Psalm 122
122:1. Good children are pleased to go home, and glad to hear their brothers and sisters call them thither. David’s heart was in the worship of God, and he was delighted when he found others inviting him to go where his desires had already gone: it helps the ardor of the most ardent case to hear others inviting them to a holy duty. The word was not “go,” it was let us go; hence the ear of the psalmist found a double joy in it. He was glad for the sake of others: glad that they wished to go themselves, glad that they had the courage and liberality to invite others. He knew that it would do them good; nothing better can happen to us than to love the place where God’s honor dwells. But David was glad for his own sake: he loved the invitation to the holy place, he delighted in being called to go to worship in company, and, moreover, he rejoiced that good people thought enough of him to extend their invitation to him. Some people would have been offended, and would have said, “Mind your own business; let my religion alone”; but not so King David, though he had more dignity than any of us, and less need to be reminded of his duty. He was glad to go into the house of the Lord, glad to go in holy company, glad to find good men and women willing to have him in their society. He may have been sad before, but this happy suggestion cheered him up. He pricked up his ears at the very mention of his Father’s house. Is it so with us? Are we glad when others invite us to public worship, or to church fellowship? Then we shall be glad when the spirits above call us to the house of the Lord not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We love our Lord, and therefore we love his house, and pangs of strong desire are upon us that we may soon reach the eternal abode of his glory. An aged saint, when dying, cheered herself with this evidence of grace, for she cried, “I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth,” and therefore she begged that she might join the holy congregation of those who forever behold the King in his beauty. Our gladness at the bare thought of being in God’s house is detective as to our character, and prophetic of our being one day happy in the Father’s house on high. In prospect of the Lord’s day, and all its hallowed associations, our soul rejoices. How well, also, may it refer to the church! We are happy when we see numerous bands ready to unite themselves with the people of God. The pastor is specially glad when many come forward and ask of him assistance in entering into fellowship with the church. No language is more cheering to him than the humble request, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
122:2. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem, or, better, “our feet are standing.” The words imply present and joyous standing within the walls of the city of peace; or perhaps the pilgrims felt so sure of getting there that they antedated the joy, and spoke as if they were already there, though they were as yet only on the road. If we are within the church we may well triumph in the fact. Outside the gates all is danger, and one day all will be destruction; but within the gates all is safety, seclusion, serenity, salvation, and glory. The gates are opened that we may pass in, and they are only shut that our enemies may not follow us. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion, and so do we when we are enclosed within them. What a choice favor, to be a citizen of the New Jerusalem! Why are we so greatly favored? Many feet are running the downward road, or kicking against the pricks, or held by snares, or sliding to an awful fall; but our feet, through grace divine, are standing—an honorable posture—within thy gates, O Jerusalem—an honorable position, and there shall they stand forever—an honorable future.
122:3. David saw in vision the city built; no more a waste, or a mere collection of tents, or a city upon paper, commenced but not completed. God’s mercy to the Israelite nation allowed peace and plenty, sufficient for the uprise and perfecting of its capital: that city flourished in happy times, even as the church is only built up when all the people of God are prospering. Thanks be to God, the Lord by his glorious appearing has built up Zion. Furthermore, it is not erected as a set of booths, or a conglomeration of hovels, but as a city, substantial, architectural, designed, arranged, and defended. The church is a permanent and important institution, founded on a Rock, built with art, and arranged with wisdom. In a church one of the most delightful conditions is the compactness of unity: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” A church should be one in creed and one in heart, one in testimony and one in service, one in aspiration and one in sympathy. They greatly injure our Jerusalem who would build dividing walls within her; she needs compacting, not dividing. There is no joy in going up to a church which is rent with internal dissension: the gladness of holy people is aroused by the adhesiveness of love, the unity of life; it would be their sadness if they saw the church to be a house divided against itself. Some bodies of Christians appear to be periodically blown to fragments, and no gracious person is glad to be in the way when the explosions take place: thither the tribes do not go up, for strife and contention are not attractive forces.
122:4. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD. When there is unity within, there will be gatherings from without: the tribes go up to a compact center. Note that Israel was one people, but yet it was in a sense divided by the mere surface distinction of tribes; and this may be a lesson to us that all Christendom is essentially one, though from various causes we are divided into tribes. Let us as much as possible sink the tribal individuality in the national unity, so that the church may be many waves, but one sea; many branches, but one tree; many members, but one body. The tribes were all the Lord’s. Oh that all the regiments of the Christian army may be all and equally the Lord’s own, alike chosen, redeemed, accepted, and upheld by Jehovah.
