Psalm 122

Reading for August 31, 2012      Psalm 122

“I was glad when they said to me,

    “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

And now here we are,

    standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem.”

The last time I read these opening lines in Psalm 122, I was standing on the steps leading to the wall around the Old City of Jerusalem. A short time later our group walked to the Western Wall to pray. The Wailing Wall, as it is commonly called, is all that remains of the second Temple. The remains of the first Temple, King Solomon’s Temple, lie in ruins under the Dome of the Rock, just on the other side of the wall. For almost nineteen hundred years, Jerusalem was controlled by other nations, and the Jews were forbidden to go to the Western Wall. When control of the Old City of Jerusalem was won by Israel in 1967, at the end of the Six Day War, the celebration in Jerusalem was befitting the coming of the Messiah. Such is the love of the Jews for the Holy City of Jerusalem. When you arrive at the airport in Tel Aviv, you are greeted by a huge banner, “Welcome Home.” The sign could just as easily read, “Welcome Pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem.”

The psalmist longed for peace in Jerusalem. The bitter divide between Arabs and Jews remains today, accompanied by Christians fighting over their various holy sites. The psalmist calls upon the people to pray for peace and prosperity in Jerusalem. I hope all Christians will respond to the call of the psalmist, because I do not believe it is hyperbole to say that, if there were peace in Jerusalem, there would be peace in the world. Also, pray for peace in Jerusalem because one day all believers will be coming home to Jerusalem.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Revelation 21: 1-4

Sē’lah

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What word or phrase in today’s reading of the Psalms

 attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

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Reading for September 1, 2012: Psalm 123