The Most Avoided Messianic Psalm (3): Zeal for God’s House (Psalm 69:9a) by Rev. Angus Stewart
I. David
II. Christ
III. Us
Psalm singing: 122:1-9; 33:15-22; 65:1-5; 27:1-5 (see below for the words to the Psalms)
Scripture reading: John 2:13-25
Public confession of faith service for Colm Ring and Ivan Ortu

John Calvin on Psalm 69:9a: "David’s enemies, no doubt, professed that nothing was farther from their mind than to touch the sacred name of God; but he reproves their hypocritical pretences, and affirms that he is fighting in God’s quarrel. The manner in which he did this, he shows, was by the zeal for the Church of God with which his soul was inflamed. He not only assigns the cause of the evil treatment which he received — his zeal for the house of God — but also declares that whatever evil treatment he was undeservedly made the object of, yet, as it were, forgetting himself, he burned with a holy zeal to maintain the Church, and at the same time the glory of God, with which it is inseparably connected. To make this the more obvious, let it be observed, that although all boast in words of allowing to God the glory which belongs to him; yet when the law, the rule of virtuous and holy living, presents its claims to them, men only mock him, and not only so, but they furiously rush against him by the opposition which they make to his Word. They do this as if he willed to be honored and served merely with the breath of the lip, and had not rather erected a throne among men, from which to govern them by laws. David, therefore, here places the Church in the room of God; not that it was his intention to transfer to the Church what is proper to God, but to show the vanity of the pretensions which men make of being the people of God, when they shake themselves loose from the control of God’s holy law, of which the Church is the faithful guardian. Besides, David had to deal with a class of men who, although a hypocritical and bastard race, professed to be the people of God; for all who adhered to Saul boasted of having a place in the Church, and stigmatised David as an apostate or a rotten member."

Psalm 122:1-9
1 I JOY’D when to the house of God,
Go up, they said to me.
2 Jerusalem, within thy gates
our feet shall standing be.
3 Jerus’lem, as a city, is
compactly built together:
4 Unto that place the tribes go up,
the tribes of God go thither:
To Isr’el’s testimony, there
to God’s name thanks to pay.
5 For thrones of judgment, ev’n the thrones
of David’s house, there stay.
6 Pray that Jerusalem may have
peace and felicity:
Let them that love thee and thy peace
have still prosperity.
7 Therefore I wish that peace may still
within thy walls remain,
And ever may thy palaces
prosperity retain.
8 Now, for my friends’ and brethren's sakes,
Peace be in thee, I’ll say.
9 And for the house of God our Lord,
I’ll seek thy good alway.

Psalm 33:15-22
15 He forms their hearts alike, and all
their doings he observes.
16 Great hosts save not a king, much strength
no mighty man preserves,
17 An horse for preservation
is a deceitful thing;
And by the greatness of his strength
can no deliv’rance bring.
18 Behold, on those that do him fear
the Lord doth set his eye;
Ev’n those who on his mercy do
with confidence rely.
19 From death to free their soul, in dearth
life unto them to yield.
20 Our soul doth wait upon the Lord;
he is our help and shield.
21 Sith in his holy name we trust,
our heart shall joyful be.
22 Lord, let thy mercy be on us,
as we do hope in thee.

Psalm 65:1-5
1 PRAISE waits for thee in Sion, Lord:
to thee vows paid shall be.
2 0 thou that hearer art of pray’r,
all flesh shall come to thee.
3 Iniquities, I must confess,
prevail against me do:
But as for our transgressions,
them purge away shalt thou.
4 Bless’d is the man whom thou dost chuse,
and mak’st approach to thee,
That he within thy courts, 0 Lord,
may still a dweller be :
We surely shall be satisfy’d
with thy abundant grace,
And with the goodness of thy house,
ev’n of thy holy place.
5 0 God of our salvation,
thou, in thy righteousness,
By fearful works unto our pray’rs
thine answer dost express :
Therefore the ends of all the earth,
and those afar that be
Upon the sea, their confidence,
0 Lord, will place in thee.

Psalm 27:1-5
1 THE Lord’s my light and saving health,
who shall make me dismay’d?
My life’s strength is the Lord, of whom
then shall I be afraid?
2 When as mine enemies and foes,
most wicked persons all,
To eat my flesh against me rose,
they stumbled and did fall.
3 Against me though an host encamp,
my heart yet fearless is :
Though war against me rise, I will
be confident in this.
4 One thing I of the Lord desir’d,
and will seek to obtain,
That all days of my life I may
within God’s house remain;
That I the beauty of the Lord
behold may and admire,
And that I in his holy place
may rev’rently enquire.
5 For he in his pavilion shall
me hide in evil days;
In secret of his tent me hide,
and on a rock me raise.