O Jerusalem!

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
May they be tranquil who love you!
Peace be within your walls
and tranquility within your towers!”
For my brothers and companions’ sake
I will say, ‘Peace be within you!’” (Psalm 122:6-8).

Jerusalem, in David’s day, was a drab little village, newly wrested from the Canaanites. The "house of the Lord" was a patched and threadbare tent. 

But it was the place God chose to gather His people in unity and tranquility. It was a city “bound firmly together” by God’s love (122:3).

Our "Jerusalem" is the Church: We "have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God." Our “house" (122:1) is not a building, but a body of "brothers and companions" in which we find solidarity and rest (122:3-5).

But sadly, congregations can be restless, unhappy aggregations of querulous people, wrangling over trivia, what Thackeray called, "the pigmy spites of the village spire."

What can I do for my brothers and companions?

I can “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Prayer is always the starting place for any human endeavor.

And I can “seek her good” (122:9, which means, among other things, that I, in humility, gentleness, patience and love will set aside my own good “to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” for the greater good of my brothers and companions (Ephesians 4:1-3).

David Roper