Original Meaning
Joy in the Pilgrimage (122:1–2)
IN THE OPENING STROPHE OF THE PSALM the poet quickly shifts from recollection of a past moment to present experience. In verse 1 he announces that he rejoiced (samah) at the invitation to go to the house of the Lord. Some translations render samah as “be glad” (e.g., ESV, NRSV, KJV), but such a rendering places the emphasis on the emotional state of the psalmist and perhaps implies that the psalmist is “happy” or “glad” at hearing this news. While this understanding is not entirely incorrect, the verb samah can suggest much richer overtones. The use of samah in this pilgrimage psalm is likely meant to capture the connection made elsewhere in the Old Testament between samah and the celebration of cultic festivals and feasts. For understanding this connection between the feasts and samah, the book of Deuteronomy is particularly instructive (cf. Deut 12:12, 18; 14:26; 16:11; 27:7). In Deuteronomy and elsewhere, samah appears within the larger phrase “rejoice before the LORD.”9
Thus, as John Goldingay somewhat humorously explains, “The basis for rejoicing is indeed that it means not merely a visit to the big city, but a visit to the house where Yahweh lives.”10
The psalmist may be pleased to receive this invitation to journey to the house of Yahweh, but the real source of joy remains being in the presence of God himself.
Verse 1 recounted the moment when the psalmist was invited to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem; verse 2 records his arrival at the gates of the city. Some translations and commentaries prefer to render verse 2b in the past (“our feet were standing”), which would suggest that the entire strophe is a remembrance of the past—both the call to pilgrimage and the entrance into Jerusalem. The decision to render verse 2b as a completed action in the past is because the verb is a qatal form, which quite often in English would be rendered in the past tense. Yet, as Graham Ogden has suggested, hayah in direct speech can have a stative sense, as it appears to here in Psalm 122:2.11
Bridging Contexts
PSALM 122 IS ONE OF THE Songs of Ascent, and as a piece of pilgrimage literature it has a certain liturgical function—it invites the community to celebrate their arrival in Jerusalem, to recall the defining features of the city, and to pray for God’s unfolding future for the city. While perhaps Psalm 122 may not represent a “liturgy” in the narrowest of definitions, it does show certain liturgical characteristics. The Greek word for liturgy is leitourgia and derives from two root words—laos, “the people,” and ergon, “work.” Consequently, some have rendered the term “liturgy” as “the work of the people,” and indeed Psalm 122 reflects something of the “work of the people” as they made their way to and into Jerusalem.
Eugene Peterson, in his small volume Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer, considers the role of liturgy and offers a brief but suggestive claim concerning its purpose.21
Peterson writes that “liturgy can be elaborate or simple, baroque or bare, but it always provides these three things: space, time, order.”22
In many ways Psalm 122 invites those who pray this poem to make certain claims about God and his interaction with the world. These claims are structured around the themes of space, time, and order, and they resonate with the larger witness of Scripture.
Jerusalem as sacred space. Psalm 122 celebrates the city of Jerusalem. From beginning to end, the psalmist celebrates the features of Jerusalem and its history, and he prays for its future. Nearly every verse refers to Jerusalem or some aspect related to the city. The reader of Psalm 122 is inundated with repeated images of and references to Jerusalem—far more than any other of the Songs of Ascent. Given that Jerusalem is the goal of the pilgrimage, perhaps the celebratory fixation on the city is in order. Yet to assume the celebratory tone of the psalm can be attributed simply to reaching the journey’s destination is to miss the interpretation of Jerusalem as sacred space.
