Good morning.
This morning, we're going to discuss what is in line with the song that we just read, or we just sang, Zion, the city of God.
The term Zion is one that first shows up in the Old Testament.
Second Samuel chapter 8, as David is described as having conquered the city of Jerusalem.
And it is first described there in 2 Samuel chapter 8 and 1 Chronicles chapter 11 as Zion, the city of David.
We don't read about the term Zion again until we get over into the books of Kings, 2 Chronicles, and here in 1 Kings chapter 8 we find the mention of Zion again.
I want you to open your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 8 and notice the text there.
In 1 Kings chapter 8, Solomon is dedicating the temple.
And we read in 1 Kings chapter 8 in verse 1, Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King
Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David, which is Zion.
Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
So all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
Then they brought up the ark out of the Lord, the tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle.
The priests and the Levites brought them up.
Also King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him.
were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude.
Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place under the wings of the cherubim.
For the cherubim spread their wings, spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles." As you notice here the text
Solomon has built the temple.
And as they build the temple and as they completed the work, there was the time in which they needed to bring the Ark of the Covenant and the furnishings of the Tabernacle out of
the Tabernacle and into the temple.
But there in chapter 8 in verse 1, you read that they took the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the city of David.
Which is Zion?
As they move the tabernacle, they move it out of, as it were, the city of David and into the tabernacle, or sorry, into the temple that Solomon had built.
But the city of David is here in this text, once again described as Zion.
as you move further into the Old Testament, you should understand that you're moving further, especially into a book like Psalms, where Zion is referenced, but Psalms covers a
very large span of time in the 150 chapters that are in Psalms.
Some of the Psalms were written in David's day.
Some of the Psalms weren't written until after the captivity and the return of the captivity from Babylon.
a span of time of hundreds of years separated from one another.
And yet, throughout the Psalms, you find Zion again and again and again.
But I want us to notice a few of these Psalms as we get into our study this morning.
Turn to Psalm chapter 2.
for you just barely enter into the book of Psalms and you find Zion immediately showing up.
Here in this second Psalm, Psalm chapter two, you find a Psalm concerning those who would be the enemies of God.
The nations, the peoples, the leaders that had a mind that they could overcome the works of God, that they could somehow defeat
the actions of God.
And you open up Psalm 2 and you read, Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away
their cords from us.
The nations are gathering together, their leaders are gathering together, their
They're coming together in summits and in decision-making moments and they're saying, can overcome the works of God and His anointed.
Now, the terminology of anointing is one that goes back to the anointing of kings and prophets, both of whom were generally anointed as they are commissioned to take their role
in the Old Testament.
David would be one who would point out over and over again as he was being chased by King Saul that he would not lay his hand on the one who was anointed by God to serve as King of
Israel.
And so, there's a connection here to the anointed by God and, as we're going to see, Zion.
but the opposition from these nations is against God and His anointed one.
And as the nations rage, as the text says, and the people plot a vain thing, notice how the psalmist writer pictures God.
Verse 4, He who sits in the heavens
shall laugh.
Have you ever wondered some of the things that make God laugh?
One of the things that makes God laugh, this laugh would not be a jovial kind, this would be the derisive kind,
is when men and nations and powers on this earth think they can overcome the work of God.
The psalmist writer says that God shall laugh.
And notice as well, the Lord shall hold them in derision.
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath.
Notice the progression.
The laugh, the derision, the wrath.
You do not get to oppose God without consequences.
You do not get to seek to usurp and overthrow His authority or the authority of His anointed without consequences.
God turns His wrath upon them.
read verse 5, then He shall speak to them in His wrath and distress them in His deep displeasure.
Yet I have set My king on My holy hill of Zion.
As the nations oppose God's anointed, God says, I put Him there, you're not moving Him.
We read then in verse 7, I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you.
Now, the Hebrew writer will tell us this speaks of Christ.
As the nations rage, as the peoples plot a vain thing, they stand in opposition to God's anointed, and it is His Son.
For God says in the text, I have begotten you.
uh
Verse 8 says, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron.
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's uh vessel.
Now therefore be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.
As Zion here is mentioned in the midst of this psalm,
You have those who oppose God, have those who oppose His anointed, and yet Zion is introduced as the place where God has set His King.
It is established as a place of power.
It is established as a place of rule.
It is established by God and not men.
when David overthrew Jerusalem.
