Promise 239: Church Blessed and a Blessing

  1. Church blessed and a blessing

 Psalm 128:5

The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion:

And thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

 Zion is the invisible church of God on the earth, the place of the presence of God. For the one who fears the Lord the blessing of God comes out of the church; for in the church the Gospel is preached, and it is through the Gospel that the blessing comes. Because it preaches the Gospel the church is a blessing, and the Lord blesses people who hear and who fear.

Jerusalem is taken as the visible church of God on the earth as it is the geographical location of the invisible church, the people in whom the Spirit of God dwells. When those believers gather together in Jesus’ name to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments they become the geographically local and visible presence of God. For the one who fears the Lord, that one will see the good of the local church. The good of the church is a promise of God; the God-fearer prays for the peace and for the good of the local church and he will see it in his lifetime; he will bless the church and the church will bless him.

The local church is not at all a boring place when the exciting Gospel is preached and heard. If the church believes and preaches morality, human love and goodness, and helpful guides to living, then it is boring and useless. But the Gospel is the most exciting, soul-stirring power in the universe; that cannot be boring. “Seeing the good of Jerusalem” is blessing the visible church, through which the invisible church blesses us. This good Jerusalem preaches the Gospel clearly and powerfully.