Psalm 122

Psalms 122:1-2

The Hebrew title, which this page's text does not show, names the psalm A Song of degrees of David, one of only four of the fifteen ascent psalms carrying his name. Most of the bench sets the whole ascent collection at the pilgrim's climb up to Jerusalem for the three yearly feasts, the gladness of the opening line the joy of a pilgrim's departure rather than a memory of one. Our feet shall stand within thy gates answers the wish of verse 1 with arrival already accomplished by verse 2.

Psalms 122:3

Compact together reads a city built up close, its houses joined wall to wall rather than scattered, and the older writers hear in the description a figure for the nation's own unity in its capital. Henry takes the compactness as a picture of the church, many members built into one body, offered as a figure and not the verse's plain sense. Gill notes the same word describes a people gathered as one, which the pilgrim crowds filling the city at feast time made visible.

Psalms 122:4-5

The tribes go up to Jerusalem under a standing ordinance, the testimony of Israel, the law requiring every male to appear before the Lord three times a year at the feasts of unleavened bread, weeks and tabernacles. The same city that holds the testimony also holds thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David, uniting worship and civil justice in one seat, a throne the psalm assumes still stands. The Davidic throne named here belongs to the royal line the Psalter follows through its glory in Psalm 72 and its answer in Psalm 110.

Psalms 122:6-7

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: Peace and Jerusalem share a root in the Hebrew, shalom inside Yerushalayim, a wordplay the commentators note the English cannot carry. They shall prosper that love thee ties the city's peace to the one praying for it, a stake in the outcome rather than a detached wish. Peace within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces repeats the prayer for both the ordinary houses and the seats of power.

Psalms 122:8-9

The psalm closes with two reasons for the same prayer, one human and one that outranks it: for my brethren and companions' sakes I will now say, Peace be within thee, and then because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good. Spurgeon reads the order as deliberate, love of neighbor named first and love of God's house named last because it carries the greater claim. The psalm ends where it began, at the house of the Lord, the destination of verse 1 now the reason for the closing prayer.