Dennis Tuuri

# Psalm 15:5 – Sermon Transcript

Week talking through Psalm 15 and we’re going to conclude now at the last verse of Psalm 15. Psalm 15 begins with the question, “Who shall abide in the holy hill of God?” We’ve gone through the answer to that question in terms of the character of the man who will stand or reside in God’s holy hill in Zion in the city of our God and king. At the end of the psalm, the psalm closes with verse 5. The last verse of Psalm 15 is a verse of assurance to the one who meets the requirements for citizenship.

We want to spend some time talking about that today and hopefully receiving that same assurance ourselves as individuals and as a congregation as well. The verse reads, “He that doeth these things shall never be moved.” And the things we’ve discussed, of course, are requirements of God’s law, requirements of a life of faith, and a demonstration of a life of faith.

It is interesting to note as we begin this discussion of the assurance given at the end of Psalm 15, the assurance is given to him that doeth these things—not him that believeth these things are the right thing to do, but him that doeth these things.

We spend a lot of time, Chris W. and I, teaching our own children, other children in various churches. And one of the songs the kids always like to sing is about the wise man and the foolish man. The wise man built his house on the rock and the foolish man built his house in the sand and the house in the sand went smash. They love that part. Elijah, whenever we start singing that song, all he wants to do is go smash every time.

Well, it’s important when you teach children that song to teach them what the verse says—what Jesus said about the wise man and the foolish man. The wise man is not the man who hears the word of God and professes faith necessarily. The wise man is he who hears the word of Jesus Christ and acts in obedience to it. The foolish man is the man who hears the word and does not act in obedience. Obedience is critical. Faith without works is dead. Wise men are those who do the works of God in response and demonstrate then a life of regeneration and conversion to Jesus Christ.

There’s a parallel passage to Psalm 15 that I want to read now. It’s found in Isaiah 33:13-22. I’m going to be reading a lot of scripture this morning and it might be hard for you to keep up if you’re going to try to keep up with them, but that’s okay. At least jot down the references maybe, or I could give them to you later. The parallel passage we’ll be dealing with this morning is found in Isaiah, the 33rd chapter, verses 13-22.

“You who are far away, hear what I have done. And you who are near acknowledge my might. Sinners in Zion are terrified. Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can live with a consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning? He who walks righteously and speaks with integrity, he who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribes, he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil—he will dwell on the heights. His refuge will be the impregnable rock. His bread will be given him. His water will be sure. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and will behold a land that stretches afar.

Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counts? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers? You will no longer see a fierce people, a people of unintelligible speech, of a stammering tongue that no one comprehends. Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation, a tent which will not be folded. Its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its cords be torn apart. But there the majestic one, the Lord, shall be for us a place of rivers and wide canals on which no boat with oars shall go, and on which no mighty ship shall pass. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. He will save us.”

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for the truth of these passages. We thank you for the tremendous comfort and assurance they give to us, that you have called unto yourself out of the nations of the earth, created a new nation for yourself. Father God, we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ for the atonement of sin, and we thank you, Lord God, for his righteousness imputed to our account. We thank you, Father, for quickening us in faith and for giving us the assurances of Isaiah 33 and the rest of your scriptures. Help us, Lord God, this morning be encouraged in the faith to recognize that our foundation is firm in the King of Righteousness. In his name we pray. Amen.

I thought it would be good, since we’re discussing here who will dwell in the holy hill of God, or Zion, or other passages that talk about the city of David or Jerusalem, to just look at a little bit of historical usage of those terms in the scriptures. Sometimes it’s a bit confusing to hear these various terms bandied about and not know if they’re all saying the same thing or not. There are differences in those terms, and I’d help just to go through a brief survey of Jerusalem in the Old Testament.

The first mention of Salem, or the city of peace, of course, is with Melchizedek meeting Abram after Abram’s victory, and Abram gives the tithe to Melchizedek, the king of Salem. And so right there we see the prominence of the city of peace. We have this priest of God Most High who is given a tithe by Abraham, and he is certainly a type of our High Priest, Jesus Christ.

