February 20 2022: "Psalms for All Seasons: A Thin Place"; Psalm 122

Big Idea - A “thin place” is a special place where we hear from God. And for many of us, this space is our local fellowship. We need to be seeking God in the thin places, where we can be near Him and with Him.

Prayer - “Lord, please help us to value the thin places in our lives and also the people that we meet in them. And if we are uncertain about these places, please reveal them to us as we pray and prepare our hearts for more of you.”

There are certain places where God speaks especially clearly. Do you have a place like this?

A favorite coffee shop, vacation spot, beachside bench, or country road are some examples that come to mind.

The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is another place where it’s easy to hear from God and tens of thousands of people travel there annually.

This room we worship in is a place where many of us hear from God… We return week after week with an expectation that God will move.

With all this in mind, I want to introduce you to a new concept this morning. It’s the concept of a thin place.

“A Thin Place” is a Celtic term.

The ancient Celtic Christian believed there were places in our world where the distance between heaven and Earth collapsed. It was easier to encounter God and experience His presence there (more than any other place).

Thin places become thin because people gather and sing and pray there.

Lots of prayers and praise have been prayed at [your favorite place].

Lots of prayers and praise have been prayed in this place.

It’s likely more prayers have been prayed at the Wailing Wall than anywhere else on Earth.

So in this fourth sermon of our Psalms for All Seasons series, I want to talk to you today about The Thin Place, it’s what the Psalmist was expressing in Psalm 122, when he said, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

I invite you to stand for the reading and the hearing of God’s Word this morning:

Psalm 122:

I rejoiced with those who said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

2 Our feet are standing

in your gates, Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem is built like a city

that is closely compacted together.

4 That is where the tribes go up—

the tribes of the Lord—

to praise the name of the Lord

according to the statute given to Israel.

5 There stand the thrones for judgment,

the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

“May those who love you be secure.

7 May there be peace within your walls

and security within your citadels.”

8 For the sake of my family and friends,

I will say, “Peace be within you.”

9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

I will seek your prosperity.

And may glory be to God for the reading and the hearing of His Word this morning.

Where is your Thin Place… that place where you hear the voice of God most clearly? It is different for us all, but the frequency with which we hear from God should be similar… as often as possible!

In Exodus 23:14-17 Celebrate a festival in my honor three times a year. Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread…. Also observe the Festival of Harvest… and observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year…. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord.

So, for 1,000 years, the Jews from all over the nation gathered thrice a year in Jerusalem to pray and worship God.

They would come from all over Israel. From every direction. They didn’t have radios, or iPods, or video games, or anything to occupy their minds while traveling, so, over time, they developed songs to sing their walk up the road. And since Jerusalem, at the top of Mt. Zion was sitting at 2,700 feet, they had to walk uphill to get there. So they called these songs, “The Psalms of Ascent.”

In all, there are 15 Psalms of Ascent. Psalms of praise and Psalms of lament are strewn randomly throughout the book of Psalms. But the Psalms of Ascent are all together in one clump, from Psalm 120-134. And our psalm, 122, is a song of triumph because trust was placed in the right person, in the right place, with the right people, for the right purposes.

As the Psalms progress, they give us a chronological picture of their day.

Psalm 120 is about how the people are thinking about how hard life is.

Psalm 121 is about how they know they are about to go to where they can meet with God – a thin place, and that encounter is going to make all the difference in the world.

So they start walking. And they walk, and they walk, and they walk, and they walk. From the north, the south, the east and the west, they come. They walk. They sing. And finally, they arrive. This is the story of Psalm 122.

Let’s go deeper into Psalm 122 together.

David writes, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.” He knows about this place where God dwells richly. He knows, when he gets there, he’s going to meet with God and God’s people and he’s going to be inspired and encouraged. Just the thought of this gets him excited!

So he gets to Jerusalem and writes, “And now, we’re here! Our feet are standing within the gates!”

He looks around at the city and it’s walls.

“It’s well-built,” he says in verse 3. “Solidly united.”

He looks from the walls and buildings to the people.

Verse 4: “This is where my people, my tribes, meet,” he says.

“It’s the place where authority is,” he says in verse 5.

“If this place can thrive,” he says, “the whole world will thrive.” So, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” he says in verse 6.

Then he gives a blessing:

“May those who love you be secure; 7 may there be peace within your walls, security within your fortresses.”

Psalm 122:6b-7

His prayer is for “peace,” and “security.”

The word for “peace” is shalom.

The word for “security” is shalwa.

Shalom means, “complete well-being inside you.”

Shalwa means, “security around you.”

He’s praying for peace inside the hearts of the people of Jerusalem, and peace around the physical city of Jerusalem. When you go to the house of the Lord, you get peace inside you and peace around you.

