08/03/2017: Psalm 122 | The Peace of Jerusalem | Gill Wolfaardt

The peace of Jerusalem   Psalm 122  New American Standard

  1. I was glad when they said to me,   Let us go to the house of the Lord.
  1. Our feet are standing within your gates ,O Jerusalem,
  2. Jerusalem a city that is built as a city that is compact together;
  3. To which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord- an ordinance for Israel

To give thanks in the name of the Lord.

  1. For there thrones are set for judgement,

The thrones of the house of David.

  1. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. “May they prosper who love you.
  2. May peace be within your your walls,

And prosperity with your palaces.”

  1. For the sake of my brothers and my friends,

I will now say, “ May peace be within you.”

  1. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

I will seek your good.

Today is our third step in the Psalms of ascent.  I want to encourage you to come to this bible study knowing that God is Love and that He longs to see us grow. What we do pleases God when we walk in faith but what we do can also break His heart if we are careless or disobedient. Gen 6:6

Isaiah 55:10 &11” For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be that goes forth out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void ( without producing any effect, useless) but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

(Hebrews 4:12)  God’s word is alive and active, sharper than any two edged sword . Its like a surgeon’s scalpel cutting through  our mistaken attitudes and motives.

Psalm 120 positions the pilgrim in an alien land of lies, corruption and threat to personal safety. The Lord hears his cries of distress

Psalm 121 pictures the pilgrim looking to see where his help comes from. He is reassured that the Lord watches over everything that concerns him.

In Psalm 122 he stands  weary but glad at his destination, within the gates of the Holy City, the city of Jerusalem.

Its an interesting name Jerusalem.  It comes from the root word Shalom which means peace. It also means complete with nothing missing , nothing broken

Col 2:10 tells us we are complete in Him. It is our responsibility to receive the completeness.

Jeru comes from the root word Jireh .Jehovah Jireh, the God Who sees and provides. So we can deduce that Jerusalem means God will see to it and will provide complete and paid for peace. That is exactly what Jesus has done. He took our punishment on the cross and paid the price for us to have complete and unbroken peace with God , not by any works or attributes of ours but totally by what He has provided. Have we appropriated that?

“ My people perish for a lack of knowledge.” Hosea4:6

The psalm says “ I rejoiced with those who said “ Let us go to the house of the Lord” That means not only the gathering on Sunday but going to the inner temple in our hearts.

There are two aspects in our teaching. There are historical facts but there is a much more important aspect. Our relationship with Jesus.

Jerusalem is important ,obviously , but God was willing to destroy the temple in Jerusalem and the city because of Israel’s disobedience. Both the temple and the city are significant but not as significant as our being in right relationship with our God and Father.

1Cor 3:16 & 17 “ Do you not discern and understand that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling place within you.( To be at home within you collectively as a church and also individually) If anyone does hurt to God’s temple or corrupts it ( with false doctrine ) or destroys it, God will do hurt to him and bring him to the corruption of death and destroy him. For the temple of God is holy ( sacred to Him ) and you are that temple. ( The believing church and its individual believers ) “

So although it is certainly a wonderful experience to travel to Jerusalem, to see where Jesus walked and to soak up the atmosphere , it is not required of us to go there as it is required of Muslims to travel to Mecca. The old testament  serves as a visual aid for us to understand the salvation God has prepared for us. Next week we’ll look at the psalm from a personal view point.