The next reference that is significant is found in Deuteronomy 11, where the people are about to reenter the land that God has promised them. God’s given them specific directions about their worship services, about their offerings, about the use of their tithes. And he says that there’ll be a place in the land that they’re going into where he will cause his name to dwell. There’s a special place that when you get into that land and that special place becomes manifest to you, that’s where the portion of your tithe is supposed to go, and that’s where the offerings will be performed. So God’s looking for a place, and that place is later identified as Jerusalem.

The next reference, as they begin to go into the land and conquer the land that God has given them: they meet a man named Adoni-Zedek. Adoni-Zedek is the king of Jerusalem. And so Jerusalem is an important place as a kingdom. And Adoni-Zedek actually gathers five kings to go up against the Israelites, the nation of God, after they’ve conquered the city of Ai, after their victory there. This is their second victory, of course, and it’s now significant that they are obviously going into the land to invade the land, to retake it. And so the king of Jerusalem, which is an important city in that land, gathers other kings together to fight against God’s people. Again, the significance of the centrality of the city of Jerusalem.

Later both kings are defeated and killed in Canaan. Later, a man named Adoni-Bezek comes up with seventy kings against the nation of Israel, and he is the king of Bezek. They slay 10,000 of the enemy there in Bezek. And it’s significant that when they capture Adoni-Bezek, they cut off his thumbs and his big toes and they take him to Jerusalem to die. It’d be worth spending a little time maybe just on the justice of that, but we won’t get into that right now, although it is appalling how some of the commentaries get to deal with that situation and the supposed cruelty of the nation of Israel.

When Adoni-Bezek himself came out of his mouth and said, “Well, God has repaid me justly, for I had seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off gathering scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me.” Well, anyway, that’s the justice of God on that man. They took him to Jerusalem for him to die. Again, showing the significance of Jerusalem.

There’s indication then that the nation of Israel already is aware that it is Jerusalem upon which God is going to place his name, as the castle of the kingdom. It is also interesting that although the tribe of Benjamin is the tribe that God had given that particular portion of land to, it is significant that it was the tribe of Judah that conquered Jerusalem. They went up against it, and Judah is the kingly or the royal tribe. However, they apparently did not conquer it fully, because we find the next reference to Jerusalem: the city is now called Jebus and is the capital of the Jebusites. The Jebusites are encamped there in a small enclave on this hill, which is part of Jerusalem.

So the specific mention shows that the Benjamite tribe—the Benjamin tribe—could not rout the Jebusites out of Jebus, indicating their lack of ability to respond in obedience to God’s command by routing their enemies out. So Jebus stays as the capital of the enemies of God. Jerusalem stays in the hands of the enemy for many years after that point. And it’s significant because, as we said, we know that God wanted to put his name in that city. It was his capital city, and here it was inhabited by the pagans.

The next reference—the next time when Jerusalem finally changes hands—is when King David comes around. After the death of Saul, of course, David becomes the king of Judah. The kingdom is divided over the people of Israel. The son of Saul is crowned king over the rest of the tribes, Ishbosheth. And so he’s got a divided kingdom.

When Ishbosheth finally dies and when God works things out so that David now is the king of both Israel and Judah and the king of the United Kingdom once more, the very first thing that David does is he goes after that capital city where God wants his name to dwell. He goes up against Jebus, the home of the Jebusites.

Now, you got to understand that the terrain there was such that this is up on a hill. It was a very defensible place. The Jebusites were boasting, “You’ll never get in here.” They said, “This is impregnable. This rock that we’re on here—it was up. They were easily defended. Apparently, archaeology says it was a small area, maybe only 80 acres large, 450 feet wide, 1,250 feet long—a small area, easily defended.