After experiencing the House of the Lord, David concludes the Psalm with, I feel so good right now, I’m not going to worry about myself anymore. I’m going to do something for others. Specifically, I will pursue your prosperity.

And that’s what happens when you go to the house of the Lord. That’s what happens when you go to church. - Your eyes turn from focusing on yourself to focusing on others. You have less worries so you can work on other people’s worries.

Psalm 122 is the story of David going to the House of the Lord. The Thin Place in his country.

What David Found Out About Thin Places:

He starts out in trouble, and decides,

1. When I’m in trouble, I need to go to the Thin Place. (Psalm 120)

I’m going to the house of the Lord. That’s Psalm 120. In Psalm 121, he starts on his way and he knows exactly where he’s going, because…

2. Once you’ve been to the Thin Place, you know where the Thin Place is. (Psalm 121)

He’s going to church! Once you’ve been, you don’t forget. You’ve heard from God there, met with God there. It’s a place where heaven comes close to earth. In David’s day, the place to meet with God was in the Tabernacle in Jerusalem. He lifted his eyes towards the mountains because the Tabernacle was up there. That’s Psalm 121.

In Psalm 122, David arrives in Jerusalem and confirms what he already knows. Which is that…

3. Location matters. (Psalm 122)

God is everywhere, so we can meet with Him anywhere. We can meet with Him in our bed, or in our living room. We can meet with Him in our pajamas. He’s everywhere and always available.

But, we are located in bodies, and where our bodies are located makes a difference to us.

When we go to the pool, we feel like swimming.

When you go to the gym, you feel like working out.

When you go to Starbucks, you feel like drinking coffee.

Our location matters and some locations are better for encountering God than others.

That’s part of why so many of us get depressed when we are locked up at home. That’s a big part of the reason that we are suffering great mental anguish because of the pandemic isolation that we experienced and continue to experience. We were made for life together. We were made for church. We were made to gather with others in sacred spaces to worship and experience God.

God inhabits the praise of His people, and we give Him praise here. You can worship the Lord anywhere, but places where people meet together to do so are usually thinner places because God’s Spirit dwells deeply in them.

Sanctuaries/worship centers are Thin Places.

And David, while writing Psalm 122, found that not only does our location matter,

4. Together matters. Psalm 122:1-4

Look at this again for a minute [emphasize the “us” and “our” and “united”].

Verse 1:

1 I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

(Not, “me,” – “us.” We were meant to worship together.)

2 Our feet were standing within your gates, Jerusalem—

3 Jerusalem, built as a city should be, solidly united,

(Not “my feet” but “our feet.”)

4 where the tribes, the Lord’s tribes, go up to give thanks to the name of the Lord. (This is an ordinance for Israel.)

This is a commandment. We’ve got to do it. We’ve got to meet together.

When we meet together, we do it as a tribe or tribes. Israel was made up of 12 tribes. For most of the year, they lived in their own territories, by tribes, or “families” if you will.

God knows the power of diversity, and the power of togetherness. So in Exodus 23 and Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 16, He commanded all 12 tribes to gather together to meet with Him. There is power in being together!

In ancient Israel, gathering together for worship was so powerful, it created a Thin Place on the Temple Mount. A Thin Place that lives on still today, which is part of why the Wailing Wall, which is on the western side of the Temple Mount, is such a powerful Thin Place.

Friends, we need the church.

We need the house of the Lord.

We desperately need a Thin Place.

Everybody needs a Thin Place.

Everyone needs a place to encounter God in the midst of God’s people!

Everyone needs a Thin Place.

David said, “I was so glad when somebody said to me, “Let’s go to the house of the Lord.”

Everybody needs a place to encounter God in the midst of His people.

And by God’s grace, this place is a really good place to do that.

Don’t you agree?

So your assignments, should you choose to accept them are:

Come as often as you can to church and when you do, be ready to encounter God.

We’re a tribe. Everybody needs a tribe. God’s power is present when we get together.

Pray about a few friends God can send into your life this week that you can invite to church.

There you go, pretty simple assignment for this upcoming week. And here’s some extra credit for you…

If you have a Thin Place in your life, spend some time there this coming week. Pray, meditate, and meet with God. But if you don’t have one, or cannot think of one, spend some time this coming week mapping out some spots you think could work. Maybe there’s a campsite you like, or a trail, local park, or even a bike ride… Try God out in some of these spaces, He’s surely there already, but maybe it could become your space to meet with Him.

[Describe my salvation experience at Epworth, how close I felt to God during this moment and place. Invite people to experience that by receiving Christ right now.]

SALVATION POEM

Let’s pray together.