I am now going through Psalm 65 applying the first verse to the whole rest of the Psalm. The first verse identifies Zion as the place where God’s children give him our praise, and each verse highlights different aspects of the praiseworthiness of our God.
This morning I began here:
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1
Praise is
due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.
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3 When iniquities prevail
against me, you atone for our transgressions.
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What filled me with awe and wonder was the “everyday” sound to this. It wasn’t referring to David’s big sin with Bathsheba and his manslaughter charge against her husband. It was just describing a generic experience of being overcome by sin.
Under the Old Covenant, Zion was the place where God atoned for the transgressions of his people. David didn’t say, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day”[1] because he perfectly kept the Ten Commandments. He rejoiced in God’s law because it had provisions for any kind of sin that could overcome him!
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
(Psalm 130:3-4)
This has been a favorite expression in the Psalms for a long time. I like the way the NIV expresses verse 3, “If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?” If God had a record book where he marked down our iniquities, sins and transgressions, rhetorically speaking, who could possibly stand in his presence?!
But everyone under the old covenant knew there was forgiveness of sins. Every conceivable way someone could sin had a provision for it in the covenant. The people simply had to have the faith to obey and observe what was required, but they knew that it was their God, glorious in Zion, glorious in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle, who forgave their sins through the death of a sacrifice.
It is fascinating to me that I felt compelled to begin a journey through the scriptures to learn why Christians, especially us Gentile ones, could appreciate what it means in Hebrews that, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…” What is the imagery of Mount Zion that would give us so much hope and encouragement even when being persecuted and beaten down by worldly authorities?
I have already gained so much from this journey, and stopping at each viewpoint to take in whatever new facets of Zion are revealed in the scriptures, but today’s vantage point is to see the praise that is due to God in Zion because that is where the Tabernacle was, and that is where the people observed all the sacrifices that provided for the forgiveness of their sins, and that is where my mentor would go whenever he was overcome by sin, iniquity and transgression, absolutely assured that Yahweh God would forgive him. And for that, Yahweh was worthy of overwhelming praise!
And that was all under the Old Covenant!
Under the New Covenant, we have so much more!!!
On the night that Jesus would be betrayed by Judas, deserted by all the disciples, and denied three times by Peter, our Savior said these words, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”[2] What Jesus’ death the next day would provide forever was a new covenant in which we would never again need to bring a sacrifice for sin in order to receive forgiveness. Jesus himself is that sacrifice, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[3]
The point in this is that we must bring David’s expression, “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,” and let it attach to our own experience of, “When iniquities prevail against me,” so that we are all the more convinced that “you atone for our transgressions,” under the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood than David understood under the Old Covenant in the endless sacrifices that were required.
After all, that is the point of the passage in Hebrews 12 that spurred me on to make the journey through scripture to get to know Mount Zion. We have not come to Mount Sinai where the Old Covenant with all its laws was given to Moses.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.[4]
This reality gives us every bit as many reasons to praise Yahweh and Jesus Christ in the heavenly Zion as David worshiped with sacrifices of praise in earthly Jerusalem. God still forgives sin, but by a much greater sacrifice than David had ever seen.
It is no wonder that Hebrews would conclude with such a glorious expression of praise as this:
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.[5]
And all God’s people
said, “AMEN!!!!!!!”
© 2023
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
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