Psalm 122:1 (ESV)
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!”
Do you usually go to church on Sunday’s with a good appetite…or a bad attitude? Are you excited to worship in the fellowship of your brothers and sisters in Christ…or are you wondering if the sermon will be any good? Perhaps it’s the volume of the music, or the boring Sunday school teacher, or the lackluster children’s program that sours your expectations before you even enter the doors. Maybe it’s all those hypocrites who put on a nice Christian show on Sundays but live like your average pagan during the week. If you are struggling to say with the psalmist, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord,’” then you might need to go before the Lord and get this worked out.
Setting aside those churches that have strayed from the authority of the Bible—and there are literally tens of thousands of them in America, if not more—the problem most likely lies with your expectations of what a “good” day at church should be. I’ve struggled with this myself. Far too often I enter into the sanctuary with a critical spirit, like a Pharisee looking down his nose at those who are less educated in the things of God. Will the worship leaders bring too much attention to themselves? Will the pastor say something that appears to pander to the younger people in attendance, or will he steer away from hot-button issues? Far too often, I show up with an attitude rather than an appetite.
There is a place for iron sharpening iron (Pr. 27:17) when it comes to serious issues within the confines of your local church, and there is a biblical way in which those things should be addressed, but for most disappointed worshippers, the bigger challenge is internal rather than external. God’s Word “shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11). The power is not in a dynamic preacher’s delivery, though that is a nice bonus. The power is not in captivating illustrations, though they can be quite helpful. The power has always been in the word of God itself, and that raw, life-changing power is neither heightened nor dampened by the ability of the human vessel that delivers it. Do you believe that? Can you set aside the presence of an average preacher and be glad for the faithful proclamation of the most powerful message mankind has ever received?
Regarding this first verse of Psalm 122, Spurgeon said, “Our gladness at the bare thought of being in God’s house is detective as to our character, and prophetic of our being one day happy in the Father’s house on high. What a sweet Sabbath Psalm is this! In prospect of the Lord’s day, and all its hallowed associations, our soul rejoices.” The single greatest fact that should make our souls rejoice to be headed to the “house of the LORD” is the reality that we belong there! Through Christ’s blood, our entrance fee has been satisfied, both here on earth, and for our eternal church home to come. The mere fact that you want to find and attend a good bible-believing church in order to worship God and grow deeper in your faith is yet another confirmation that YOU ARE IN CHRIST! YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED! YOU HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN!
When you go to church this weekend, remember that it is a place that you have been called into…a place where part of your eternal family awaits you…a place where the Bread of Life is distributed and where you can receive the Blood of the New Covenant. Enter its doors with thanksgiving and its courts with praise (Ps. 100:4) because God is proclaimed, worshipped, prayed to, and communed with there…and that should surely be enough to make you glad!
