Psalm 122 Commentary

It may be difficult for us in the modern world and in the era of Christ’s Church to understand Ancient Israel’s attachment to Jerusalem.  This city still exists today of course and visiting it is probably always a key destination for all tourists who want to visit “The Holy Land.”  There is no denying the history of the place even if a lot of modern-day Jerusalem is very different from the city that existed during David’s time and even to an extent in Jesus’s day.  But today the city is also associated with the modern state of Israel and depending on your perspectives that fact may or may not shape your overall view of Jerusalem today positively or negatively.

Even so, the near reverence for the city that you pick up in the Hebrew Psalter and most particularly in the many Songs of Ascent may be foreign to us.  Psalm 122 is mostly all about praying for the city, begging for its prosperity and protection and flourishing.  The reasons are obvious enough in the context of Ancient Israel.  The Temple was there.  The God of Israel was there.  Jerusalem was the fulcrum of all hope, of all salvation.  God was there in a way that was thought to be simply not true of any other spot on the map.  That city, that Temple, that Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant within it had to flourish or all was lost.

Eventually of course all was lost.  In Ezekiel 10-11 the prophet sadly witnesses the departure of God’s glory from the Temple and from the city.  God said that it would return one day but the sins of Israel had simply become too great for a holy God to be able to remain in their midst.  The Temple and the city would be destroyed.  Centuries on both would get re-built but though the Jews tried to imbue the Second Temple with all the religious and holy seriousness of Solomon’s Temple, there is no evidence God was ever singularly there again as had been true in ancient times.  In the gospels when the disciples act like excited tourists standing in front of the Temple and when they try to get Jesus to join them in their enthusiasm, Jesus shrugs.  He also points out that that Temple was ultimately as doomed as the previous one.  So, you know, don’t pin your hopes on that.

Coming as it does on the First Sunday in Advent in the Year A Lectionary, Psalm 122 is like a window through which to see what Jerusalem had once meant and what it had once symbolized even if all of that has been long gone for a very long time now.  So what do we do with this song in the church today?  And what could it possibly have to do with Advent and the coming Christmas Season?

One possibility in answering those questions does indeed tie in with the birth of God’s own Son in Bethlehem.  In some ways what I am getting at can be symbolized in Matthew’s Gospel with the visit of the Magi.  True enough the Magi stop in at Jerusalem.  If something of great import had taken place, if maybe there was a new king that had been born, well then naturally Jerusalem was the place to go.  But it was not finally the place to go.  God’s main action was not centered there as it turned out.  The incarnate Son of God was elsewhere and to see him, the Magi had to go there.

Eventually the baby would grow up and when he did, he would make it clear that a building in Jerusalem was no longer necessary nor important.  His own body was the new Temple.  Jesus was universalizing the presence of God.  This would be further symbolized at Pentecost when it became clear that the Holy Spirit was getting poured out on all kinds of people making each of them a living, walking, talking, breathing Temple of that Holy Spirit of God and of Christ.

This is a major part of the reason why as Christians today we cannot quite grasp the reverence ancient Israelites had for Jerusalem.  But we now realize that in the grand scheme of God’s redemptive plan what had once been unique to Jerusalem and to the Temple there in terms of having access to God has now come near to every one of us.  This is why in Matthew it will be so utterly significant that the child Jesus be named also Immanuel.  God with us.  To be with God was why the pilgrims made their ascent to Jerusalem and why they sang a song like Psalm 122 as they journeyed along.  But now thanks to the incarnation, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of God’s Son, what the ancients traveled far to receive we now receive in being granted union with Christ in our baptisms.

A good deal of Psalm 122 is about rejoicing at the prospect of going to the House of the Lord.  A good deal is about praying for the city’s peace, for shalom in the long run.  But now that we dwell among so many people who have union with Christ, we can still pray for shalom among God’s people.  We can still rejoice to be in the presence of our God in Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  And in a time of fierce division on so many fronts, including in so many churches and denominations, praying for the peace of God’s people may be more important than ever.

As we open the 2025 Advent Season, if Psalm 122 can goad us to wish for that kind of peace and unity as we prepare once more to welcome the Christ Child, well then that would be a good thing to proclaim from our pulpits.

Note: In addition to our weekly sermon commentaries each Monday, check out our special Advent and Christmas Resource page for more sermon ideas and other Advent/Christmas resources. 

Illustration Idea

It was the evening of Christmas Day 1971.  The extended family who had spent most of the day with us in our modest home on the southeast side of Grand Rapids, Michigan, had recently left and Mom and Dad were tidying up the house when suddenly there was a jarring pounding on our side door.  It was one of our neighbors who cried out, “Your church is on fire!”  We lived within sight of the Alger Park Christian Reformed Church and so my Mom ran into our den and shoved the drapes aside to reveal an inferno of flames roaring out of what had been the very large stained glass window at the back of the church’s balcony.  The main structure of the church was saved and though the entirety of the interior had to be redone, it could have been worse.  But for a long season our congregation was without a church to use.

Sad though that was or sad though the more recent fire at Notre Dame in Paris had been, no one concluded that anything had changed in terms of the presence of God on earth or anyone’s access to this God.  The same could not have been said of Solomon’s Temple in ancient Jerusalem.  For the Israelite people then they knew that the destruction of the Temple and of the city had profound theological implications.  Since then of course and as noted in this sermon commentary, our theology has changed.  God is now with us through Immanuel, through that Child born long ago in Bethlehem’s stall.

And that fact is a fine generator of joy and gratitude.