As suggested in the Original Meaning section above, a cluster of theological claims developed around the notion of Zion, but none perhaps more important than the belief in the centrality of Jerusalem. To refer to the “centrality of Jerusalem” is to comment on more than its geographical or topographical features—such a claim involves much more than mere cartography. Melody Knowles has explained that in the biblical tradition “centrality incorporates sacrality.”23
After Jerusalem’s defeat at the hands of the Babylonians, however, one would not have been surprised if Jerusalem’s importance had been diminished, not only politically but also ideologically and theologically. Despite that possibility, the exilic prophets moved in the opposite direction by imbuing an even greater sense of “sacrality” to the city and reinforcing its centrality. In the book of Ezekiel, for example, Yahweh announces that he has made Jerusalem the “center of the nations” (Ezek 5:5), and later in the book Jerusalem is called the “center [tabbur] of the land” (Ezek 38:12). Yet the importance of those claims is not evident until the final verse of the book. In that context the prophet recognizes Jerusalem by announcing that its new name will be “The LORD is there.” Jerusalem stands at the center of the nations and functions as the navel of the earth because the presence of God is there.24
Psalm 122 captures this same sense by opening and closing with a reference to the house of the Lord. Centrality is indeed defined by sacrality in Psalm 122—the house of the Lord is Jerusalem, the Lord is there. The desire to visit Jerusalem is driven by the desire to enter sacred space and enjoy the presence of the Lord.
Jerusalem and the notion of time. As Peterson explains in Answering God, prayer and liturgy take place in “time and space.”25
As noted above, Psalm 122 takes place “in space”—in Jerusalem—while also invoking the sense of the significance of that place. This “work of the people,” however, does not occur in a vacuum, removed from the vicissitudes of daily life; it only makes sense as daily life becomes connected to a history. The psalmist is also keenly aware of his present moment; it is a moment filled with joy (vv. 1–2) tempered by the apparent threats that stand in the background of verses 6–9. In response to his present moment, the psalmist places his life within the larger context of the tribes of the Lord (v. 4). Just as they had made their journeys to Jerusalem, so too had this psalmist. The same well-worn roads had carried countless pilgrims before as they made their way to these festivals in Jerusalem. Throughout Israel’s history these festivals marked time, but even more they marked identity. As seasons changed and as festivals rolled around, the people made their way to Jerusalem because doing so was a “statute given to Israel” (v. 4b)—making pilgrimage to Jerusalem is what the people of God did. In these moments of time, Jerusalem was the place where the people of God were to be.
Jerusalem and the call for order. Psalm 122 also reminds the pilgrims that because God is present in Jerusalem, the city is a place from which the judgments of God pour forth (v. 5). In the postexilic period, when the thrones of judgment and of the house of David may have had a limited function at best, this verse reminds those traveling to Jerusalem that because God is in the city, there is hope that God’s orderly intentions for creation will be carried out. James Mays suggests that “pilgrimage is a journey in search of justice.”26
He imagines that people with fundamental disagreements and legal disputes in that day would have used these festivals as an opportunity to receive a hearing concerning such matters. While that may in fact have been the case, the poet in Psalm 122 has shifted the focus from his own legal disputes to the disorder that threatened Jerusalem (vv. 6–9). By asking those who had accompanied him on the pilgrimage to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the psalmist was acknowledging the lack of order. Equally, however, he was also acknowledging the source of order. The God who had issued forth judgments and decisions through the thrones of judgment and of David was still the one who could act decidedly to bring peace to the city of Jerusalem.