It was one of those cities that Israel as a nation had failed to overthrow back in the days of Joshua.
You read about the city of Jerusalem there in the days of Joshua and that they were unable to overthrow it for it was filled with the Jebusites.
It was up on a hill.
They could not overcome it.
And yet, in David's day, David would essentially offer a bounty to his soldiers for the one who could figure out how to conquer the city.
As you examine the events that would transpire from that point forward, yes, David would claim the city has his own, yes, it would be overthrown, it would be conquered, and David
and the Israelites would begin to use that as the capital base, or the capital of operations from ah the government of David, but even more than that.
It is the place where God would say, I have put my name there.
As the city of Zion in the historical text is introduced, it's introduced as the city of David.
But as the progression of history goes, it becomes not the city of David, but the city of God.
But even more than that, the city takes on a different reputation.
for it becomes known as the spiritual city of God." Notice just a little bit more in the book of Psalms.
In Psalms chapter 9,
In the ninth Psalm and in beginning in verse 9 we read, the Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
And those who know your name will put their trust in you.
For you, have not forsaken those who seek you." Notice first in this text that the discussion pertains to those who are struggling, those who are oppressed, those who are
dealing with the difficulties that this world faces, but their trust is in God.
Their hope, their assurance, their guarantees of the future that they have is in the Lord.
Then consider verse 11, sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion.
declare his deeds among the people.
When he avenges blood, he remembers them.
He does not forget the city of the humble.
Have mercy on me, O Lord.
Consider my trouble from those who hate me, you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may tell of all your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I will rejoice in
your salvation."
Here in Psalm chapter 9 you have connections to praise.
You have connections to God dwelling in Zion in representation of the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle being there in David's day.
But you also have the connotations here of salvation, of the rejoicing of God's people in the presence of God.
all bound up in this picture of Zion.
You go to Psalm chapter 20.
In Psalm chapter 20 and in verse 1, May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble.
May the name of the God of Jacob defend you.
May He send you help from the sanctuary and strengthen you out of Zion." Here we find pictured the idea of Zion as the bastion of God's power from which goes out strength to
help those who are of God's people.
But notice as well, he says,
desire and fulfill all your purpose.
We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed.
He will answer him from His holy heaven.
He will say with the saving strength of His right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses.
but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and stand upright.
Save, Lord.
May the King answer us when we call.
as the psalmist writer expresses the need for God's people to trust in God, the need for them to make their petitions to seek God's refuge, to seek God's strength.
He reminds them that there's a king on a throne in Zion.
And yet, he also makes it quite clear
that the Zion he's referencing is not the physical Jerusalem.
For did you notice what he said?
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed.
He will answer him from his holy heaven.
You see, Israel was not confused.
David was not confused.
Solomon was not confused.
They had no misconception that God dwelt physically in Jerusalem or in the tabernacle or in the temple.
That Jerusalem, the physical city, was somehow the seat of God's power.
No, they knew that heaven was the seat of God's power.
That Zion and that city there in Jerusalem and that tabernacle as quaint as it was a tent and even the temple when it was built in all of its grandeur was simply a physical
representation of a spiritual place.
and that while some nations would trust in horses and armaments and chariots, m
that as the people of God, their trust resided in the Lord.
Psalm 51.
is a psalm of repentance.
Some have suggested, I think it's probably correct, tradition holds that this psalm was written after Nathan the prophet had confronted David with his adultery and with the
murder of Uriah and the consequences that had come forth from it.
And that David wrote this psalm of repentance after having realized what he had done.
But in verse 14 of this psalm, David writes, deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation.
And my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise, for you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it.
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifice of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.
These, O God, you will not despise.
As David writes these words, he freely admits that God is not in need of the blood of bulls and goats.
That the thing which pleases God is not the sacrifice.
but the actions of a penitent heart.
the actions and the obedience that stems from one who realizes the true nature of the sin they have committed and is turning back to the Lord.
David says, know that's what you want and I know that is what I'm going to give.
You read in verse 18, do good in your good pleasure to Zion.
build the walls of Jerusalem.
David writes this expression desiring God to not hold Jerusalem accountable for David's sins.
But then also, verse 19, then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness.
With burnt offering and whole burnt offering, then they shall offer bulls on your altar.
David understands that until the breach that has separated him from God is fixed, all the sacrifices in the world won't do a thing.
