Psalm 122

     On to Sophomore year for some pretty boring stuff. This one is on an interpretation of Psalm 122, however it is really boring, wordy, and not written well. Mostly this was trying to teach us how to turn 9 verses into a couple thousand words, haha. Take what you want from it, hopefully someone learns something or is inspired somehow by this drudgery. (Also I suppose I need to include my bibliography even on a Blog, I probably did it wrong back then, but they deserve whatever credit there is)

12/16/2004

                                                Psalm 122: Old and New Zion

     When readers of today read the Old Testament, they may sometimes not understand the concepts, culture, and ideas that it has for them. This is due to completely different understandings of many things. In the psalms this occurs very regularly, especially in Psalm 122. To understand many of the things in the Old Testament and particularly in the book of psalms, a deep study into each part is needed. Only once you have done this can the true meaning and relevance to your life come forth. Psalm 122 can be understood deeper through using two main analyses; these are literary and exegetical (Clifford 224 – 226). Once this has been done and the psalm is understood in its original context, we can begin to determine its meaning in our own life through theological comparison.

     The first part of understanding a psalm is to understand its literary organization. This includes what type of psalm it can be labeled as, the structure of the psalm, and what the main purposes of the different sections in it are. Psalm 122 is a fairly simple psalm to decide literary form for. Many people group this psalm into a section that goes from psalm 120 to psalm 134. These psalms are generally called the Songs of Ascent (Mays 392). This particular song of ascent is a Song of Zion /Song of Pilgrimage (Clifford 224, Kraus 432). These types of psalms are in reference to the writer making a journey to Jerusalem, the pilgrim’s sacred city, and the temple. This is shown in the first two verses of the Psalm: “I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD." Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem (NIV).” These two verses set the stage for the Psalm and are grouped together in the first section of the psalm. This section can be entitled “The Departure and Destination of the Pilgrimage to Jerusalem.” These two verses have been titled “The Joy of Arrival” as well (Kidner 433). Through the writers use of the word “rejoice” he clearly is joyous about this journey. The focus throughout this psalm though is more on Jerusalem and The house of the Lord than the pilgrim’s joy, so it is more appropriate to set this sections title as the prior one mentioned. In verse one the writer tells us that he was told that they will be departing for the Temple in Jerusalem, and verse two tells us that he has arrived at his destination. This is clearly the main focus.

     The next section that needs literary analysis is from verse three to verse five: “Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel. There the thrones for judgment stand the thrones of the house of David (NIV).” In the previous section we see that the writer has arrived in this holy city, and now is praising what he is seeing and what he knows about it. An appropriate title for this group of verses is “The Praise of Jerusalem” (Kraus 432, Mays 392). It has also been labeled with the title of “Bonds of Unity,” but it seems that though this may be apart of the praise of Jerusalem, it is not the entirety of what this section if focused on (Kidner 433). Therefore, we will use the first title mentioned.

     So far the flow has gone from the pilgrim departing and arriving in Jerusalem to the pilgrim praising Jerusalem. The next and final section of the psalm goes from verse six to verse 9, the end of the psalm: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels." For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, "Peace be within you." For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity” (NIV). The main focus and drive of this group gives us the title “Prayer and Blessing for Jerusalem” (Clifford 225, Kidner 434, Kraus 432, Mays 393). Each of these verses shows the pilgrim’s prayers for different blessing on Jerusalem and his people. Most commentators agree with the focus of this group of verses. The language clearly leads towards this conclusion.

     With the literary analysis of the psalm organized into three specific sections, the focus of the psalm has been identified. The title of “Song of Zion” seems to be appropriate in light of this initial analysis. To understand fully the text of this psalm though it is essential to understand the setting and the context of the times when this pilgrim wrote this psalm. This is done through the next step of exegetical analysis (Clifford 224).

     In “The Departure and Destination of the Pilgrimage to Jerusalem” grouping we have discovered that there is a pilgrim that has made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and that he is very joyous about this. In this part of analysis it is important to find out why this is the case. The house of the LORD is very important to study in this psalm and so is the city of Jerusalem itself since these are the reasons for his joy. Since this is one of the main topics of the psalm it will also apply to the other two sections.

     In this pilgrim’s beliefs, Zion, or Jerusalem to him, was a very holy place. This can be understood through reading many passages in the Old Testament. Psalm 48 explains that Zion is YHWH’s “holy mountain” (Anchor VI 1099). There are many things about this city that YHWH’s followers praise. This is the reason for the joy shown by it being written “I rejoiced with those who said to me.” To be in the holy city of YHWH was very important to the pilgrim’s people. This city also contains the house of YHWH. This house is known as the temple of YHWH. In the times of David, the former king of Israel, Jerusalem was made the central sanctuary (Kraus 433). If this information wasn’t enough for this pilgrim to go to Jerusalem, then Deuteronomy 16:16 surely gives him reason to make a pilgrimage to this holy city. This verse speaks of three yearly pilgrimages to festivals that most likely were held in Jerusalem. The beliefs of the pilgrim are also the reason for the “Praise of Jerusalem” section in which many important aspects of the city are made known to the reader.