Contemporary Significance
IN BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION there is always the temptation to be reductionist—to reduce the meaning of the text, prima facie, to its most basic idea. Such an approach is not always incorrect, but at times it can deprive us of the rich tapestry of ideas present in the text. Based on verses 1–2, the interpreter may interpret Psalm 122 as a joyous call to go to church. While the psalm does speak of the joy the psalmist feels as he receives the invitation, the psalm actually invites us to consider much more. These yearly treks to Jerusalem were much more than weekend excursions or annual vacations to a celebrated site, much like family summer vacations or annual skiing trips. As valuable as those experiences are, they are altogether different. The practices reflected in the Songs of Ascent are practices that have been instituted within the life of the community—practices that invite those pilgrims to lift their eyes (cf. Pss 121:1; 123:1) and see beyond the mundane.27
Dorothy Bass and Craig Dystra remind us of the sacred role such practices play in our lives. These authors explain that such practices help us weave together a particular way of life that
becomes visible as ordinary people search together for specific ways of taking part in the practice of God, as they faithfully perceive it in the complicated places where they really live. It is like a tree whose branches reach out toward the future, even when the earth is shaking, because it is nourished by living water.28
The annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem no doubt took place amid the “complicated places where they lived,” yet they returned annually because they were nourished by the living water they experienced in Jerusalem. Although Psalm 122 begins with joyous celebrations, the promise of Jerusalem as a place of protection (v. 3) and the request for peace in the city intimate a reality far more complex. Yet they made their way to Jerusalem because, as Clinton McCann reminds, Jerusalem “is not just place but a symbol of God’s presence in space and time.”29
These pilgrims continued to come in order to celebrate a way of life that was much bigger than they themselves—a way of life that was rooted deeply in the presence of God.
Original Meaning
Descriptions of Jerusalem (122:3–5)
THE SECOND STROPHE OF PSALM 122 is connected to the first one by virtue of the operative word for the entire psalm, “Jerusalem.” Both in the NIV’s translation and in Hebrew, the word “Jerusalem” is the last word in verse 2 and the first word in verse 3—a perfect example of anadiplosis.12
The psalmist offers a description of Jerusalem more generally, followed by two recollections associated with the importance of the city in Israel’s history. Whether the words in verses 3–5 were uttered by the psalmist and his colleagues on the pilgrimage, or were uttered perhaps by a priest at the temple, does little to detract from the meaning being conveyed in this suggestion. Rhetorically, the second strophe is meant to explain why Jerusalem is the “real symbol of the presence of God in a hostile world.”13
Built like a city. Jerusalem is the “real symbol” of God’s presence because it provides protection to the people of God; it is a refuge. In verse 3 the psalmist refers to Jerusalem itself and confesses that it was built “like a city.” The Hebrew word for “like” is ki, and in this instance the particle appears to function less like a comparison or simile (i.e., “like” or “as”) and instead more as a confirmation of what has been said.14
Thus Jerusalem is not built like a city but as a true city. Verse 3b attempts to explain what is meant by “a true city.” The subsequent language in this line is difficult, however. Literally the line reads, “which was bound [habar] to her together.” The verb habar is a technical building term that reflects how a building has been constructed or put together (“bound together”). The term could also suggest “bound together” in reference to the design of the city itself; that is, the city is bound together in a way that provides ample protection for its inhabitants. This meaning appears to lie behind the NIV’s translation, “closely compacted together.” Unlike the rural areas in and around Jerusalem, the city serves as a place of refuge due to its fortifications. When a region came under threat, people in the surrounding countryside would find shelter within the city (Josh 10:20; Jer 4:5; 35:11).
Where the tribes go up. Jerusalem was more than simply a fortified city that offered protection for those threatened by external forces; Jerusalem functioned as a centralizing and unifying place for the entire nation of Israel (i.e., “tribes of the LORD”). Texts in the Pentateuch (“the statute given to Israel”) indicate that all Israel was to appear in Jerusalem three times each year (Exod 23:17; 34:23; Deut 16:16).15
The primary purpose of such festivals was to “confess” or “praise” (yadah) the name of Yahweh. This accent on the name of Yahweh in Psalm 122:4b reflects the Deuteronomic notion that, while Yahweh is the God of the heavens, he has made his name to dwell among his people. The close association between the name of Yahweh and Jerusalem is evident in the oft-repeated reference to Jerusalem as “the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name” (Deut 12:5, 11; 16:2, 6; 26:2). The tribes gathered in Jerusalem to confess the name of Yahweh and, in so doing, to enjoy his very presence.