However, David apparently used himself as he worked through the tunnels and supplied the water up to that mountain stronghold. And so David was able to conquer Jebus and take it over for himself and for God the King. And he had taught there—he uses the term Zion as being what David conquered. So David goes up against that, conquers Zion, conquers what becomes known then as the city of David. And that small little enclave—the centrality of that being important to the people of God because God wants his name to dwell on that particular set of hills—is now retaken by God’s people and by David and the tribe of Judah, the kingly royal tribe.

He then takes the ark of the covenant there, and that’s where he dances before the ark in great joy and rejoicing, that God has placed his ark in his holy hill. So when you hear about Zion, what it’s talking about is that little hilltop upon which Jebus, the original city of Jerusalem, was founded. After David takes that enclave, his son later, Solomon, then expands that city up northward from there and builds a temple up along the same ridge. So the whole area can be seen as Jerusalem.

The city of David usually has specific reference to that original enclave held by the Jebusites that David reconquered. Zion has reference to the hill or again to the thing that David conquered or to the whole area in general. And the holy hill of God is found there as well. So there’s tremendous significance to the city of Jerusalem, that holy hill of God, throughout the Old Testament.

There are some implications for us in this, and I want to just talk about those implications this morning.

The first implication of God saying that we will never be moved off that holy hill is this: we reside in the capital city of a kingdom—the capital city of a kingdom. The centrality of Jerusalem we’ve talked about. It was the place where God wanted to establish his kingdom in the land, and they went back in to reconquer it. That was the place where his name would be found, his temple would be found there, his presence with his people would come forth from there. It’s significant that this stronghold was extremely defensible. It was easily defended against the enemy.

And it may be easy to get an eternal fortress mentality if we stop there. But we don’t stop there, because David didn’t stop there. David took over that mountain stronghold not so he could sit there and defend the capital of God, but rather he did it to rout the enemy from the midst of what had been a divided kingdom. And as soon as David took back the town of Jebus, or Zion, at that point, the Philistines knew that they were in trouble. David was no longer going to be their friend, and they created war plans. Then the war began.

David took that town, defensible as it was, to act as a place from which he would take an offensive movement against the enemies of God in the land. So it has offensive capabilities as well. Zion then and its symbology would have offensive capabilities as well. We’re not to simply be defended in our presence with God, but he is to empower us to go forth in victory.

You can see it as the capital—maybe the war room, the Oval Office, perhaps. It’s easily defended. It’s hard to get to the Oval Office and get the president, but he does make plans there that affect the whole world. It’s the presence of the king there, of course, that makes that the capital of the kingdom.

In Psalm 2, verse 6, God tells us that he has installed his king upon Zion, upon my holy mountain, tells us. So there you see again the idea of the kingship of Jesus Christ, participating in place in Zion.

In Psalm 132:13-18, we read the following:

“For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her needy with bread. Her priests also I will clothe with salvation. Of her godly ones will sing aloud for joy. There I will cause the horn of David to spring forth. I prepared a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon himself his crown will shine.”

His crown will shine, because we have the king residing in Zion.

Isaiah 33:17 tells us—the parallel passage we just made reference to tells us—that your eyes will see the king in his beauty and will behold a land that stretches afar. And who is the “you” there? The one who stands in the holy hill of God, who has acceptance with God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and imputed righteousness. You’ll see the holy king as reference then to the kingship of Jesus Christ and the capital of the kingdom being in Zion.

Psalm 89:14-18 reads the following:

“Righteousness and justice are the foundations of thy throne. Loving kindness and truth go before thee. How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound. O Lord, they walk in the light of thy countenance. In thy name they rejoice all the day, and by thy righteousness they are exalted. For thou art the glory of their strength, and by thy favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the Lord, and our king to the Holy One of Israel.”

All kings serve under the King of Kings, and that’s the place of God’s special presence in Zion.

The second implication then, besides residing in the holy city and the capital of the holy kingdom, is that we reside in a land of law. Law is central to the sanctuary of God. Law is central.

We saw that when David recaptured the capital, one of the first things he did was to bring the ark of the covenant to rest there. The ark of the covenant contained the law of God, and it was from that capital city of Zion that the law was to go forth into all nations.

