Psalm 122:1-5 — I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

The opening verses of Psalm 122 create a wonderful picture in my mind of a tide of humanity flooding to the temple to worship. Streams from all over Israel and Judea, starting as tiny trickles — a family here and a family there — and coming together in great rivers until finally they flow into one great sea of worship.
On Sunday mornings I have a similar sense … but it’s a sense of a confused and tainted sea. I would delight in the idea of the whole church of Christ flowing together into one glorious sea of worship. Sadly, the families of Christendom have no agreement as to where the house of The Lord is … and some of the streams are sadly polluted. That said, it is still possible to feel — on a day in a church where the Word is truly taught, the gathering of the family and the upward flow of the spirit of worship.
There is not now a place to which all God’s children go up to worship, there is no common place of judgment. Yet there is a designated place for worship and judgment. To me the picture of the tent of meeting moving from place to place to represented the wavering of God’d people in their faith. In the same way it is surely evident that the many places in which we worship now, and the many styles of worship that we practice, is emblematic of the sad state of the Church on earth — fragmented, broken and quarrelsome. But of course there are great sources of hope. Today, I’m focused on two of them.
My first source of hope is the knowledge that once God told Israel where His temple was to be, they were faithful to build it, and delighted to go to it — and that faithfulness has been consistent, Even as the temple was destroyed, so it was rebuilt, and even now the people long to be glad when they say “Let us go into the house of The Lord.” Each year at the end of the ceremonial passover meal they declare “next year in Jerusalem” longing for the future city, and the temple to be rebuilt when the Messiah comes.
My second source of hope connects to the first, because the Messiah is central. The Revelation teaches us plainly of the new Jerusalem and the Messiah. And then, all the nations will gladly go into the house of The Lord. “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. (Revelation 21:24-26).
There will be time when the whole church of Christ will flow together into one glorious sea of worship. There will be no confusion about where they will flow, and no pollution in the streams!
I was glad, I am glad, and I will be glad!