There stand the thrones. In Psalm 122:5 the poet recalls another significant feature of Jerusalem: the thrones for judgment and for the house of David. For most readers, the mention of a throne for the house of David will be of little surprise; but they may not have the same sense of familiarity with the “thrones for judgment.” “A throne of judgment” occurs elsewhere in the Old Testament, most notably in 1 Kings 7:7. In that text Solomon orders that within the royal palace there should be built “the Hall of Justice where he was to judge.” The precise role that any king played in the “Hall of Justice” remains speculative at best, but reference to the hall in conjunction with the throne of David does emphasize the role of Jerusalem (and the thrones therein) in the judicial and political affairs of the nation. Even more, the verdicts rendered at these thrones secured the social stability of the nation. As evident in an earlier psalm (Ps 72), the role of the king was to bring about peace and prosperity for his people.16
The rule of the king was based on the premise that “God is the source of right rule, and those monarchs who allow themselves to be so empowered will rule so that the defenseless are protected, the oppressor crushed, and the whole land experiences shalom.”17
The psalmist remembers and celebrates these thrones even as he appears to long for renewed shalom for Jerusalem (see below, vv. 6–9).
The first strophe ends with the psalmist’s feet standing in the gates of Jerusalem. The second strophe, which opens with explicit mention of “Jerusalem,” recounts all the ways in which the city has remained the central place for God’s presence. The city remains a safe refuge for those fleeing oppressive forces (v. 4). Further, those who travel to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage follow in the pathway of the “tribes of the LORD” who have repeatedly journeyed to Jerusalem to enjoy the presence of Yahweh. Finally, the psalmist claims that from the thrones in Jerusalem go forth the decisions that can lead to peace, shalom, for the land.
Bridging Contexts
PSALM 122 IS ONE OF THE Songs of Ascent, and as a piece of pilgrimage literature it has a certain liturgical function—it invites the community to celebrate their arrival in Jerusalem, to recall the defining features of the city, and to pray for God’s unfolding future for the city. While perhaps Psalm 122 may not represent a “liturgy” in the narrowest of definitions, it does show certain liturgical characteristics. The Greek word for liturgy is leitourgia and derives from two root words—laos, “the people,” and ergon, “work.” Consequently, some have rendered the term “liturgy” as “the work of the people,” and indeed Psalm 122 reflects something of the “work of the people” as they made their way to and into Jerusalem.
Eugene Peterson, in his small volume Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer, considers the role of liturgy and offers a brief but suggestive claim concerning its purpose.21
Peterson writes that “liturgy can be elaborate or simple, baroque or bare, but it always provides these three things: space, time, order.”22
In many ways Psalm 122 invites those who pray this poem to make certain claims about God and his interaction with the world. These claims are structured around the themes of space, time, and order, and they resonate with the larger witness of Scripture.
Jerusalem as sacred space. Psalm 122 celebrates the city of Jerusalem. From beginning to end, the psalmist celebrates the features of Jerusalem and its history, and he prays for its future. Nearly every verse refers to Jerusalem or some aspect related to the city. The reader of Psalm 122 is inundated with repeated images of and references to Jerusalem—far more than any other of the Songs of Ascent. Given that Jerusalem is the goal of the pilgrimage, perhaps the celebratory fixation on the city is in order. Yet to assume the celebratory tone of the psalm can be attributed simply to reaching the journey’s destination is to miss the interpretation of Jerusalem as sacred space.
