside your fortresses." Sermons I. PEACE VERY LARGELY DEPENDS UPON PROSPERITY. "Peace" is a word with an extensive, beautiful, and suggestive connotation. We, perhaps, cannot fully realize it by any aid of memory; we can only enter into it with the help of the familiar engravings of 'War' and 'Peace.' It is not possible to overrate the value of peace for nations, or for Churches, or for families. But it largely depends on prosperity. This may be illustrated by the inward life of the religious man. Devotion and work are allowed to flag, soul-prosperity fails, and at once doubts and fears come to spoil the soul's peace. It may be illustrated in the life of the Church. When work and zeal and spiritual life - the signs of Church prosperity - fail, then differences are sure to come, roots of bitterness spring up. II. PROSPERITY VERY LARGELY DEPENDS UPON PRAYER, Show the natural influence of prayer. It lifts into strength the better nature. Show the supernatural influence of prayer in bringing to us spiritual power. Plead for renewal of interest in private and individual prayer; and for more frequent and earnest united prayer. Secret forces are the mighty ones. Men take little count of the atmosphere, but it holds up the clouds. Who is it, then, upholds the prosperity of the Churches? Who are the peacemakers and the peace-keepers? Look below the surface, and you will be sure to see the men and women of faith and prayer. They gain for us prosperity, which leads in peace. - R.T.
Peace be within thy walls. The leading elements which constitute a prosperous Church are —I. PURITY OF DOCTRINE. It is fashionable to sneer at doctrine, to talk flippantly about "gnawing at the dry bones of doctrine," to endorse the sentiment of the poet who would hand over doctrine to bigots to fight about and would be satisfied with "the right life." There is a fallacy here. How can we tell what the right life is if we do not learn it from doctrine? As believers in the fact of a revelation, and that the Bible contains that revelation, we maintain that the man "whose life is in the right" is a man who knows what the doctrine of God's Word is concerning right living. II. SPIRITUALITY. True religion is a life as well as a belief, a life founded upon a belief, but always a life. That life is produced by the Holy Spirit, who takes the things which are Christ's, and shows them unto us. True religion has to do with the spirit of man. It cleanses the fountain, and the streams which issue therefrom are pure. The man who has spirituality is a man of religious principle. He is the same whatever he does and wherever he goes. He is the same in politics as in ecclesiastics. He is a Christian in buying and in selling, a Christian at home and abroad, on land and on sea. III. BROTHERLY LOVE. The Church is a family, the Head of which is Christ. The same spirit that is found in the Head is also found in the members of the family. Now, just as the members of a family love one another because of their blood-tie — relationship — so the members of the household of faith should recognize and exemplify their oneness in Christ. A minister was once asked what he thought of the doctrine of the mutual recognition of the saints in heaven. He replied, "I am much more concerned about the duty of my people to recognize one another here upon earth." The reply was caustic, but perhaps it was needed. Christians should love one another. They have the same Saviour and the same Spirit, and they travel the same journey. Alike they have encouragements and discouragements, conflicts and victories, duties and trials, and at last they shall be received into one everlasting home. IV. EARNEST WORK. By exercise muscle is developed and the whole system is maintained in a state of vigour. Persons engaged in mental or sedentary employments cannot with impunity disregard this law of health. Just so is it in the domain of the spiritual. Exercise is necessary for spiritual development and spiritual strength. Here is another view: God has made Christian work imperative. He is pleased to employ His people in saying to them, "Go, work in My vineyard." As among them there is a great variety of talent, so in the vineyard there are many kinds of work. Every gift, no matter how humble, can find a field for exercise. (John Currie, D. D.) People David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Bulwark, Bulwarks, Citadels, Houses, Inside, Noble, Palaces, Peace, Places, Prosperity, Rest, Security, Towers, Walls, Wealth, WithinOutline 1. David professes his joy for the church6. And prays for the peace thereof Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 122:7Library 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 122:7 NIVPsalm 122:7 NLT Psalm 122:7 ESV Psalm 122:7 NASB Psalm 122:7 KJV Psalm 122:7 Bible Apps Psalm 122:7 Parallel Psalm 122:7 Biblia Paralela Psalm 122:7 Chinese Bible Psalm 122:7 French Bible Psalm 122:7 German Bible Psalm 122:7 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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