Opening Prayer
Hide us in Your house, O Lord; cover us in Your palace. Amen.
Text: Psalm 48
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 pain, as of a woman in travail, 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. Selah We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, 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 judgments. 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.
Devotion
Earthly Jerusalem is a picture of Christ’s Church, and this psalm sings of the Church’s glory.
The Lord is in His Zion. The great, eternal God is in the midst of His Christian people. He who is the First and the Last and the living One, who was dead and is alive forevermore and has the keys of death and hell, He is in the midst of the seven lampstands (Rev 1:13), in the midst of the Church with the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit. This is the Church’s glory, that the Lord Himself is in her, that she is the city of the Lord of hosts. Therefore all her enemies must be put to shame, while her children can tread death and hell under foot.
We who are baptized and believe in Jesus are gathered on Mount Zion, which is established for eternity. We dwell within the walls of the city of God, where mercy and righteousness reign, where death and the devil are shut out, and all misfortune with them, so only blessing and life can be found there. For our fellowship is with the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. We still have much sin and weakness, but we have full forgiveness of sins every day. Satan shoots his arrows of temptation at us and grieves us often, but we have perpetual healing in Jesus’ blood, and our walk is not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Rom 8:1). Outside God’s Church the devil rules, and all who live there are children of death. Among us in Zion, in the true communion of believers, Christ is King, and all His people are children of life. Our passing from the Church on earth to the Church in heaven should not frighten us either. For this God is our God forever. He shall lead us there through death. This is the truth. God’s Word teaches it. We believe it and train ourselves continually in such faith. We do not see it, we do not feel it, so that we should rely upon sight or feelings. But God’s Word does not lie; we can rely on that. O that we could rightly believe the blessed truth of the Word! Then we shall experience more and more that all God’s promises are Yes and Amen in Christ (2Co 1:20).
Closing Prayer
O God, we think on Your mercy within Your Temple and we praise You, because You so graciously save us. Keep us with You, and draw to Yourself the multitudes of Your redeemed from all the ends of the earth. Amen.
Hymn
To God be praise eternally,
Who makes this season fair to be
For Advent brings a new Church Year,
A spring that warms with heaven’s cheer,
That soon we may begin to sing
Before the throne of God, our King.
Zion, put off your widow’s dress,
Put on your gleaming bridal dress,
Strew palms before your coming King,
Come, meet your Friend; with joy now sing!
Proclaim the sweetness of His love
Until the marriage feast above!
Brorson: Paa Jesu Død og blodig Saar. L 101:5.7 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Melita (ELH 418); alternate hymn: Come, Thou long-expected Jesus ELH 87