Psalm 122:1-9

... in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.  Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.  Glory to You, our God, Glory to You.

O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill all things, Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us (three times).

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the beginning, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

Psalm 122:1-9[1]

A Song of Ascent of David.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”[2]

Our feet shall stand within your gates, O Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together.  There the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the Testimony[3] of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord: for there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  They shall prosper that love you.  Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.  Because of my brothers and companions’ sakes, I will now say, “Peace [be] within you.”  Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.[4]

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[1] When David became the king of the Jews, Israel was still a divided nation, Jerusalem was still a Jebusite stronghold, and the Sh^ekinah with His Ark still abode with the Philistines (2 Samuel 5 and 6).  The “Joseph Tribes”, later to become the Northern Kingdom (Israel proper) were united behind the remaining tatters of Saul’s kingdom; these were sharply divided from the “Judah Tribes”, later to become the Southern Kingdom (Judea proper), united behind David.  So the ascent of David calls to mind the solidarity and unity of Israel as a single kingdom, of the defeat of the Jebusites, and the return of God with the Ark to restore the Theocracy.  Even though the Theocracy was earlier rejected by Israel (1 Samuel 8:7), David acknowledges here, that Yahweh is the rightful King of Israel, while David merely serves at Yahweh’s pleasure as His servant.  This firmly establishes the fact that there is no ordinary earthly monarchy or monarch in the Kingdom of God’s form of government.  This Psalm may be David’s official Todah for the conquest, unification, and return of the Ark.

When David says he “was glad” all of these things are of recent memory, and the house to which he refers is a temporary tabernacle, a tent: for The Tabernacle of Moses, which was stationed at Shiloh, has long been abandoned and fallen to ruins (1 Samuel 4:3-4; Psalm 78:60).

For David, Jerusalem is the kingdom of God on earth, a perfect picture of the heavenly city (Revelation 21 and 22).  It is important to note that this city is not ruled by a king, but by kings (Revelation 4:4) ruling from thrones.  The Church is “built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20).”

The content of the prayer for Jerusalem follows the leading sentence.  Jerusalem, we pray, will be in reality the perfect picture of the heavenly city, especially in its peace.  The words jeru + salem mean the city or the foundation of peace.  In actuality this peace has been realized through much bloodshed, principally the Crucifixion of Christ.

[2] Psalm 118:24

[3] The Most Holy Place, the Holy Place, the Oracle, the inner room of the Tabernacle and Temple where Yahweh’s throne resided, from which Yahweh ruled in mercy over Israel, and from which Yahweh spoke to Israel.  This is the place where Yahweh usually dwelled in the form of the Sh^ekinah.  Today the Sh^ekinah dwells within believers everywhere.  From this place, God ruled over Israel from 1446 until 586, a span of 860 years.  The cause of the termination of Israel’s Theocracy was Israel’s unbridled sin.  The Sh^ekinah at last returned around 4 BC in the person of Christ, and at His ascension was bestowed upon the whole Church on the day of Pentecost in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

[4] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations in Psalms, please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish.

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