A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. A psalm of David.
1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
2 And now here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is a well-built city; its seamless walls cannot be breached.
4 All the tribes of Israel—the Lord’s people—make their pilgrimage here.
They come to give thanks to the name of the Lord, as the law requires of Israel.
5 Here stand the thrones where judgment is given, the thrones of the dynasty of David.
6 Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper.
7 O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces.
8 For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “May you have peace.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.
MAIN POINT: Jesus is our happy place of peace where we safely worship with god’s people in God’s presence.
I will confess that I actually avoid commentaries, Christian books and online preachers. I know that probably seems odd for someone who works in a Christian bookstore. I have read many and I continue to do so, but I prefer these last 20+ years to first and always go to the Bible, drawing from the Bible alone and God’s Spirit the instruction I so much need. One of the reasons I made the choice more than twenty years ago to begin to focus on the Bible rather than the unending stream of preachers, teachers, current trends in theology, missiology and all the other ologies was that I needed to step away from my past, my American culture. I needed to learn to understand the people and culture I was trying to reach with the Gospel of Jesus. Secondly I had been taught many things through the years by well-meaning preachers and teachers which I found to be passed down as tradition and accepted as truth but these things were not from the Bible.
Beware of believing everything you hear.
When we set about to relaunch a literature ministry in Belgium and I had the brief role of coordinator for the French language and Dutch language bookstores in Belgium under the Belgian Evangelical Mission (VIANOVA), we took inspiration from the Bearens in Acts 17.
11 And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.
I do read commentaries. But I prefer first to look at older commentaries, I will check early Church fathers, Reformers, Puritans and authors up to the 19th century before I'll check authors from our time. But comparing Scripture with Scripture and reading and rereading the scenes, scenarios and situations of the author, and the knowledge of his context usually have to come first.
I tell you all of that to say I am often left wondering when I read the Bible. We can’t help but read anachronistically, that is to say we read from our context and think of all the current meanings of words and find it hard not to make connections with all the ideas of our life. Many things we don’t even stop to think about as normal didn’t even exist in the time of David. For instance, there was no temple when this Psalm is said to have been written. Jerusalem had only been made the capital since David had become king. It is accepted that David reigned as king for 40 years and that he died at the age of 70. It wasn’t till he was 37 that he conquered the city of Jerusalem and moved the capital from Hebron to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5).
So all the images you might have of Jerusalem and “the house of the Lord” need to be adjusted to fit the facts. Rather than provide a lot of answers I would like to propose a few questions to you. What happened to the tabernacle when the temple was built by Solomon after David died? Was the ark of the covenant always kept in the tabernacle? Did David build a tent for the ark that is different from the tabernacle? What was the structure David entered when he took the bread and what happened to it? Can you answer these questions? Do the answers to the questions change your vision of Psalm 122?
Although you can read lots of different perspectives on the founding of Jerusalem and the history of the name of the city. David is given credit for this Psalm in the title. If you have trained your ear to hear the different authors of the Psalms, you’ll probably be able to hear that it is David who wrote this Psalm. As far as I can piece it together, Jerusalem, the city gates and its significance as the meeting place of God’s people to worship were probably established by the time David turned 40 years old or a few years after he had conquered the city taken it from the Jebusites and finally moved the Ark of the Covenant there. The tone of the Psalm seems like it is written before the troubles with Absolom, his son and even before David’s plans to build the temple and possibly sometime after the dancing incident with Michal, his wife who was Saul’s daughter. Solomon probably wasn’t even born yet (David might have been about 60 when Solomon was born).
I know I have taken a lot of time to just touch on the hard to establish and little known facts surrounding the writing of Psalm 122. Why did I do that? Because I want to help us get a more accurate picture in our heads when we read this Psalm. And now comes a confession. For the past 5 or so Psalms I have been consulting C. H; Spurgeon's book, Treasury of David, on the Blue Letter Bible website. Spurgeon quotes many other authors including Martin Luther in his section Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings just before the very helpful section Hints to the Village Preacher.
I don’t imagine CH Spurgeon was the best scholar of biblical history or even particularly good at always accurately reflecting the contextual context of the Psalms. Spurgeon jumped even quicker than me to the church or to application for the Christian than I would tend to want to. I try to see the Bible and the Psalms in particular through the lens of Jesus the eternal Son of God, second person of the trinity and His eternal divinity first and then His incarnational humanity second. After I get that in my head, I venture back to the context and finally look for application to my own soul and finally the church and believers. I am not saying this is the right way, the best way or even the way I will always approach study. I am trying to be consistent in doing it this way as I approach the Psalms these past months.
v.1 David was excited to be with others in God’s presence. And God’s presence is in the city of peace, Jerusalem. David is the king who recognises the importance of going to God, of going together, of going joyfully and going in peace. He reminds us that although he is the king and he established the city and he built the place of worship, it is God’s. God is reigning, God is there, God is the owner, ruler and reason for its existence and the one who gives it peace. I think that theme builds and expands throughout Psalm 122.
vv 2-3 Jerusalem, this place of glad peace is a sanctuary, a stongold, a safe place of peace, protected against the enemies outside. All the way to the book of Revelation we see that inside the city with God is peace and the absence of problems and most of all sin. Jesus makes us holy so we can come into the presence of God. He is God and He welcomes us to approach the throne of God the Father. Hebrews tells us that all the temple and tabernacle items are only copies of the heavenly realities. And Jesus says that if they tore the temple down, He would rebuild it in three days. Why all the imagery? Because God is revealing to us that it is Jesus Himself whom we must enter to meet God, and it is in Jesus or as Paul often says in Christ that we can come to God the Father. So now I’m going to tell you something that I think about when I read about Jerusalem. I think of Jesus. I think everything that we read that's good about Jerusalem in the Bible is telling us about being with and in Christ Jesus. I think many of the promises and prophecies concerning Jerusalem are fulfilled as the Bible says in Christ. When we begin to see and understand Jerusalem as another picture of Christ Jesus we can add it to the long list of symbols and images that give us a rich understanding of who Jesus is. He is a lion, a lamb, a king, a prophet, a priest, a sacrifice and a holy city. Isn't it interesting that peace is in the name, peace is mentioned so often and peace is the goal of this city in Psalm 122? Jesus is the prince of peace. And He is a priest in the order of Melchizedek who was the King of Salem, maybe even this place, Jerusalem but all that points to Jesus. Our God is a strong tower, He is the reigning King to whom we all will stream and go up to. We gather together to worship our saviour and king who is Himself a place of safety and peace. Welcome to Jerusalem.
Conclusion:
I invite you to be excited about being together with God’s people.Worship God’s King Who reigns as the Son of David and the Son of God. Recognise the peace He gives and the safety He provides. Look at all the opportunities God gives you to go to His Son, to gather with others who worship in His presence and rejoice in His safety and peace. Jesus is Jerusalem, the place of peace.
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| Handwritten Psalm 122 |
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