October 16th

Psalm 122

Praying for Jerusalem

Our attention is immediately drawn to verses 6a, ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem….’   In these days of terror and chaos in the Middle East we wonder about that prayer.  The psalmist’s invitation implies that the Jerusalem of his day was not a peaceful place.  In truth, Jerusalem has always been one of the most contested and conflicted cities in the world.

“Jerusalem has been a place of conflict as well as of celebration for three thousand years, and somehow its continuing sorrows still function as a kind of symbol of the out-of-jointness of the whole world. Misunderstandings, bad memories, unintended consequences, and plain old-fashioned sin, pride, guilt, and fear all jostle together and make the city one of the most painful, as well as one of the most beautiful and evocative, places on        earth.”   [N.T. Wright]

Why is Jerusalem so praiseworthy?  We ca name four reasons:  First, it is a place of refuge for God’s people (v.3,7).

Second, Jerusalem is a place of praise, particularly of united praise.  “That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord to praise the name of the Lord….” (verse 4).

Third, Jerusalem was a place of justice (v.5).

Fourth, Jerusalem was the place where Israel could meet their God, because that is where God had chosen to dwell in his “house.”  Psalm 122 opens and closes with the joy of coming to “the house of the Lord.” 

Even as we pray for the peace of Jerusalem it is important to realize that Jerusalem in the psalms represents not just a place but is a symbol of God’s presence in the world.  Sadly, much of the ongoing controversy surrounding Jerusalem stems from the failure to discern it’s symbolic function; the city has often been viewed only as a place to be possessed rather than a symbol of the concrete presence in the world of a God who cannot ultimately be possessed and whose presence cannot be limited to a particular place (see Psalm 121).  We remember that the ‘new Jerusalem’ in Revelation is the place where God’s purposes and God’s shalom will be ever-present.  What it means to enter Jerusalem is to live under God’s reign, while waiting patiently for the fullness of the kingdom to arrive.

We remember the Gospel story of Jesus, weeping over Jerusalem:

⁴¹ As Jesus came to the city and observed it, he wept over it. ⁴² He said, “If only you knew on this of all days the things that lead to peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes….  ⁴⁴ [Your enemies] will crush you completely, you and the people within you. They won’t leave one stone on top of another within you, because you didn’t recognize the time of your gracious visit from God.”   (Luke 19)

To read this psalm in light of the Gospel, we are tutored by Jesus’ questions.  As we pray for the peace of church and city, have we recognized the things that make for peace? 

And so we pray, yes, for the peace of Jerusalem; that Israelis can live freely and without fear.  But we also pray for the peace of Gaza and Beirut, where God is also present and sees the suffering.  

For the people of the Middle East these are dark and difficult days.  May the God of mercy move the hearts of men and women in power to find pathways of peace.