Unto the testimony of Israel. They went up to the holy city to hear and to bear testimony. Everything in the Temple was a testimony unto the Lord, and the annual journeys of the tribes to the hallowed shrine partook of the same testifying character, for these journeys were Israel’s open avowal that Jehovah was their God, and that he was the one only living and true God. When we assemble on the Sabbath a large part of our business is giving out and receiving testimony: we are God’s witnesses.
To give thanks unto the name of the LORD. Another part of our delightful duty is to praise the Lord. Sacred praise is a chief design of the assembling of ourselves together. All Israel had been fed by the fruit of the field, and they went up to give thanks unto the name of their great Husbandman: we, too, have countless mercies, and it becomes us unitedly in our solemn gatherings to magnify the name of our loving Lord. Testimony should be mingled with thanks, and thanks with testimony, for in combination they bless both God and man, and tend to spread themselves over the hearts of our companions, who, seeing our joyful gratitude, are the more inclined to hearken to our witness-bearing.
122:5. For there are set thrones of judgment. If discontented with the petty judgments of their village lords, the people could bring their hard matters to the royal seat, and the beloved King would be sure to decide aright; for the judgment-thrones were the thrones of the house of David. We who come to the church and its public worship are charmed to come to the throne of God, and to the throne of the reigning Saviour. To a true saint the throne is never more amiable than in its judicial capacity; the righteous love judgment, and are glad that right will be rewarded and iniquity punished. The throne of judgment is not removed, but firmly set, and there it will remain till the work of justice is accomplished, and truth and right are set on the throne with their King. Happy people to be under so glorious a rule.
122:6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Peace was her name; pray that her condition may verify her title. That sacred shrine stood in the center of an area of peace: well might Israel pray that such peace should be continued. In a church peace is to be desired, expected, promoted, and enjoyed. If we may not say, “Peace at any price,” yet we may certainly cry, “Peace at the highest price.” In a church one of the main ingredients is internal peace: strife, suspicion, party-spirit, division—these are deadly things. Those who break the peace of the church should be our daily prayer, and in so praying we shall bring down peace upon ourselves, for the psalmist goes on to say, They shall prosper that love thee, or perhaps we may read it as a prayer, “May they have peace that love thee.” Prosperity of soul is already enjoyed by those who take a deep interest in the church and the cause of God: they are people of peace, and find peace in their holy endeavors: God’s people pray for them, and God himself delights in them. Prosperity of worldly condition often comes to the lovers of the church if they are able to bear it: many a time the house of Obed-edom is blessed because of the ark of the Lord. Because the Egyptian midwives feared the Lord, therefore the Lord made them houses. No one will ever be a permanent loser by the house of the Lord: in peace of heart alone, if in nothing else, we find recompense enough for all that we can do in promoting the interests of Zion.
122:7. Peace be within thy walls. See how the poet personifies the church, and speaks to it: his heart is with Zion, and therefore his conversation runs in that direction. A second time is the sweet favor of peace earnestly sought after: “There is none like it, give it me.” Walls were needed to keep out the foe, but it was asked of the Lord that those walls might prove sufficient for her security. May the munitions of rock so securely defend the city of God that no intruder may ever enter within her inclosure. May her ramparts repose in safety.
And prosperity within thy palaces, or “Repose within thy palaces.” Peace is prosperity; there can be no prosperity which is not based on peace, nor can there long be peace if prosperity be gone, for decline of grace breeds decay of love. We wish for the church rest from internal dissension and external assault: war is not her element (Acts 9:31). Our Jerusalem is a city of palaces: kings dwell within her walls, and God himself is there. The smallest church is worthy of higher honor than the greatest confederacies of nobles. For the sake of all the saintly spirits which inhabit the city of God we may well entreat for her the boons of lasting peace and abounding prosperity.
122:8. It is to the advantage of all Israel that there should be peace in Jerusalem. It is for the good of every Christian, indeed of every person, that there should be peace and prosperity in the church. By a flourishing church our children, our neighbors, our fellow-countrymen are likely to be blest. Moreover, we cannot but pray for a cause with which our dearest relatives and choicest friends are associated.
122:9. He prays for Jerusalem because of Zion. How the church salts and savors all around it. The presence of Jehovah, our God, endears to us every place wherein he reveals his glory. Well may we seek her good within whose walls dwells God who alone is good. We are to live for God’s cause, and to be ready to die for it. First we love it (verse 6) and then we labor for it: we see its good, and then seek its good. If we can do nothing else we can intercede for it. Our covenant relation to Jehovah as our God binds us to pray for his people—they are the house of the LORD our God. If we honor our God we desire the prosperity of the church which he has chosen for his indwelling.
The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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