“One simple word to symbolize all of Jewish history…would be ‘Jerusalem.’” —Teddy Kollek
Like trickles joining streams, and streams flowing into rivers, the people of God would traverse their village paths to join others from nearby towns. Greeting neighbors after long months of isolation on their little farms, they might call out, “Let us go into the house of the Lord” (Ps 122:1). It was a happy proposal, says the psalmist. “I was glad when they said [that] to me.” They can hardly wait to have their feet “standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!” (v 2). Verses 3-5 describe The Pilgrim’s Prospect, and verses 6-9 give us The Pilgrim’s Prayer concerning the City. It’s true, “Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together” (v 3). It isn’t very large, with the Old City today occupying only .35 square miles. Everything in the city is up hill and down dale. The cobbled streets wind this way and that. We can only imagine, then, when “the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord” (v 4). I was caught once in a human river of 10,000 Muslim men making their way from the Temple Mount through the Damascus Gate. It was daunting, to say the least. But the psalmist believes all will be well because “thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David” (v 5). Yes, great David’s greater Son will soon set things right! That’s why we should “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (v 6), because lasting peace will not come until the Prince of Peace arrives. Here the psalmist prays for a boomerang blessing—not only for peace and prosperity within Jerusalem’s walls (v 7), but “May they prosper who love you” (v 6). To complete the couplet, he adds, “Peace be within you” (v 8). And, he concludes, the way to seek good is to seek God in “the house of the Lord” (v 9).