In Isaiah 51:1-4, we read:

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah, who gave birth to you. When he was but one, I called him. Then I blessed him and multiplied him. Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places. And her wilderness he will make like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her. Thanksgiving and the sound of melody will be found in her. Pay attention to me, O my people, and give ear to me, O my nation, for a law will go forth from me, and I will set my justice for a light of the peoples.”

The capital of the kingdom is the place from which the law of God issues forth. We talk in Psalm 15 about the requirements for residing in that capital, in that presence with God. And those requirements, we try to show their input, their root rather, in the case law applications in Deuteronomy and beyond that in the Ten Commandments themselves.

Residency or citizenship is based upon the law of God and the case law of God as well.

In Isaiah 2:1-3, we read the following:

“In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways, that we may walk in his paths, for the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

The holy mountain said to fill the earth. In the book of Daniel, when Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, Daniel and the Spirit of God interpret that the last thing was a stone cut out without human hands that crushed the other kingdoms under it. That stone is Jesus Christ and God himself. That stone then grew to fill the entire world with the coming of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago and his victory over sin and death and the establishment of his kingdom. The mountain is growing to fill the earth. But that mountaintop is the place from which the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

So when we talk about our citizenship in Zion, we’re talking about citizenship in a holy city, a capital city of God in his kingdom, and also the place from which his law issues forth.

But it’s not just a passive king or a lawgiver that we have communion with. No, because Isaiah 2 goes on to verse 4 to say:

“And he will judge between the nations, will render decisions for many peoples. And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.”

Our king and our lawgiver is also our judge. So to reside in Zion is to reside with the judge and in a land of perfect justice and peace. You see here that true peace comes about as a result of the application of God’s law, the teaching of God’s law from the king, from Jesus Christ. The law goes forth in him, and then he renders justice and decisions among the nations, and that’s what brings true peace.

I was thinking of the summit talks, and how it’s easy for people to get caught in a position where if they don’t go along with the peace plans with the Russians, they become perceived as if we’re not looking for peace. We know the true peace will come. The nations will beat their swords into plowshares. The nations will learn war no more. But only as we saw with the clear instruction of God’s word going forth from Zion and God’s judgment being manifested by his representatives on earth—that will bring about true peace, a lasting peace forever.

We reside then in a city of justice and judgment, as well as the city of law and in the capital city of our king.

In Isaiah 11:1-9, and this is a passage probably a lot of us will be reading for Christmastime. Isaiah 11:1-9:

“Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord. And he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. And righteousness will be the belt about his loins, and faithfulness the belt about his waist.

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

Again, we see God’s peace there manifested by the issues of the law from Zion and God’s just judgment, fair and righteous judgment being exercised in it.

Isaiah 51:5-8:

“My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone forth, and my arm will judge the peoples. The coastlands will wait for me, and for my arm they will wait expectantly. Lift up your eyes to the sky. Then look to the earth beneath, for the sky will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die in like manner. But my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never wane.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is my law. Do not fear the reproach of man, neither be dismayed at their revilement. For the moth will eat them like a garment, and the grub will eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”

We hear here that God’s righteousness is near and that his arm will judge the peoples. Isaiah 33 begins with the section we read—it begins with the fact that sinners in Zion are terrified. They’re terrified because they’re convicted by God’s law and judged by the Judge of all judges, Jesus Christ.

We reside in the holy hill of God because his justice finds perfect justice and righteousness in us through Jesus Christ, and we manifest the demonstration of that righteousness of Christ as we walk in obedience to his kingdom requirements.

And so in Psalm 15, we said, to dwell or to be permanently with God. The fourth thing then, besides residing in a capital city and a city of law and a city of justice, is that we reside in communion with our king, with our lawgiver, and with our judge—with Jesus Christ. There’s a place of communion with him again in Isaiah 33:16 and 21.

Verse 16: “He will dwell on the heights. His refuge will be the impregnable rock. His bread will be given him. His water will be sure.”

