When We Think About the Church

[Psalm 137]

On May 14, 2009, I came across an article in the online news of Kookmin Ilbo Mission Life titled "Over 300 Church Leaders Urge Self-Examination of the Korean Church" and decided to read it. Under the title <The Evangelistic Responsibility of Pastors and the Declaration for Self-Purification>, eight declarations were made:

1. We repent for not being faithful to evangelical values.

2. We reflect on the fact that the church has failed to love one another due to division and conflict.

3. We reflect on the moral neglect of pastors and commit to maintaining a higher level of morality.

4. We recognize that the church's obsession with growth has led to polarization between churches, and this must be corrected.

5. We will strive more to be authorities in spirituality rather than seeking worldly degrees and honors.

6. We will strive for personal piety and socially healthy influence.

7. We will work to establish a clean ecclesiastical politics based on the gospel.

8. We will strive to fulfill our mission as the light and salt of society.

As I read these eight emergency declarations, I thought to myself that this was truly a valuable document. If our churches lived according to these declarations, they would certainly be able to give glory to the Lord as a true church. In particular, I believe the first declaration is the core. That is, we must repent for not being faithful to evangelical values. A more detailed explanation of this first declaration is as follows: “We pledge to preach the gospel of salvation, achieved through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, as delivered by the apostles. We also pledge to continue the Reformation tradition established by the martyrs. The church, built on this gospel, is a hospital that saves souls and a school to learn about God. However, we deeply reflect on whether we have focused more on secular success than on the value of the gospel, whether we have strived for a higher level of moral and ethical life, and whether we have done our best to love our brothers and care for our neighbors. Through deep self-reflection and painful repentance, we resolve to live faithfully according to the gospel values going forward.” (Internet).

I strongly agree with the content of this declaration, especially the part that says the church must repent for focusing more on secular success than on the values of the gospel.

When you think about the church, what do you believe we, as the church (as Christians), should do? What should we do when we think about the church?

First, when we think about the church, we must cry.

Look at Psalm 137:1 in the Bible: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion."
The psalmist, along with the people of Israel, was taken captive to Babylon. While there, sitting by the rivers of Babylon, he wept as he remembered Zion, the city that Babylon had destroyed. Why did he weep as he remembered Zion? The reason was that he earnestly longed for the grace of God's restoration (Park Yun-seon).  When we meditated on Psalm 136 during last week's Wednesday prayer meeting, especially verse 23, we saw that when the people of Israel sinned against God, He told them they would be taken captive to Babylon. Now, as we come to Psalm 137, we see that the people of Israel, having sinned, were ultimately taken captive to Babylon. The psalmist wrote this psalm while in captivity there. Reflecting on how painful life in captivity must have been, in verses 2-3 of this passage, the psalmist writes that when the captors ordered the Israelites to sing one of the songs of Zion, he refused to comply and hung his harp on the willows. The reason for this is that the psalmist did not want the holy songs of God to be used as entertainment for the Gentiles (Park Yun-seon).  How must the holy people of God have felt, being taken captive by the Gentiles, living in oppression, and being forced to sing God's holy songs as mere entertainment? Therefore, the psalmist laments: "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" (v. 4).  In the midst of this lament, the psalmist, feeling the loneliness of captivity in Babylon, thought of Zion and wept. I believe these tears can be understood in two ways:

(1) The tears of the psalmist were tears of repentance.

The psalmist's weeping must have been mingled with grief for repentance. When thinking about the lost grace of God, the believer cannot help but think about sin and, consequently, repent (Park Yun-seon).
When I reflect on the phrase “the lost grace of God,” I recall my own situation last Wednesday. When I am filled with grace, I can feel the fullness of thankfulness, peace, and joy in my heart. But when I forget God’s grace, I find myself filled with heaviness, worry, and anxiety. In the midst of this, God revealed my sins, led me to confess them, and challenged me to live a life separated from sin. The following Thursday morning, after the early morning prayer meeting, I found myself holding a piece of leftover Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) bread, and while praying, my eyes welled up with tears. The reason for this was that I remembered the message I was to deliver during the Wednesday prayer meeting. I felt a deep gratitude for God’s providence (grace) in providing daily bread.
When we reflect on ourselves, on our families, and especially on the body of Christ, the church, we must shed tears of repentance. Why? Because the church has forgotten the grace of God. When the church forgets the grace of God, it inevitably sins against Him. Therefore, our church must repent before God. When we do so, true restoration, reconciliation, reform, and revival can happen in the church through repentance.

(2) The tears that the psalmist shed while remembering Zion by the rivers of Babylon were likely tears of prayer, longing for God's saving grace.

A truly repentant heart knows that God is the only Savior, and therefore, cannot help but earnestly plead with God for salvation. As the psalmist, along with the people of Israel, was taken into Babylonian captivity because of their sins, and as they lived in that captivity, they realized their sin and repented. During this process, they likely cried out to God, asking Him to show mercy and grace once again, to deliver them from the Babylonian exile and guide them back to their homeland in Judah. Much like Jonah, who, in the belly of the great fish, looked to the Lord and confessed, "Salvation is from the Lord" (Jonah 2:9), the psalmist knew that only God could save Israel, and so he earnestly sought salvation from Him.

