Even in imposed isolation…
Psalm 122
1 I
was glad when they said to me,
“Let
us go to the house of the Lord!”
2 Our
feet are standing
within
your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem—built
as a city
that
is bound firmly together.
4 To
it the tribes go up,
the
tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
to
give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 For
there the thrones for judgment were set up,
the
thrones of the house of David.6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May
they prosper who love you.
7 Peace be within your walls,
and
security within your towers.”
8 For the sake of my relatives and friends
I
will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I
will seek your good.
The people who sang Psalm 122 were pilgrims on a journey, from wherever they lived to Jerusalem for the great annual festivals. They sang this song on the way to keep their spirits up despite the harsh terrain. But what does it have to do with us? What is its message for us on our earthly pilgrimage, especially now when we can’t go anywhere or meet?
The key to our understanding and connecting with this and most Old Testament passages is one core question: What difference does Jesus make?
Without that question in our minds we can get ourselves into a muddle. As you can see with this psalm, we don’t live in Israel and most of us won’t ever go to Jerusalem. King David’s throne is no longer there. There is no temple any more.
So back to the core question: what difference has Jesus made; how does he connect us to this psalm?
The city
Do you remember what Jesus said about us? He said that we are the city set on a hill.[1] The work of Jesus was never going to be geographical but global; in the hearts of men and women from every tribe and nation. The city was no longer a walled piece of geography but people in whom and among whom Jesus would dwell by his spirit. They, his followers would be the new city on the hill, the new place from which the light would shine into the valleys and across the world. In the book of Revelation we discover that the New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ — the people are the city, the city is the people.[2]
The house of the Lord
There is no temple anymore. Where does God dwell on earth? In us. By his spirit. Paul tells us that individually and corporately, we are the temple.[3] Peter said we are being built as living stones into a spiritual house.[4] Not in a building. Never again a building.
That’s the difference Jesus has made. The shadows—temple, priests, sacrifice, earthly cities—have gone and the reality has come. The greater David has come and taken up the greater throne at the right hand of the Father. Christ has fulfilled all the law and the prophets. We ‘who were far off’ have come to belong to the city of light that transcends race, language and geography.
A different pilgrimage
So, Psalm 122 and us. We are not travelling to the earthly Jerusalem. Ours is a lifelong pilgrimage often through harsh and dangerous territory. So the joy of the psalmist when people said to him, ‘Let’s go to the house of God’, is now focussed on the people of God, the new city set on a hill. Joy, peace, safety and a sense of belonging will be found in each other in Him.
As a young boy I was always told that the church building was the house of the Lord (and I had to be a totally non-fidgety, silent little person within it.) And that in Sunday meetings we entered his presence. Not so. God still doesn’t live in a house—he lives in people wherever we are. We are not connected by all being in the same room at the same time; we are connected to each other through the Lord Jesus Christ. Everywhere. Always. Even in days of self-isolation.
The government has shut us down. No ‘church services’. Does that mean we are no longer connected to the city of God and the people of God? Of course not. Our longing ought to be for his people. Our joy in whatever connections we can still make. I have had some wonderful phone calls this week — some I have made some have been made to me. We chatted and talked about the Lord and his doings in our lives on the phone. I have been refreshed.
The Jesus focus of this Psalm means that praying for the peace of Jerusalem is praying for his people, his worldwide city, the place where he dwells. And verses 8 and 9, “For the sake of my brothers and friends I will say, “peace be within you… I will seek your good.” At this time, some of the Lord’s people may be a little fearful or perplexed or lonely because of what is happening. Let’s pray a blessing of peace and God’s goodness on each other.[5]
Every
blessing,
Ray
Barnett
[1] Matthew 5:14
[2] Revelation 21:1-4
[3] For example, 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19
[4] 1 Peter 2:4-5
[5] NIV uses the word “prosperity”. It might be that in the very broadest sense but the word is translated 361 times as ‘good’ in the older versions and only six times as ‘prosperity’. The ‘good’ for God’s people is not often financial prosperity.