As suggested in the Original Meaning section above, a cluster of theological claims developed around the notion of Zion, but none perhaps more important than the belief in the centrality of Jerusalem. To refer to the “centrality of Jerusalem” is to comment on more than its geographical or topographical features—such a claim involves much more than mere cartography. Melody Knowles has explained that in the biblical tradition “centrality incorporates sacrality.”23
After Jerusalem’s defeat at the hands of the Babylonians, however, one would not have been surprised if Jerusalem’s importance had been diminished, not only politically but also ideologically and theologically. Despite that possibility, the exilic prophets moved in the opposite direction by imbuing an even greater sense of “sacrality” to the city and reinforcing its centrality. In the book of Ezekiel, for example, Yahweh announces that he has made Jerusalem the “center of the nations” (Ezek 5:5), and later in the book Jerusalem is called the “center [tabbur] of the land” (Ezek 38:12). Yet the importance of those claims is not evident until the final verse of the book. In that context the prophet recognizes Jerusalem by announcing that its new name will be “The LORD is there.” Jerusalem stands at the center of the nations and functions as the navel of the earth because the presence of God is there.24
Psalm 122 captures this same sense by opening and closing with a reference to the house of the Lord. Centrality is indeed defined by sacrality in Psalm 122—the house of the Lord is Jerusalem, the Lord is there. The desire to visit Jerusalem is driven by the desire to enter sacred space and enjoy the presence of the Lord.
Jerusalem and the notion of time. As Peterson explains in Answering God, prayer and liturgy take place in “time and space.”25
As noted above, Psalm 122 takes place “in space”—in Jerusalem—while also invoking the sense of the significance of that place. This “work of the people,” however, does not occur in a vacuum, removed from the vicissitudes of daily life; it only makes sense as daily life becomes connected to a history. The psalmist is also keenly aware of his present moment; it is a moment filled with joy (vv. 1–2) tempered by the apparent threats that stand in the background of verses 6–9. In response to his present moment, the psalmist places his life within the larger context of the tribes of the Lord (v. 4). Just as they had made their journeys to Jerusalem, so too had this psalmist. The same well-worn roads had carried countless pilgrims before as they made their way to these festivals in Jerusalem. Throughout Israel’s history these festivals marked time, but even more they marked identity. As seasons changed and as festivals rolled around, the people made their way to Jerusalem because doing so was a “statute given to Israel” (v. 4b)—making pilgrimage to Jerusalem is what the people of God did. In these moments of time, Jerusalem was the place where the people of God were to be.
Jerusalem and the call for order. Psalm 122 also reminds the pilgrims that because God is present in Jerusalem, the city is a place from which the judgments of God pour forth (v. 5). In the postexilic period, when the thrones of judgment and of the house of David may have had a limited function at best, this verse reminds those traveling to Jerusalem that because God is in the city, there is hope that God’s orderly intentions for creation will be carried out. James Mays suggests that “pilgrimage is a journey in search of justice.”26
He imagines that people with fundamental disagreements and legal disputes in that day would have used these festivals as an opportunity to receive a hearing concerning such matters. While that may in fact have been the case, the poet in Psalm 122 has shifted the focus from his own legal disputes to the disorder that threatened Jerusalem (vv. 6–9). By asking those who had accompanied him on the pilgrimage to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the psalmist was acknowledging the lack of order. Equally, however, he was also acknowledging the source of order. The God who had issued forth judgments and decisions through the thrones of judgment and of David was still the one who could act decidedly to bring peace to the city of Jerusalem.
