I Was Glad When They Said To Me
Devotional
Companion to the Psalter
A Devotional Guide to the Psalms
Object:
I was glad when they said to me,
"Let us go to the house of the Lord!" ...
Our feet are standing within your gates,
O Jerusalem ...
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ...
For the sake of my relatives and friends ...
For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your good.
-- Psalm 122:1-2, 6a, 8a, 9
Theme: Greeting the holy city
Outline
Meditation upon returning home from Jerusalem
1 -- What joy it was to go to the house of the LORD.
2-5 -- What awe we felt as we came in sight of the city and stood within its gates, remembering its history and significance.
6 -- Prayer for the well-being of Jerusalem.
Notes
• Affirmation of Faith
• One of the Song of Ascents (Psalms 120-134).
• Though the title ascribes it to David (not in some ancient manuscripts) it is obviously of a post-exilic origin and use.
• Most Israelites lived in areas where visits to Jerusalem were probably infrequent, three times a year for festivals -- Passover, Weeks, Booths. (See Deuteronomy 16:16.) In addition to sacrificial worship, there would be the opportunity to sell one's produce, to buy needs, to listen in a court of law, and for the children something like going to the fair!
For Reflection
• "For the sake of the house of the LORD, I will seek your good." If we know "the house of the Lord" is not only a place, but a community of worshipers, the whole people of God, the church, the place of God's presence by his Holy Spirit in our day, then what should be our attitude toward it? What is it to seek good for the church? Do we share the psalmist's spirit?
• Read Luke 19:41-44. Could Jesus have had this psalm in mind when he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? Why was his "greeting" a sorrowful contrast to the psalmist's? What are "the things that make for peace"?
Prayer
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
-- attributed to Saint Francis
"Let us go to the house of the Lord!" ...
Our feet are standing within your gates,
O Jerusalem ...
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ...
For the sake of my relatives and friends ...
For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your good.
-- Psalm 122:1-2, 6a, 8a, 9
Theme: Greeting the holy city
Outline
Meditation upon returning home from Jerusalem
1 -- What joy it was to go to the house of the LORD.
2-5 -- What awe we felt as we came in sight of the city and stood within its gates, remembering its history and significance.
6 -- Prayer for the well-being of Jerusalem.
Notes
• Affirmation of Faith
• One of the Song of Ascents (Psalms 120-134).
• Though the title ascribes it to David (not in some ancient manuscripts) it is obviously of a post-exilic origin and use.
• Most Israelites lived in areas where visits to Jerusalem were probably infrequent, three times a year for festivals -- Passover, Weeks, Booths. (See Deuteronomy 16:16.) In addition to sacrificial worship, there would be the opportunity to sell one's produce, to buy needs, to listen in a court of law, and for the children something like going to the fair!
For Reflection
• "For the sake of the house of the LORD, I will seek your good." If we know "the house of the Lord" is not only a place, but a community of worshipers, the whole people of God, the church, the place of God's presence by his Holy Spirit in our day, then what should be our attitude toward it? What is it to seek good for the church? Do we share the psalmist's spirit?
• Read Luke 19:41-44. Could Jesus have had this psalm in mind when he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? Why was his "greeting" a sorrowful contrast to the psalmist's? What are "the things that make for peace"?
Prayer
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
-- attributed to Saint Francis