     In saying that “Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together” the writer is referring to the buildings and the protective walls. In Psalm 46 it is written that the holy habitation of the Most High will not be moved. The pilgrim knew this idea and gave praise to the fact that Jerusalem was under YHWH’s protection (Mays 122). Another praise that this pilgrim offers up is that Jerusalem is the place where all of the tribes of Israel go up to in order to praise YHWH. This again is due to David’s statute that Jerusalem would be the central sanctuary, which is mentioned by the psalmist; “according to the statute given to Israel.” The pilgrim continues by praising the past thrones of judgment that have been set up in this city. These thrones of judgment refer to Deuteronomy 16: 18 - 20 in the Old Testament and also to the God-given authority given to the Kings of Israel to have the duty of legal decisions (Clifford 225, Kraus 434). 1 Kings 7:7 was most likely another verse in the Old Testament that was referenced to here. This verse speaks of the Hall of the Throne and the Hall of Justice in the Temple of Jerusalem. These verses show that YHWH’s justice had been set up in the city. The pilgrim wanted to praise and thank God for doing this.

     Because of the importance of this city, the pilgrim begins to petition for the other people making pilgrimages to pray for many things. These prayers are general prayers for peace and security or Jerusalem, those that love Jerusalem, friends and family, and for the temple of YHWH. Each of these things is very important aspects of their lives. These prayers seem to be the purpose of his pilgrimage, since they take up the majority of the psalm. The temple in Jerusalem was a place where he could lift up his prayers and know that YHWH would hear him.

     In conclusion of the exegetical portion of this analysis we can see that there are many different aspects to the context of this psalm. Many traditions of the pilgrim are reasons for this trip to Jerusalem; this includes the importance of YHWH’s holy city, the holy temple, past statutes by kings, religious beliefs in the Old Testament, and a chance to pray for peace and security in the place of the Most High. In order to now bring this psalm into relevance to our own lives today we must compare the way our theology works compared to the theology of this pilgrim.

     Since the main emphasis of Psalm 122 is on the pilgrims view and treatment of Zion, we must try to see what we see as Zion. Today as Christians we are drawn to the idea that the church or body of Christ is the new Zion (Kidner 434). Using analogies in the New Testament we can see that this is the case. 1 Corinthians 3:9 says that we are God’s building. In the times of the pilgrim the building of God would have had to have been his temple. The church is also said to be led by Christ who is our Shepard wherever we go (Lumen Gentium). Christ is also inside of all of us in our theology, Christ being the presence of God. This would mean that we are all apart of Zion. In the pilgrim’s view the ultimate presence of God would have also been in the Temple. Because of Jesus, we now have a new Zion which is wherever His presence is. In this new Zion, the church or the body of Christ as shown in 1 Corinthians 12:27 – 28, there is no territorial boundary. Our Prayers, unlike the pilgrim would not only be for those who are apart of the body, as shown in Hebrews 13:1-3 (Kidner 435). The meaning of Zion has definitely changed since the time of this psalm, at least for those who believe in Christ. The believers in Christ are now the holy dwelling place of God, we are his temple. We also look forward to the coming of a New Jerusalem spoken of in Revelation 21, where all things will be made new in heaven and on earth, and everything will be the Temple of God once again.

In understanding the differences between the pilgrims’s Zion, and our new understanding of Zion, we can then determine ways in which we should treat the Zion that we understand. Since the pilgrim came to Zion with joy, reverence, worship, and prayer, we too should treat the presence of God in our Zion with the same Joy , reverence, worship and prayer. The way in which the writer was dedicated to his beliefs should also be the way in which we treat our own lives and beliefs.

     Though psalm 122 has only nine verses it can tell us a great deal about how Zion was treated in its time and also how we should treat our new understanding of Zion. Without the literary and exegetical processes though the deeper meaning of what the psalmist was saying was very hard to understand and could have been interpreted as just a historical account of a pilgrims trip. Through further analysis though, this can take on new meaning in the lives of the followers of Christ and the members of His Church.

Bibliography

Anchor Bible Dictionary. David Freedman ed. Volume VI. Doubleday, 1992.

Clifford, Richard J. Psalms 73 -150. Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries. Nashville: Abingdon, 2003.

Kidner, Derek. Psalms 73-150 : A Commentary on Books III-V of the Psalms. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. London: Inter-Varsity Press, [1975].

Kraus, Hans-Joachim. Psalms 60-150. Trans. By Hilton C. Oswald. Minneapolis : Fortress Press, 1993.

Lumen Gentium, “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church”. Chapter 1: The Mystery of the Church. November 21, 1964. (Text given to me by Dr. Cullum, not sure how to cite this)

Mays, James Luther. Psalms. Interpretation. Louisville: John Knox, 1994.