Songs of Ascent- Psalm 122

Cards on the table. The Psalms are not really my thing. Even in poetry, I prefer narrative to lyric. So while I’m looking at this group of Psalms, I won’t rely entirely on my own conclusions. I’ll separate out my own observations (in this first post) from what I find in commentaries and add in the later posts..

Psalm 122

“I was glad when they said to me; Let us go to the house of the Lord” (v1).

This is a psalm of praise about Jerusalem., the city. But Jerusalem is valuable only as the location of the house of the Lord. Even the act of travelling to Jerusalem is desirable only because the house of the Lord is the ultimate destination.

V2 “Our feet have been standing within your gates.”

The Hebrew language is much less interested than the European languages in showing exactly when events take place, so it can be hard to settle the question when reading a Hebrew sentence.

This verse is a very good example of the point. My quotation comes from the RSV, which seems to place the “standing” in the past, as a reminiscence after the event. I’m not sure what purpose the song would serve, given that meaning.

The AV says “shall stand”, which at least fits in with the “pilgrimage song” idea.

Other modern translations say “are standing”. That’s taking the verb as a “completed act”- “our feet have arrived to stand here”. This translation fits with the the theory (which I’m beginning to prefer) that that these are songs for the Temple, and the “ascents” refer to the Temple steps.

We are told that Jerusalem is a city “bound firmly together”, as a place to which “the tribes go up”. In other words, the value of the city is as a “safe place”, where the people may worship without physical fear. I think “bound firmly together” is in conscious contrast with the time when the walls were broken apart by the Babylonians. In that case the psalm (and by implication the whole series) belongs to the time after the Jews returned from the Exile.

We are reminded that the “going up” was decreed for Israel, for the purpose of “giving thanks to the name of the Lord”.

“There thrones of judgement were set, the thrones of the house of David” (v5).
Jerusalem had been significant, originally, as the capital of David’s kingdom. The king used to give judgements at the northern gate of the city, continuing the ancient habit (see the last chapter of Ruth) of conducting civic and other business at the town gate. There are references to this from the time of David, who nearly lost his throne because he did not spend enough time out there, to the last king of Judah, who was giving judgements when he was asked for permission to release Jeremiah from the cistern. But the kingdom had been swept away by the Babylonians, so this is now nostalgic reminiscence.

I’m struck by the plural form of “thrones”. I see no reason why there should have been more than one at a time. Did each king set up a new throne to suit his own taste, just as the monarch’s head on a coin changes when the monarch dies?


My own explanation of the plural is that the throne was not left at the gate overnight, but taken out freshly each day. Not a new throne, but a new appearance of the throne. But if the throne was being carried out, the king would surely not have been walking out to join it. He would have been carried, probably sitting on the throne itself. Perhaps the whole set-up would be carried on long poles, supported by the shoulders of servants, much like the Levites carrying the Ark. In fact it would be a procession, accompanied by a troop of guards, to the sound of trumpets and other musical instruments. And I have managed to recover this entire elaborate ceremony from the plural of “thrones”.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!” (v6)
Who is giving this instruction and who is receiving it?

One possibility is that a first voice sings this line, and another voice responds with the rest of the psalm. But my own preferred theory is that the same voice sings all the way through the psalm, and this line is addressed to the congregation; “I am/we are about to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, so please join in, at least in your hearts.”

“Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers” (v7).
I have already suggested that this is a concern for physical security of worship, against threats from outsiders.

“May they prosper who love you!” (v6)
This is part of the quest for security. If those who love Jerusalem prosper and remain strong, they are in a better position to help protect Jerusalem. If Jerusalem belongs to the Persian empire at this time, then this prayer is partly about the political power of friendly Persian authorities.

Peace is requested for the sake of “my brethren and companions”.
I suggest that the singer’s brethren are his fellow-Levites, and his companions are the rest of the congregation present.

And also “for the sake of the house of the Lord”. Perhaps this is not just literal, but also a reference to the entire worshipping community of Israel.

The above are my own independent thoughts on the psalm. Having got that far, I will now open up Weiser’s commentary bought a couple of years ago, discover (probably) a number of insights which haven’t occurred to me, and add them here.

His theory is that the psalm is “a simple pilgrim song which was probably sung by the pilgrims at the time of their departure from Jerusalem”. I suppose this is based on the “Our feet have been standing” translation.

A note says that he is using a text which has the walls built “high” in v3 instead of “bound firmly together”, so he does not accept that clue about the dating.

So his understanding of the first half is “The poet firmly impresses all these facts in his memory… in order to take these memories with him to his native country as the precious gift of the time spent at the festival.”

In the second half, he focusses on the theological significance of the word “peace” and its place in the very name of Jerusalem. Again, an important spiritual point which I had overlooked. The city of God and the house of God within her are the places where peace reigns and the springs of salvation- “This is the deepest meaning of the blissful experience which unites the poet with his brethren, pervades the whole psalm, and in a condensed form culminates in the prayer for salvation and in the desire that peace may reign from this time forth and for evermore.”

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Or Matthew Henry.

It is not enough to worship God in our own house. We should also go to the house of the Lord, not forsaking the assembling together.

Jerusalem is a beautiful city in its building as well as in its situation- built uniform, compact together, the houses strengthening and supporting one another. As such, “It is a type of the gospel-church, which is compact together in holy love and Christian communion, so that it is all as one city.

For v7, he has the AV translation “prosperity within thy palaces”. So he understands this as referring to the palaces of the great men who direct public affairs. This is about the public peace, the issue of law and order. “Our concern for the public welfare is right when it is the effect of a sincere love to God’s institutions and his faithful worshippers”.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Thank you very much. I really enjoyed reading this.

a reply to: DreadKnock
Thank you. I expect to work through the whole series before Christmas.