Contemporary Significance
IN BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION there is always the temptation to be reductionist—to reduce the meaning of the text, prima facie, to its most basic idea. Such an approach is not always incorrect, but at times it can deprive us of the rich tapestry of ideas present in the text. Based on verses 1–2, the interpreter may interpret Psalm 122 as a joyous call to go to church. While the psalm does speak of the joy the psalmist feels as he receives the invitation, the psalm actually invites us to consider much more. These yearly treks to Jerusalem were much more than weekend excursions or annual vacations to a celebrated site, much like family summer vacations or annual skiing trips. As valuable as those experiences are, they are altogether different. The practices reflected in the Songs of Ascent are practices that have been instituted within the life of the community—practices that invite those pilgrims to lift their eyes (cf. Pss 121:1; 123:1) and see beyond the mundane.27
Dorothy Bass and Craig Dystra remind us of the sacred role such practices play in our lives. These authors explain that such practices help us weave together a particular way of life that
becomes visible as ordinary people search together for specific ways of taking part in the practice of God, as they faithfully perceive it in the complicated places where they really live. It is like a tree whose branches reach out toward the future, even when the earth is shaking, because it is nourished by living water.28
The annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem no doubt took place amid the “complicated places where they lived,” yet they returned annually because they were nourished by the living water they experienced in Jerusalem. Although Psalm 122 begins with joyous celebrations, the promise of Jerusalem as a place of protection (v. 3) and the request for peace in the city intimate a reality far more complex. Yet they made their way to Jerusalem because, as Clinton McCann reminds, Jerusalem “is not just place but a symbol of God’s presence in space and time.”29
These pilgrims continued to come in order to celebrate a way of life that was much bigger than they themselves—a way of life that was rooted deeply in the presence of God.
Original Meaning
Pray for Peace (122:6–9)
THE THEME OF PEACE OR SHALOM
dominates the final strophe of Psalm 122. In verses 6–8 the word “peace,” or shalom, appears once in each verse, thereby repeatedly invoking the theme of this section of the psalm. Even the appearance of the name “Jerusalem” itself in this section (v. 6a) reinforces the theme of peace, given that the Hebrew root for “peace,” shlm, comprises part of the city’s name, “Jerusalem.” Other terms in this strophe function alliteratively with the word shalom. For example, in the strophe’s opening line, the Hebrew word for “pray,” sha’al, appears in verse 6a. In addition, the verb shalah, “to be secure,” occurs in verse 6b, and the related nominal form, shalwah, “security,” appears in verse 7b. These words replicate the initial letters in shalom, thus leading Clinton McCann to suggest that this section may be “the most striking example of alliteration in the whole Psalter; the effect is to emphasize even further the concept of ‘peace.’ ”18
May there be peace. In verses 6–7 the psalmist offers an invitation for others to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. He continues by suggesting a prayer that should be prayed. In verse 6b the psalmist notes that those who love Jerusalem will be shalah. The verb shalah in the qal stem usually means “to be at rest” or “to be undisturbed.” A number of English translations render this verb “to prosper” (NRSV, KJV, NASB); unfortunately, this rendering may result in a skewed reading of the text. Read in this way, verse 6b seems to suggest that those who love Jerusalem should expect to prosper, as though there is a causal relationship between loving and prospering. The issue in the final strophe of Psalm 122, however, has nothing to do with doing well or “prospering.” Instead, the psalmist invites those in his presence to pray that one day the city will be at rest, secure from the political and social upheaval that currently plagued it. Verse 7 follows a similar logic by requesting peace (shalom) within the walls and security (shalwah) within the citadels. Similar to the verbal form above, the nominal form here is rendered by some translations as “prosperity,” but this rendering disrupts the poetic parallelism and likely invites a similar, unintended conclusion.
While God is not directly invoked in this proposed prayer, God is obviously the one to whom the prayer is directed and the only one capable of granting peace for the city.19
Although the reader could point to numerous occasions in the preexilic period when Jerusalem was under attack, the postexilic period when Jerusalem was under Persian rule is likely in view.20
In Nehemiah 1:3 the narrator records this period in Israel’s history: “They said to me, ‘Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace.’ ” The social and political conditions confronted by those in Yehud were untenable. Nehemiah 5 records the bleak circumstances experienced by the people living in Jerusalem and the larger region of Yehud during this time. Those living under such dire circumstances likely were not focused on “prosperity” as much as they were focused on living a peaceful, undisturbed existence.