Sustenance will come to the man who resides in Zion. His bread and his water will be sure.

Verse 21: “But there the majestic one, the Lord, shall be for us a place of rivers and wide canals on which no boat with oars shall go and on which no mighty ship shall pass. For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will save us.”

To dwell in Zion means to dwell in communion with God through Jesus Christ, to dwell in peace, and to dwell in communion with him and with his people as well.

Now the last portion of scripture I’m going to read is found in Hebrews 12, verses 22-29. It is significant that many of the passages that I’ve read this morning have been interpreted by many people to refer to some coming age, some coming millennial kingdom perhaps, or some other way. But the plain teaching of scripture is other than that.

In Hebrews 12:22:

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”

God tells us here that we have come to Zion. We have come to the assembly of the firstborn. We have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. Zion was typified, of course, in the physical setting of the hill there, the impregnable rock. Yet we know that typologically it spoke to Jesus Christ himself. Well, the rod of Jesse has budded. God has installed his king on the holy hill. The stone without hands is here now and is growing with the coming of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago and his victory over sin and death and the establishment of his kingdom.

The mountain is growing to fill the earth. The rider on the white horse in Revelation 19, who is faithful and true, has come. The rider who in righteousness judges and makes war is here now, has come, has affected his kingdom. This rider is the same one who has his garments dipped in blood and on his head are many crowns. Jesus Christ has come and had his garment dipped in blood, and we have been awarded the crown by God.

He has installed his kingdom on Zion. The sword of his word is now in process. The sword of the word convicts people as to their sin, brings in the salvation of Jesus Christ, and slays his enemies. That sword that goes forth from his mouth is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ through his representatives on earth. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords has come—has come once for all 2,000 years ago and began his work of establishing this kingdom and having that kingdom grow.

Zion has been established, and we are told that we come to Zion, holy in Jesus Christ. We come then to the perfect lawgiver, to the perfect king, and to the perfect judge, and we stand in his presence.

Now, it’s sometimes easy. James B. Jordan remarked in a newsletter a couple months back that it’s easy to get carried away with the idea that we’re trying to create a kingdom for Jesus Christ here on earth. That’s not what’s going on. God tells us in the scriptures that Jesus is king now over the world. He judges now. His word is going forth now, and he judges nations on the basis of that word. Nations that exalt themselves against him and act in disobedience to his law are judged now temporally by Jesus Christ and they fall. Families that build their lives on something other than the rock of Jesus Christ are judged by the judge now who sits on the throne judging all mankind, and they fall. Churches that do not preach faithfully the word of God come under the judgment of Jesus Christ now.

On the other hand, though, we find that churches and nations and families that are built upon the word of God, that walk in obedience to his law, are judged faithful and true and are given the assurances of Psalm 15, of permanent citizenship in Zion. The great assurance that our position with God is secure and shall never be shaken.

Hebrews 12 goes on to read:

“See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth. Much less shall we escape if we turn away from him who warns from heaven. And his voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. And this expression, ‘yet once more,’ denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

Zion—if nothing else—the significance of Zion is that it cannot be shaken. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is impregnable. It cannot be shaken. And our security and communion with our king, our lawgiver, our judge is secure. It cannot be shaken.

Having said that, though, the verse goes on to admonish us: since we have received this great assurance, to show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. How do we do that? How do we do that practically, understanding as we do now the position of Zion, the significance of Zion in terms of law and justice and righteousness and a kingdom?

Well, we do it by imaging God in everything that we have and everything that we are. The nations of the earth will one day image him in the verses that we talked about, acting in obedience to those things. Summit conferences of the future will begin with prayer, with much Bible study, and going to the word of God that comes forth from Zion, from his people, for instruction on how to solve international disputes. That word of God is sufficient to bring about peace on the earth. We’re told that in Isaiah. We’re told that it will be accomplished. That preaching of God’s word will go forth. The nations will pay heed to it, and future summit conferences will take those things into effect.

