Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5, 6-7, 8-9

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” (Psalm 122:1)

Psalm 122 belongs to the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120 to 134), a small collection of pilgrim songs whose title probably refers to the going up to Jerusalem for the festivals. The poem opens in recollection, the invitation already received and the journey already made, so that verse 2 can place the singer inside the gates. Jerusalem is described as a city bound firmly together (v. 3), the place where the tribes gather and where the thrones of the house of David give judgment (vv. 4 and 5), which is to say that worship and justice share one address. The prayer that follows plays on the name of the city, since shalom in verses 6 through 8 chimes with the second half of Yerushalayim. Placed beside Isaiah 2, the psalm supplies the pilgrim voice that the prophet’s nations will one day take up.

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