When we think about the body of Christ, the Church, we should repent genuinely and pray, longing for the grace of God's salvation. We should pray that God deliver us from all filthy and ugly sins. We should earnestly pray to be reborn as the holy and pure bride of Christ, the Bridegroom. In this way, we should become a church that prepares for the Lord’s second coming. I hope that when we think about the church, we can shed tears of repentance and prayers longing for God's saving grace.

Secondly, when we think about the church, we must make the church our greatest joy.

Consider Psalm 137:6: "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill; if I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy." The psalmist confesses that, although he is living in captivity in the pagan land of Babylon, he finds greater joy in Jerusalem than in anything else. In other words, he made Jerusalem his highest joy. This shows his God-centered piety. Even though he was in exile, the psalmist wept as he remembered Zion, seeking God, and longing for Him. In some ways, it is like a child who, after leaving home, grows even more nostalgic for his parents and home. Similarly, the psalmist, living in Babylonian captivity, longed even more for Jerusalem. He longed for the city of God, Jerusalem, which had been reduced to ruins by Babylon, to be rebuilt and to prosper once again (Calvin).
This should be our earnest prayer as well. In other words, we should pray that the body of Christ, the church, which has become desolate, be rebuilt by the Lord so that it may flourish once again as it did in the early church. When in the history of the church has it experienced a golden age like that? It was when the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly proclaimed the gospel, and the power of the gospel was evident. It was in that time that the Holy Spirit added to the church daily, and the early church was established as a loving community. Similarly, our modern-day church should reflect such a reality.

We should pray for the true flourishing of the church. Also, when we look at the church of today, like the psalmist, we should shed tears of repentance and prayers longing for God's saving grace. We should pray for a true spiritual reformation in our time, just as God brought about the great Reformation in the 16th century. Why should we pray in this way when we think about the church? Because, like the psalmist confessed, the church is our greatest joy. Since the Lord, who is the head of the church, is our greatest joy, His body, the church, must also be our greatest joy.
As we know from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 1, "What is the chief end of man?" the answer is: "Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." We should enjoy the Lord forever. And those who enjoy the Lord forever also enjoy His church.
So, how can we make the church our greatest joy and rejoice in it? We must first, like the psalmist, remember the Lord's church and weep over it. When we see the church devastated because of sin, we must see it through the eyes of the Spirit and shed tears of repentance. Without these genuine tears of repentance, we cannot experience the true joy of seeing the Lord rescue and build His church. Therefore, if we want to make the Lord's church our greatest joy, we must shed tears of repentance. In the midst of this, we must earnestly pray to the Lord to save His church. Our prayer should be that the Lord would rebuild and establish His body, the church. When the Lord builds His church, we will approach Him, who is our greatest joy, and offer praise and worship with songs of Zion. This is the life of one who makes the church of the Lord their greatest joy.

Lastly, thirdly, when we think about the church, we must pray to God.

In the passage from today, Psalms 137:7-9, the psalmist prays to God, asking for His judgment (punishment) on Babylon, the enemy and adversary of Israel. While praying, he says, "O Lord, remember the day of Jerusalem’s fall, and pay back the sons of Edom" (v. 7). Of course, the sons of Edom are not Babylon. In fact, when Babylon attacked Jerusalem, Edom rejoiced (Amos 1:11-12). Though Edom and Israel were originally brothers, Edom became an enemy of Israel and, as such, became an object of God's wrath (Park Yoon-sun).
Thus, both Edom and Babylon, mentioned in verses 7-9, share the commonality of being objects of God's wrath. This is because they opposed and oppressed God's people, Israel. The psalmist, weeping as he remembered Zion by the rivers of Babylon, prayed to God, asking Him to punish the sons of Edom, who symbolized Babylon, the one who had laid waste to Jerusalem.
When we pray to God, we too should pray that His wrath would fall upon the enemies of the church—Satan and his evil servants. Of course, we may not be accustomed to such prayers. However, I believe that if we do not pray for the judgment of the wicked while praying for the salvation of God's people, we are lacking in balance. This is because, if we look at the Bible (especially the Old Testament), we see that God's salvation and God's judgment are two sides of the same coin. In other words, when God saves His people—the church—He also judges (punishes) the enemies of His people and the church. Therefore, we must pray not only for the salvation of the church, but also for the destruction of its enemies. We must pray for God's righteous judgment. We must pray that God would punish the enemies of the church.

When I think of Victory Presbyterian Church, the body of the Lord, two things come to mind. The first is the promise given by the Lord in Matthew 16:18: "I will build my church..." and the second is hymn number 246, "My Lord’s Kingdom". In the 2003 Church Renewal Pastors’ Fellowship (교갱협) retreat, the Lord gave me this verse, and as I sang praises to God, tears filled my eyes as I remembered Victory Presbyterian Church. I recall with longing and love the tears I shed as I thought of the church. I pray that Victory Presbyterian Church, established by the Lord, will be a church that grows in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, a church that confesses Jesus rightly and lives according to that confession. I also pray that the Lord will establish Victory Presbyterian Church upon the firm rock that is Christ. I earnestly hope that this true Victory Presbyterian Church will be one that fights and overcomes the world, sin, Satan, and death.

Thinking of Victory Presbyterian Church,

Pastor James Kim

(In the pastoral office of Victory Presbyterian Church)