I will seek your prosperity. In Psalm 122:8–9 the psalmist makes his own confession. The language is in the second person and is spoken directly to Jerusalem. The psalmist calls for peace (shalom) within the city and then concludes with a promise to seek Jerusalem’s “prosperity.” The NIV translates the word tov as “prosperity,” but in its most basic sense the word means “good.” In effect, the psalmist commits to seeking the good of the city and to doing so for the sake of “the house of the LORD our God.” Ultimately, the poet does not seek the good of Jerusalem simply because of a nostalgic love for the city or for the religious history that it holds; rather, his love for Jerusalem rests solely on his belief that it is the place where he encounters most fully the presence of God.
The fact that the psalm concludes with petitions in verses 6–7 and a commitment to work for the good of Jerusalem in verse 9 suggests that such hopes have yet to be fulfilled. The pilgrimage to Jerusalem is a reminder for the psalmist that this city, and perhaps the world, remains at unrest—but there is always hope—a hope that is grounded in the presence of the living God.
Bridging Contexts
PSALM 122 IS ONE OF THE Songs of Ascent, and as a piece of pilgrimage literature it has a certain liturgical function—it invites the community to celebrate their arrival in Jerusalem, to recall the defining features of the city, and to pray for God’s unfolding future for the city. While perhaps Psalm 122 may not represent a “liturgy” in the narrowest of definitions, it does show certain liturgical characteristics. The Greek word for liturgy is leitourgia and derives from two root words—laos, “the people,” and ergon, “work.” Consequently, some have rendered the term “liturgy” as “the work of the people,” and indeed Psalm 122 reflects something of the “work of the people” as they made their way to and into Jerusalem.
Eugene Peterson, in his small volume Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer, considers the role of liturgy and offers a brief but suggestive claim concerning its purpose.21
Peterson writes that “liturgy can be elaborate or simple, baroque or bare, but it always provides these three things: space, time, order.”22
In many ways Psalm 122 invites those who pray this poem to make certain claims about God and his interaction with the world. These claims are structured around the themes of space, time, and order, and they resonate with the larger witness of Scripture.
Jerusalem as sacred space. Psalm 122 celebrates the city of Jerusalem. From beginning to end, the psalmist celebrates the features of Jerusalem and its history, and he prays for its future. Nearly every verse refers to Jerusalem or some aspect related to the city. The reader of Psalm 122 is inundated with repeated images of and references to Jerusalem—far more than any other of the Songs of Ascent. Given that Jerusalem is the goal of the pilgrimage, perhaps the celebratory fixation on the city is in order. Yet to assume the celebratory tone of the psalm can be attributed simply to reaching the journey’s destination is to miss the interpretation of Jerusalem as sacred space.
As suggested in the Original Meaning section above, a cluster of theological claims developed around the notion of Zion, but none perhaps more important than the belief in the centrality of Jerusalem. To refer to the “centrality of Jerusalem” is to comment on more than its geographical or topographical features—such a claim involves much more than mere cartography. Melody Knowles has explained that in the biblical tradition “centrality incorporates sacrality.”23
After Jerusalem’s defeat at the hands of the Babylonians, however, one would not have been surprised if Jerusalem’s importance had been diminished, not only politically but also ideologically and theologically. Despite that possibility, the exilic prophets moved in the opposite direction by imbuing an even greater sense of “sacrality” to the city and reinforcing its centrality. In the book of Ezekiel, for example, Yahweh announces that he has made Jerusalem the “center of the nations” (Ezek 5:5), and later in the book Jerusalem is called the “center [tabbur] of the land” (Ezek 38:12). Yet the importance of those claims is not evident until the final verse of the book. In that context the prophet recognizes Jerusalem by announcing that its new name will be “The LORD is there.” Jerusalem stands at the center of the nations and functions as the navel of the earth because the presence of God is there.24
Psalm 122 captures this same sense by opening and closing with a reference to the house of the Lord. Centrality is indeed defined by sacrality in Psalm 122—the house of the Lord is Jerusalem, the Lord is there. The desire to visit Jerusalem is driven by the desire to enter sacred space and enjoy the presence of the Lord.
