Year 8, Day 270: Psalms 122-123

Theological Commentary: Click Here

At first these psalms seem to be at odds with one another.  Psalm 122 seems to be a psalm of joy and excitement about coming to God.  Psalm 123 seems to be a psalm of desperation as the psalmist pleads with God to do something about their circumstance.  On the surface, these psalms are opposite in tone.

However, look more closely at the point of these psalms.  Psalm 122 ends with a plea to pray.  We are to pray for peace.  We are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  We are to pray for peace among our spiritual brothers and sisters.  We are to pray for peace within God’s Holy city.  We are to pray for the house of the Lord and its peace.

An interesting question is raised when we look at these words.  Why would psalmist encourage us to pray for peace?  The psalmist encourages us to pray for peace because he knows what the alternative is.  If we don’t have peace, we have strife.  If we don’t have peace, we are in turmoil.  If we don’t have peace we have neighbors fighting with neighbors, brothers fighting with sisters, and nations fighting within themselves.  We pray for peace, because the alternative is not a place in which we want to dwell.

That brings us to Psalm 123.  There is a line in psalm 123 that haunts me every time I read it.  “Have mercy upon us, Lord, because we have had more than enough of contempt.”  Psalm 123 is the embodiment of that which Psalm 122 is asking us to pray against!  Psalm 122 asks us to pray for peace because the psalmist knows that the people who wrote psalm 123 are not enjoying life at all!

It is difficult to live in a life of contempt.  It is difficult to always feel like you need to be looking over your shoulder.  It is difficult to live feeling like you are under scrutiny or attack.  It is difficult to not know peace.

We should take the advice of Psalm 122 serious.  Pray for peace.  Pray for people to get along.  Pray for people to not want to harm one another.  Pray hard, people of God, because it is far to easy to get more than our fair share of contempt.

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