CITY HOUSE AND TEMPLE

CITY HOUSE AND TEMPLE

"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the House of Jehovah" Psa. 122:1

This is the song of the singer, no longer distanced from the CITY and TEMPLE, but having arrived therein. It is the song of first impressions. These were concerned with the CITY as the place of the TEMPLE. Observe that in this opening stanza, and also in the last, the reference is to the HOUSE of Jehovah. First there is the record of the gladness which came when the invitation, and so the opportunity, came to go to the HOUSE of Jehovah. Finally there is the expression of determination to seek the good of the CITY for the sake of this HOUSE. Approaching the HOUSE, the singer was impressed with the CITY; in its compactness, as the center for the gathering of the tribes; and as the seat of the GOVERNMENT. He then prayed for, and spoke of, the peace and prosperity of the CITY. The song reveals the singer's understanding of the true facts of national life. That CITY was to him the center of that life. The HOUSE of God was the center of that CITY. That HOUSE was highest in importance because it was the HOUSE of Jehovah. Jehovah, the God of Grace, is the One around Whom the people gather. The TEMPLE is the means of grace, the Tent of meeting between man and God. The CITY is the embodiment of the ideals of God for His people, the realization on their part of the order of peace and prosperity which is His Will for them. Whenever the song was written, it was idealistic, for never yet in its history has the CITY of God realized this conception. But that is the glory of the life of faith. Spiritually it enters into the experience of the high purposes of God, even when actual conditions fall far short of those purposes. Moreover, it is by such high confidence that men move forward towards realization actually and materially of what they already apprehend spiritually.