Psalm 122
Instead of referring just to specific verses of Psalm 122, I would like to begin this reflection by reading through the psalm as a whole. Let us read it together,
1I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
2Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.
3Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together.
4To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.
6Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.
7Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.”
8For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.
Sometimes the world of the Bible may seem quite distant from us. In the case of the New Testament, we wonder how we can relate to the world as it was 2,000 years ago. The world of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) seems even more distant than that. In the Psalms, however, we find poetic songs that convey human emotions that span the ages. When feelings that well up from the depth of our humanity are being shared, time and distance somehow seem to fall away. In the Psalms we find words of joy, sadness, anger, despair, and every other feeling we can think of.
This week's psalm, Psalm 122, reminds us of the timelessness of one of our Advent themes; hope. The psalmist speaks of hope for peace in Jerusalem; peace where his people are. This is not a psalm celebrating the peace that already exists. As we know, the story of Israel does not have many stories of peace. Instead, this is a song of hope. The psalmist hopes for Jerusalem to be a place of peace. Verse 8 is especially telling, "For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, "Peace be within you."" The psalmist is hoping for peace in the place where the people he loves dwell.
As we prepare for the "to come" this Advent season, the yearning for peace in the places where our loved ones dwell is just as real as it was for the psalmist. We, however, cannot point to one city as the place of our people. Increasingly the world we live in is becoming a global village. I would imagine that if anyone reading this post took a minute to try to think of someone they love who is living in another country, we would all be able to come up with at least one person. Peace for the ones we love means nothing less than peace for the whole earth.
We are no different from the psalmist as we yearn and hope for peace for the ones we love. As we prepare for the coming of the Prince of Peace this Advent season, I would invite us to make our prayer for the world we live in, "Peace be within you."
This week's psalm, Psalm 122, reminds us of the timelessness of one of our Advent themes; hope. The psalmist speaks of hope for peace in Jerusalem; peace where his people are. This is not a psalm celebrating the peace that already exists. As we know, the story of Israel does not have many stories of peace. Instead, this is a song of hope. The psalmist hopes for Jerusalem to be a place of peace. Verse 8 is especially telling, "For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, "Peace be within you."" The psalmist is hoping for peace in the place where the people he loves dwell.
As we prepare for the "to come" this Advent season, the yearning for peace in the places where our loved ones dwell is just as real as it was for the psalmist. We, however, cannot point to one city as the place of our people. Increasingly the world we live in is becoming a global village. I would imagine that if anyone reading this post took a minute to try to think of someone they love who is living in another country, we would all be able to come up with at least one person. Peace for the ones we love means nothing less than peace for the whole earth.
We are no different from the psalmist as we yearn and hope for peace for the ones we love. As we prepare for the coming of the Prince of Peace this Advent season, I would invite us to make our prayer for the world we live in, "Peace be within you."