Psalms 122King James Version
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
A psalm of arrival. 'I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.' The feet are standing within the gates of Jerusalem: compact, complete, where tribes go up, where thrones of judgment stand. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. For the sake of the house of the LORD, I will seek your good. The pilgrim has arrived and immediately turns to prayer for the city.
Arrival at Jerusalem produces not satisfaction with the journey's end but immediate intercession for the city itself, because the house of God is not a destination to be consumed but a community to be prayed for.
verse: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee." Arrival becomes prayer. The pilgrim's first act in the city is intercession.
Superscription: 'A Song of degrees of David.' One of four ascent psalms attributed to David (122, 124, 131, 133). The specific description of Jerusalem as 'a city that is compact together' (v3) may refer to its dense construction or to the unity it creates among dispersed tribes. The psalm served as a pilgrimage arrival prayer.
David as the speaker; the ones who said 'let us go' as the community; the tribes of the LORD who ascend; the thrones of the house of David set there for judgment; the city of Jerusalem addressed.
Psalm 122 is the third ascent psalm and the arrival psalm of the collection. The 'peace of Jerusalem' prayer (v6) became a formula used across three thousand years of Jewish liturgy and Christian intercession. The connection between love for Jerusalem and prosperity (v6) grounds the prayer in covenant relationship rather than mere geography.
For when you arrive somewhere sacred and you want to know the right first response. The psalm says: pray for it.
1[A Song of degrees of David.] I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
2Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
3Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:
4Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.
5For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.
6Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
7Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
8For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.
9Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.