From Forward Day by Day
Psalm 122:1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
On my second trip to Jerusalem, as our bus climbed the hills into Jerusalem, our guide read this psalm to us. From ancient times, it was customary to recite this psalm and others on the climb up to Jerusalem. It’s such a holy place that God’s people have had habits of prayer for thousands of years, even in such a routine act as walking or driving into Jerusalem. The psalm goes on, “Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity with itself,” which hardly seems true today.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims each call this place holy, and sometimes share the same locations as holy. It’s inspiring and disheartening all at once to see so many people of faith pray and sometimes battle in one tiny place. This psalm also urges us to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Indeed. If people of faith could, by God’s grace, find ways to get along in this holy place, who knows how the world might be transformed...
Pray fervently for the peace of Jerusalem.