The nations of the earth have to reform their judicial systems to put themselves in line with the blessings of God and the true judge of judges. But it’s not enough to ask the nations to do these things. We know that we should image God also in our families and in our churches.

Our churches should be places where the kingdom of Jesus Christ is made manifest, where Jesus Christ is preached as king, where the law of God comes forth, and where the justice of God is made known. Lord willing, he is doing that with this congregation. We are trying very hard to manifest the kingship of Jesus Christ by acting in obedience to his law, to faithfully preach that law, that word that applies to everything that we do and say and all of our culture around us.

Zion is a place where that law has to be preached. The church that raises itself up and preaches not that law falls under the judgment of God. Sinners who dwell in Zion are terrified. But those who are accepted in Jesus Christ and act in obedience to the requirements of his law, that faithfully preach that law, are guaranteed by God that they receive an inheritance that shall never be shaken. You will dwell on that holy hill. You are now and you will forever.

The judgment of Jesus Christ also should be made manifest in the churches. Churches should settle disputes within the church and in other areas as well by applying the justice of Jesus Christ. That justice is talked about throughout the scriptures in terms of faithfulness, promptness, loving kindness. Those are terms that the scriptures use to describe the justice of Jesus Christ, and those are terms that our church should find in itself as well when we deal with judicial matters.

Our families also should image Zion. However, also in our families, we should make manifest to our children, or to our wives, or to ourselves if we’re single, the kingship of Jesus Christ over our family. We have a president. We teach our children about the president. We should teach them, however, who the president of presidents is, who the King of Kings is, and teach them that he has established a kingdom that shall never be shaken. And they have great hope for the future.

I talked before about how this nation is in a complete loss of hope. Families throughout the country are in a position of no hope these days because they’ve turned from Jesus Christ and are suffering his judgment as a result of that. There’s no hope outside Christ. But as we manifest Jesus Christ in his kingship to our children, then we should be able to persuade them of the security of our king because he’s in control of all things.

Our family should be preachers of the law of God. The law should come forth from the fathers of the household unto that family, restructuring in accordance with God’s word. If we do that, he has promised to bless us and cause us to reside securely with him. The law should be taught to our children with every application to their lives. We’ve talked in the past about some of the mechanisms to do that.

And finally, the judgment, the justice of Zion, should be manifest in our families as well. When we settle disputes amongst our children, we should do so based upon the word of God, based upon the judgment that God talks about—faithfulness, promptness, loving kindness. These are elements of God’s justice and judgment, and we should in our courts—our family, which we have either formally or informally, every day, practically—we should make those decisions based upon the word of God and demonstrate to our children that all of life is to be structured according to the word of God.

Imaging the holy Zion: We have been called by God to that Zion. We have been assured of great peace and security therein. As we walk in obedience to these commandments of God, as we manifest King Jesus Christ in our families, in our churches, and in our nation, as we look to his law for guidance as to how to settle our problems or how to go about building a business or how to go about deciding what we’re going to do with the day and other matters—as we look to his law, we manifest Zion in our midst.

As we look to his justice in our families, in our churches, and in our nations, and base our judgments upon him, upon his holy word, upon his law, and upon his justice being made manifest in Christ, then we will experience the blessings of Zion. We won’t be terrified. We will recognize that we have been brought to the place of blessing and peace in Jesus Christ.

Who shall dwell in the holy hill of God? Who shall abide in God’s tabernacle? The one who does these things. And that person shall never be moved.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for yourself. We thank you for the sureness of your word, the sureness of the erection of Jesus Christ as king upon the mountain of mountains. We thank you, Lord God, for the sureness of his justice and his judgment and the sureness of your word. Help us, Lord God, to be faithful in manifesting Christ as king in this church and in our families, to walking in obedience to your law in this church and in our families, and to acting as judges before you, realizing that our model is the judge, Jesus Christ.

We thank you before him, Lord God. We thank you for your final victory over sin and death and for the establishment of your holy kingdom and for calling us to that rest in Zion. We thank you, Father God, for yourself and the many blessings of salvation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.