Psalms
Chapter 122
1
What Joy When They Said To Me: Let Us Go To the House of the Lord!
I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
2
And now we have set foot within your gates, O Jerusalem!
3
Jerusalem, just like a city, where everything falls into place!
4
There, the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s name.
5
There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.
6
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you prosper!
7
May peace be within your walls and security within your citadels!”
8
For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be with you!”
9
For the sake of the house of our Lord, I will pray for your good.
Commentaries
122
Joy of the pilgrim who finally reaches his goal—Jerusalem, the chosen home of God, venerable in Israel’s tradition. Here is a deep sense of homecoming and pride in that home. We of the worldwide ‘Israel of God’ have no city to shelter us all; we are ‘of the household of the faith’ (Gal 6:10). But we have brothers and sisters whom Jesus promised to those in his company (Mk 9:30); we have a home called ‘the Church.’ It stands scarred with years of siege but, by God’s grace, strong and dignified by the marks of resistance. We may take pride in it because the strength of its walls comes from God. It will never have peace from external threats; let us pray and work for its peace within, which is ‘the love of brethren.’