Psalm 122
Psalm 122:1:
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. |
Worship is a necessity of our being. The Greeks called man “anthropos,” meaning the upward-looking one. Man is a creature of religious instincts and must worship something. Bob Dylan was absolutely correct when he sang “You Gotta Serve Somebody!” If dogmatism be suffered anywhere, surely it is here; for man, wherever he is found, is a worshipping creature, capable of appreciating, capable of admiring, capable of extolling. If there were no God, the human heart must make One, for where there is no vision of the infinite, the people perish. Worship is a true soul-view of God and it is a soul-view of the highest. Worship is “worthship” –a confession of worth. It is a reverential upward look.
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Psalm 122:6-9:
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.’ For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’ For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity. |
Jesus said in John 14:23: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.” And in Luke 11:28: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and do it!”
Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and pin you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” |
The root of the Hebrew term used for “prosper” is shalah, which can be translated as to “put at ease” or to “quiet.” The prosperity described is therefore not a material blessing, but a quality of soul and life. This enables those who love Jerusalem to enjoy personally a similar peace as is enjoyed by God’s chosen city.
We cannot merely take a neutral attitude and say, “Let’s see what happens.” We have to actively align ourselves with what God is saying in His Word and what He is doing in history.
The primary way in which we can do this is through our prayers. We can pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for its restoration—for Jerusalem to become all that God has declared in the Scriptures that it shall be. To those who pray and are concerned, this is the promise: “They shall prosper that love thee.” -Derek Prince |
The word Jerusalem means "the place of peace"—the place where the God of peace symbolically resided during the temple times. In ancient times, it may have been a common blessing to say "Peace be upon Israel." The phrase is found in Psalm 125:5 and Psalm 128:6. We also know that Jerusalem is where Jesus will return (Acts 1:11; Zechariah 14:4).
Jesus included peacemakers in His beatitudes, saying those who made peace would be called sons of God (Matthew 5:9). Romans 12:18 instructs us to seek peace with all people. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem certainly fits into these instructions. -Compelling Truth |