You remember that Jesus taught that when a brother had sinned against another, and it was the day to come and to worship, that when the one who had committed the injury against
someone else realized it, Jesus said, leave your sacrifice at the altar.
Go and fix the problem with your brother first.
then come back and offer your sacrifices.
He emphasizes that until the problem between those who have been sinned against is resolved, God does not accept that sacrifice and that worship.
because there's someone who you have done something against and you need to go resolve it with them first.
David realized that his actions had consequences for the entire city, that his actions had brought shame and reproach upon all of them.
One of the things that's important to think about as you consider the text of David's sin with Bathsheba is that it was done and it was known.
The people knew what had happened.
The servants in the palace knew what had happened.
It was the servants that David sent to go get Bathsheba.
The people around David knew what had happened.
The people in the city knew what had happened.
The only one deceiving themselves about what had happened was David.
but yet consider that as a result of their knowledge of what had happened, as a result of the fact that they did not oppose David for what had happened, they had become complicit
in what had happened.
David's sin affected more than just David.
So David, as he repents, seeks God's grace and forgiveness and willingness to accept the sacrifices of the city as well.
over in Psalm 48.
The psalmist writer points out that this Zion is not just a normal city.
for the true Zion is an eternal city." Psalm 48 verse 1, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
In the city of our God in his holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north.
The city of the great King.
God is in her palaces.
He is known as her refuge.
For behold, the kings assembled.
They passed by together, they saw it, and so they marveled.
They were troubled, they hastened away.
Fear took hold of them there, and the pains as a woman in birth pangs.
As when you break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind, as we have heard, so we have seen.
In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, God will establish it forever.
As the psalmist writer here pictures the physical city which represents the spiritual city.
He says, the nations come and they see the great city and they're afraid.
They're not afraid because of Jerusalem.
They're afraid because of the City of God.
and they see God's power.
They see His glory.
And the Psalmist writer says they turn around and they run.
They go home and they flee in fear as a woman in the pangs of giving birth.
He says, we have thought, O God, on your loving kindness in the midst of your temple.
According to your name, O God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
Let Mount Zion rejoice.
Let the daughters of Judah be glad because of your judgment.
Walk about Zion and go all around her.
Count her towers.
Mark well her bulwarks.
Consider her palaces that you may tell it to the generation following.
For this is God, our God.
Forever and ever He will be our guide even to death.
as a psalmist writer, encourages those who are present to go and to see the physical city.
He tells them to pay attention to its palaces, to pay attention to its towers, to pay attention to its grandeur, so they can tell the generations to come about it.
Now question, if the physical city was going to be eternal, then why would you have to tell the coming generations about it?
Couldn't they go see it for themselves?
See, the psalmist writer knew there was a difference.
There was a difference between the city of Jerusalem and the city of God.
And he wanted the people to realize that what God had done on earth was simply a picture of what God had done in eternity.
for his people.
Over in Psalm 14 and in Psalm 53, you have two different references, both saying basically the same thing.
Psalm 14 verse 7, Psalm 53 and verse 6 both describe Zion as the seed of God's power in which he will restore Israel out of captivity.
The psalmist writers as prophets of God knew that the physical city would often need the people to be brought back to it because of their sin and their wickedness and their
rejection of God, and that God would take them into captivity as He had promised through Moses.
that they would be brought back to Zion.
They would be brought back to the place of God's presence and mercy.
In Psalm 69,
a psalm that speaks concerning Christ on the cross.
You find here a prophecy of Jesus, a prophecy of judgment against Jerusalem, but also of Zion.
In the 69th Psalm, we begin reading in verse 9 and we read, uh
and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that became my reproach.
I also made sackcloth my garment.
I became a byword to them.
Those who sit in the gates speak against me, and I am the song of the drunkards.
But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord, in the acceptable time.
O God, in the multitude of your mercy, hear me in the truth of your salvation.
Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
Let not the floodwater overflow me, nor let the deep shallow me up.
And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.
Hear me, O Lord, for your lovingkindness is good."
Turn to me according to the multitude of your tender mercies, and do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in trouble.
Hear me speedily.
Draw near to my soul and redeem it.
Deliver me because of my enemies.
You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor.
My adversaries are all before you.
Reproach has broken my heart.
and I am full of heaviness.
looked for someone to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.
They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Let their table become a snare before them, and their well-being a trap.
Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see and make their loins shake continually.
pour out your indignation upon them and let your wrathful anger take hold of them.
this picture of Christ on the cross surrounded by a city of people who claim to be the city of God.
who had yelled out, crucify him, crucify him, crucify.
who when he was thirsting on the cross didn't give him water, but vinegar and gall to drink.
and the cry goes up from the Lord to God, pour out your indignation on them.
And yet...
We come down to verse 29.
And we read, but I am poor and sorrowful.
Let your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
I will praise the name of God with a song, and I will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull, which has horns and hooves.
The humble shall see this and be glad.
And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
For the Lord hears the poor and does not despise His prisoners.
Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah that they may dwell there and possess it.
Also the descendants of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His name
shall dwell in it." In the midst of this picture of the Messiah on the cross is a declaration that the City of God, the true Zion,
It's not going to fall in God's indignation and His wrath and His judgment against the physical city of Jerusalem.
but rather it is going to be a bastion of hope and peace and solace for those who obey and love God.
So turn to Isaiah chapter two.
In Isaiah chapter 2, Isaiah tells us about Zion.
He tells us about what God is doing and what is coming.
What God has been planning in His wisdom from the foundation of the world.
We read in chapter 2 and verse 1 the word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all
nations shall flow to it.
many people shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His path.
For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
Isaiah as he pictures the coming of the church.
He prophesies that Zion, that the place of Jerusalem will be the birthplace of the city of God.
And Jesus will tell His disciples in Acts chapter 1 that they are to remain in Jerusalem until they are endued with power from on high.
And there in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, He says that they will become witnesses to Me first in Jerusalem, then in Judea, then in Samaria, then unto the uttermost parts of the
earth.
For the city of Jerusalem will not be the city of God, but Zion, the eternal city.
The city of God will be the church which had been prophesied.
Turn to Joel chapter 2.
In Joel chapter 2, passage toward the end of which the church is spoken of, that the day of Pentecost is spoken of, Peter in Acts chapter 2 and verse 15 says, this is that which
the prophet Joel said and spoke about.
There in Joel chapter 2, verses 28 through 32, but in verse 1 of this chapter.
Joel writes, blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain.
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming for it is at hand.
as the psalmist writer had already painted the picture of the death of the Messiah and the coming judgment on the city that killed the Son of God.
So the prophet Joel looks at the day of the Lord, the day of God's judgment on Israel, and looks forward to the day of salvation, the day of Pentecost, where God's power and His
anointing would come on the people.
So you have Zion standing for the city of David, but also the city of God.
In this city, Amos tells us that the Gentiles will see and hear God.
And Isaiah will further prophesy that it is the message of the cross that will be declared.
Paul in Romans chapter 10 and verse 15 will speak and say, how beautiful are the feet of those who come preaching the message of good news.
He's quoting Isaiah.
And Isaiah is declaring the message of the city of Zion.
And Paul says the good news is the message of salvation.
It's the message of redemption brought by God.
But there's one other thing we need to realize about the city of Zion.
And we find it in Romans chapter 9.
Paul in Romans chapter 9 together when you put what Paul writes together with Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2, they teach us something about Zion, the city of God, that it is a hope of
salvation but also a stumbling block and judgment.
In Romans chapter 9 and in verse 30 we read, what shall we say then?
that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness of faith, but Israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to
the law of righteousness.
Why?
Because they did not seek it by faith.
But as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at the stumbling stone.
As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion
stumbling stone and a rock of offense and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.
God says when I send my anointed Christ and I send him to my holy city, Ziah.
He's going to be a salvation for those who will believe on Him.
But He's also going to be a stumbling block and a judgment on those who reject Him.
If you're here this morning and you're outside of the city of God, the dwelling place of God, if you sit and stand in opposition to God,
and his actions, know this, you will never win.
You will not receive the outcome you desire because God will sit on his throne and laugh in derision.
That you think you can oppose his will and not be judged.
But also realize that all the way back in the time of David,
God started telling us about a city, not Jerusalem, but an eternal city.
and He invites us there.
If we'll be obedient to His Son, if we'll be obedient to His message, if we will take part in the citizenship of the Kingdom of God in heaven, if we will die to our own selves, be
buried in that watery grave of baptism and rise to walk in newness of life, born into a spiritual family.
that dwells in a spiritual city whose builder and maker is God, then we too can put our trust in Him.
If you have need of the invitation of God this morning, why not come forward now as we stand and