Jerusalem and the notion of time. As Peterson explains in Answering God, prayer and liturgy take place in “time and space.”25
As noted above, Psalm 122 takes place “in space”—in Jerusalem—while also invoking the sense of the significance of that place. This “work of the people,” however, does not occur in a vacuum, removed from the vicissitudes of daily life; it only makes sense as daily life becomes connected to a history. The psalmist is also keenly aware of his present moment; it is a moment filled with joy (vv. 1–2) tempered by the apparent threats that stand in the background of verses 6–9. In response to his present moment, the psalmist places his life within the larger context of the tribes of the Lord (v. 4). Just as they had made their journeys to Jerusalem, so too had this psalmist. The same well-worn roads had carried countless pilgrims before as they made their way to these festivals in Jerusalem. Throughout Israel’s history these festivals marked time, but even more they marked identity. As seasons changed and as festivals rolled around, the people made their way to Jerusalem because doing so was a “statute given to Israel” (v. 4b)—making pilgrimage to Jerusalem is what the people of God did. In these moments of time, Jerusalem was the place where the people of God were to be.
Jerusalem and the call for order. Psalm 122 also reminds the pilgrims that because God is present in Jerusalem, the city is a place from which the judgments of God pour forth (v. 5). In the postexilic period, when the thrones of judgment and of the house of David may have had a limited function at best, this verse reminds those traveling to Jerusalem that because God is in the city, there is hope that God’s orderly intentions for creation will be carried out. James Mays suggests that “pilgrimage is a journey in search of justice.”26
He imagines that people with fundamental disagreements and legal disputes in that day would have used these festivals as an opportunity to receive a hearing concerning such matters. While that may in fact have been the case, the poet in Psalm 122 has shifted the focus from his own legal disputes to the disorder that threatened Jerusalem (vv. 6–9). By asking those who had accompanied him on the pilgrimage to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the psalmist was acknowledging the lack of order. Equally, however, he was also acknowledging the source of order. The God who had issued forth judgments and decisions through the thrones of judgment and of David was still the one who could act decidedly to bring peace to the city of Jerusalem.
Contemporary Significance
IN BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION there is always the temptation to be reductionist—to reduce the meaning of the text, prima facie, to its most basic idea. Such an approach is not always incorrect, but at times it can deprive us of the rich tapestry of ideas present in the text. Based on verses 1–2, the interpreter may interpret Psalm 122 as a joyous call to go to church. While the psalm does speak of the joy the psalmist feels as he receives the invitation, the psalm actually invites us to consider much more. These yearly treks to Jerusalem were much more than weekend excursions or annual vacations to a celebrated site, much like family summer vacations or annual skiing trips. As valuable as those experiences are, they are altogether different. The practices reflected in the Songs of Ascent are practices that have been instituted within the life of the community—practices that invite those pilgrims to lift their eyes (cf. Pss 121:1; 123:1) and see beyond the mundane.27
Dorothy Bass and Craig Dystra remind us of the sacred role such practices play in our lives. These authors explain that such practices help us weave together a particular way of life that
becomes visible as ordinary people search together for specific ways of taking part in the practice of God, as they faithfully perceive it in the complicated places where they really live. It is like a tree whose branches reach out toward the future, even when the earth is shaking, because it is nourished by living water.28
The annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem no doubt took place amid the “complicated places where they lived,” yet they returned annually because they were nourished by the living water they experienced in Jerusalem. Although Psalm 122 begins with joyous celebrations, the promise of Jerusalem as a place of protection (v. 3) and the request for peace in the city intimate a reality far more complex. Yet they made their way to Jerusalem because, as Clinton McCann reminds, Jerusalem “is not just place but a symbol of God’s presence in space and time.”29
These pilgrims continued to come in order to celebrate a way of life that was much bigger than they themselves—a way of life that was rooted deeply in the presence of God.
in OT Prose,” VT 21 (1971): 453.