Right Relationships

Not many Bible teachers understand that Psalm 122 speaks of two right relationships - One, the right relationship between God and man and the other, the right relationship between man and man. Psalm 122 is actually a song of ascent of David to be sung by God's people during the last stage of their pilgrimage to the City of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place where God was met in worship.

Before I begin I would like to remind Christians that it is very easy to take the text of this Psalm out of its context and use the verses as slogan. This is especially so when we commit the verses (usually the King James Version) to memory. The right thing to do is whenever you get a verse from the Lord go back and see the setting of the verse and find out how this verse relates to other verses in that particular setting. Then you will use it in a Biblical sense instead of using it as a slogan taken out of context. It is often said that Scripture taken out of context becomes a pretext. In fact in its original language all the Books of the entire Bible had no chapter number and no verse number. They were put there by the translators. In its original language it would be difficult to take any verse out of its context.

The Nature and Function of Jerusalem

Psalm 122 describes the nature and function of the City of Jerusalem. It is conveniently divided into two halves:

1. The Nature of the City of Jerusalem

"I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord! Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem, which is built as a city that is compact together; to which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed and as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For there thrones of judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David" (Psalm 122:1 - 5, The Amplified Bible).

The above five verses describe the nature of the City of Jerusalem. In fact the nature of the City is like the nature of the Country of Israel - too much history and too little geography. As soon as you read this psalm you'll get the sense that to the psalmist this city was very special. There was some thing unique about it. You'll feel it as soon as you step inside the gates. The City had a mixture of the real and the unreal.

The City of Jerusalem was terribly small. Someone said this City during king David's time looked as if a large city had been pulled down and another city had been re-erected on a tiny site with buildings all crowded together, compacted together, squeezed into a solid city. You could walk through the entire city in less than an hour. What made the City so special was its function.
2. The Function of the City of Jerusalem

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they prosper that love you (the Holy City)! Peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces! For my brethren and my companions' sake, I will now say, Peace be within you! For the sake of the house of the Lord our God I will seek, inquire for and require your good" (Psalm 122:6 - 9, The Amplified Bible).

There were two important buildings used to be found in the Holy City of Jerusalem, but they are no longer here now. In these two buildings lived two kings. One is the father and the other one, his son; one is the King of the universe and the other the king of Israel. These two buildings were the house of the Lord and the house of David.

It was because of these two buildings that prayers were offered up for the peace of Jerusalem. These two buildings embodied and symbolized the two relationships that need to be put right. These two relatioships were the relationship between God and man and the relationship between man and man. Right relationships were needed not only for the City and not only for the nation of which the City was the capital, but for the entire world. Jerusalem was the city where men came up to praise and worship their God - where the twelve tribes processed and worshiped together as Cod told them to, as an example to the whole world.

Jerusalem was also the City where justice could be found. The Law Court of justice was in the house of David. It was in this court wrongs were righted; those who had been exploited were vindicated; criminals were punished and right relationships were established. If you wanted to be right with God and right with your fellowmen then this was the City to which you had to come.

Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem

There is actually nothing terribly special about the prayer for the peace of Jerusalem. It is a natural thing for a Jewish person on entering a home to say peace to that home. Similarly the natural thing to do, when you enter the gates of Jerusalem and when you just stand inside the door, is to say peace to Jerusalem. It is a right and proper prayer to pray.

Jerusalem was peculiarly vulnerable in two areas - peace and prosperity. Therefore David prayed for peace and prosperity - in Hebrew mean shalom and shalvah. It is quite impossible to translate shalom and shalvah into English. Shalom not only means peace, but also harmony, health, well being and right relationship with God and everyone around you. Shalvah not only means prosperity, but also security, safety, tranquility, happy, joyful and abundantly blessed.

It is important to note that the peace that David prayed was an internal peace within the City (Ps. 122:7, 8). He was not thinking about Jerusalem out of security, not thinking about military and political peace. What truly concerned him was that within the place where God and men met, where relationships were put right, that Jerusalem would be a city of harmony.

Peace does not come naturally when you put a lot of God's people together, crowded in with one another so that they had hardly enough room to move about. Similary when you work in a place with Christians only (like in a Local Church), it is not necessarily a "promised land". When people are crowded together in a corridor of power peace does not come naturally. It is common to see Pastors and other servants of God having frictions with one another.

Therefore David, as soon as he stepped inside the gates, he prayed for the residence of the City who kept the Temple services going. He prayed for God's people who served the Lord in the Temple. He prayed that the Lord would keep them in harmony, keep them together in peace. He also prayed for prosperity for a very simple reason - Jerusalem was not a commercial viable City; it was not a place of trade and industry. It depended on help elsewhere. It was a subsidized capital and always will be. It would depend on the tithes and offerings of God's people coming up to worship God.

