Read Psalm 122 at Bible Gateway.
In order to continue unpacking the structure we started seeing yesterday, we need to map Psa 122:
paragraph divisions:
1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
2 Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!
3 Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together,
4 Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.
7 Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.”
8 For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, “Peace be within you.”
9 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good. {p}
Psa 122 chiastic structure:
1a) Psa 122:1, I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord;”
1b) Psa 122:2-4, To Jerusalem we turn our feet:
Psa 122:2, Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!
Psa 122:3, Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together;
Psa 122:4, Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord;
central axis) Psa 122:5, For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David;
2b) Psa 122:6-8, For Jerusalem we turn our prayers:
Psa 122:6, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you;
Psa 122:7, Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces;”
Psa 122:8, For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, “Peace be within you;”
2a) Psa 122:9, Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good. {p}
The central axis is a messianic prophecy. And that gives us the clue to the whole Psalm. For in vs. 3, the city that is compact together, can also mean from the Hebrew, the city that is united together. Although this is a pilgrimage to Jerusalem psalm, commanded three times in the year for the tribes of Israel (Exo 23:14-16 for example) the central point of the thrones of the house of David, sets this psalm past the historical reign of David. And yet, the unity of all the tribes of the Lord, the twelve tribes of the Lord, sets this psalm past the division of the kingdoms into north and south. For from the time of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, the ten tribes of the Northern kingdom were idolatrous, being carried away into exile by the Assyrians in 721 BC and not yet returned.
So we are looking at a time of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, when the throne of the house of David is once more established in Jerusalem for judgment, and the twelve tribes of Israel are once more united in the worship of the LORD God. Because of this realization, it is interesting that vs. 2 declares that our feet are already within the gates of Jerusalem – for in fact, if we are the Lord’s, then our citizenship is with the New Jerusalem already! ♥
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