Biblion Bible Commentary
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Let Us Go to Yahweh's House
Psalms 122:1-9
1 A Song of Ascents. By David. I was glad when they said to me, “Let’s go to Yahweh’s house!” · WEB
The pilgrims arrive, stand inside the gates, and are told to pray for the city they are standing in.
I was glad when they said to me, "Let's go to Yahweh's house!" Psalms 122:1.
The invitation came from other people. The gladness is at being asked, which is how most pilgrimages begin.
Our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem! Psalms 122:2.
Arrival, and the psalm reports it as a sensation in the feet. After the hills of the previous psalm, a man is standing on paving.
Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up Psalms 122:3–4.
The compactness is a physical fact about a town on a narrow ridge, and the psalm makes it a figure for what happens there. Twelve tribes scattered across a hundred miles are pressed together three times a year in a place with no room to spread out.
For there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of David's house Psalms 122:5.
The city is named as the place where cases are decided as well as where worship happens, and the psalm sees no tension between the two.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Those who love you will prosper Psalms 122:6.
The instruction is a pun in Hebrew — the name of the city contains the word for peace, so the line asks for Jerusalem to become what it is called. It is the one thing a pilgrim can leave behind after the festival ends.
For my brothers' and companions' sakes, I will now say, "Peace be within you" Psalms 122:8.
The reason given for praying about a city is the people in it. Not its architecture, its history, or its status — his relatives and friends live there, and the prayer is for them under another name.
For the sake of the house of Yahweh our God, I will seek your good Psalms 122:9.
And the second reason. Both are stated as motives for seeking the city's welfare, which is a larger commitment than praying for it.
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