Why David and his companions prayed for the peace of Jerusalem?

The prayer was entirely for the residence of the city. It was a prayer that those who come here as visitors should pray. They should pray for those who lived there - a prayer that was very much needed. The last two verses of Psalm 122 made it very clear. David was not praying this prayer for the sake of the people there. But first he prayed for the sake of the pilgrims who came and second, for the sake of the God they came to meet. If Jerusalem was the meeting place between the Lord of heaven and the people of earth then it was vital that it would be a place of harmony, peace and deep satisfaction - a place where people might come and have peace with God and with one another and be satisfied and fulfilled.

The Christian's Problem

How do Christians pray for the City of Jerusalem the same way God's people did in the Old Testament when the two houses are not to be found there now?

The house of David is no longer to be found in Jerusalem. In fact there is no trace of it now. It was destroyed about 2,600 years ago when the last king of Israel was taken captive to Babylon. Since that day Israel has not had a king. But the House of the Lord destroyed at about the same time was rebuilt. It was standing there when our Lord Jesus Christ came to that City.

Jesus said, "See, Your house is left to you desolate" (Matt. 23:38).

After saying this Jesus immediately left the Temple (Matt. 24:1). A few days later the curtain (veil) of the Lord's House was pulled down by God as soon as Jesus was crucified. It was empty (desolate) from then on. In fact it was the Jewish custom to pull down the curtains of his house when it was left unoccupied.

The meaning of "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" today

We can ask many questions. For instance, what meaning can we give today to this prayer - "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem"? It is still valid? Have those two houses being re-erected any where else? Or they have totally disappeared?

Two amazing truths

The Scripture reveals two amazing truths:

1. Few weeks after the house of the Lord was emptied and the curtain pulled down God took up residence on earth! On the Day of Pentecost God moved house! And He dwells from then on in His people rather than in a place. Wherever you find God's people, there is the house of the Lord. His house is in His people individually (1 Cor. 6:15) and collectively, in His Church (1 Cor. 3:16, 17). It is a mobile concept now; it is no longer tied in one City and in the two houses.

2. Both the house of David and the House of the Lord (the Son of David) has been rebuilt in believers - believing Jews and believing Gentiles. When you look at a Christian you should see the house of David back in Jerusalem. You should see the place where the Son of David rules. One of the prophetic meanings of the Feast of the Tabernacle that is being observed by many Christians now, is the return of these two houses to the City of Jerusalem!

Spiritual application of Psalm 122

Since the Temple of the Lord now includes Jews as well as Gentiles there is a spiritual application of Ps. 122 which we must not forget. This points to the Heavenly Jerusalem that Mount Zion (the Church) to which we have come - through Jesus Christ.

Our prayer burden should be the peace and prosperity for the Church. We should pray that the Christians in our city may be in harmony and that there may be peace among those who love our Lord Jesus Christ. The peace of Jerusalem speaks of the peace of the House of the Lord (the Church) which we represent.

What makes for the peace of Jerusalem is very clear. The clue lies in what Jesus said in Luke 19. He wept tears of frustration over the City:

"If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes" (Luke 19:42, NKJV, emphasis added).

I believe the two important things that make for the Christians' peace are moral integrity and spiritual priority - to the contrary of what many people (both believers and unbelievers) believed. Many people believe that the things that mke for their peace are political security and economic stability. To pray for political security and economic stability is good but it is not the Christians' primary concern.

When Jesus rode through the Gate Beautiful into the Temple area He astonished the crowd. They expected Him to deal with the Roman rulers but instead He went straight into the Temple and rebuked those who bought and sold:

"It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you made it a den of thieves" (Luke 19:46).

He did this because His people had no moral integrity and spiritual priority and they didn't understand what belonged to their peace. That was why Jesus wept! God wanted to give His righteousnesss to His people; He wanted to give the City the King of Righteousness. Yet when God visited this place with His Righteousness, this place did not recognize the Day of God's visitation (Matt. 19:44)!

Conclusion

I believe when we pray for the peace of Jerusalem we must therefore pray that this City may recognize the Second Coming of the King of Righteousness. We must pray that this City will be happy to have more Christians, not just to come and visit, not just to celebrate the Feast of the Tabernacle, but to welcome them as messengers of the coming King of Righteousness - The Prince of Peace! Jehovah Shalom and Jehovah Shalvah!