I. Why was David so glad? why did his heart beat with a thrill of pleasure at the summons to enter God's house? Because David was a man who lived in the faith and fear of God; because from a child he had set God always before him, and had been accustomed to see God's hand in all that befell him; because he was from his heart convinced that in God he lived, and moved, and had his being. He longed to acknowledge the lovingkindness of the Lord; and that acknowledgment, he felt, he could nowhere make so solemnly and so fitly as in the courts of God's house.
II. David's joy is set forth in the Scriptures as an example of the right spirit in which we ought to approach the public worship of our Maker: in a spirit of holy gladness. The service which God requires of us is the service of our hearts. The mere coming into His courts on Sunday is nothing nay, is worse than nothing: is a mockery unless we come gladly, cheerfully, willingly, of our own free desire, and not from compulsion or for form's sake.
III. What has God done for David that He has not done for us as well? The Lord is everything to us that He was to David: our strength, our strong rock, our defence, our Saviour, our might, our buckler, the horn also of our salvation, and our refuge. The real stumbling-block is that we are not sufficiently alive to God's great goodness; that we do not set Him, as David did, continually before our face; that we set other things before us in His stead: our farm, our merchandise, our family cares, our pleasures, our schemes for getting on in the world. One thing is needful. Try to live with the thought of God more continually present to your minds. Cultivate a sense of I Its exceeding love. If we do this, we shall be glad, unfeignedly glad, when they say, "Let us go into the house of the Lord."
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons,2nd series, p. 70.
The house of the Lord suggests:
I. Thoughts of the Lord Himself. A gladdening thought this to David, and to every man who knows God as Jesus Christ teaches His disciples to know the Father.
II. Thoughts of the various glorious manifestations of God. These manifestations are calculated to awaken joy.
III. Thoughts of the mercies of the Lord, those mercies of which we personally have been the recipients.
IV. Thoughts of the exercises and the acts of worship.
V. The thought of meeting God as God is not found elsewhere.
VI. The thought of receiving special blessings from God, for in these places, or of them, God has said, "I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee."
VII. Thoughts suggested by the prospect of the communion of saints.
VIII. The thought of enjoying a privilege in the performance of a duty.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit,1st series, No. 5.
References: Psalms 122:1. Sermons for Boys and Girls,p. 352; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xxi., p. 144; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 250; J. G. Butler, Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 366; A. P. Stanley, Christian World Pulpit,vol. i., p. 273; J. F. Haynes Ibid.,vol. xvii., p. 190.