“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Many readers have likely heard this exhortation from Psalm 122:6 before, which is found in Friday’s reading in FRC’s Stand on the Word Bible Reading Plan. But it’s likely that far fewer readers have thought about the reasons behind this command or how it fits into the rest of the Bible.

Fortunately, David gives several reasons in the surrounding verses. The psalm is only nine verses long, and you can read it out loud in about 40 seconds. As I read it, David gives three reasons to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

The first reason is that Jerusalem was the site of “the house of the Lord,” the temple, as David mentions in the first and last verses (Psalm 122:1, 9). The temple was the center of Israelite worship, and it was particularly relevant to this psalm. The psalm is “a song of ascents,” which means it would be sung by Israelites as they trekked up to the temple in Jerusalem for the annual religious festivals. 

This structure was the site where God’s very own presence dwelt among his people, signifying his intimate covenant union with them. We read that, when the ark of the covenant was first brought into the temple, “a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10-11). Thus, it was devastating when Ezekiel saw a vision of the Lord’s glory departing from the temple (Ezekiel 10), signifying that he would no longer dwell with them, that the special favor of his presence had come to an end — that he would send them into exile.

The second reason is found in the middle of the psalm, where David says of Jerusalem, “there thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David” (Psalm 122:5). Jerusalem, also called “the city of David” (2 Samuel 5:9), was the capital of Israel through the reigns of David and Solomon, and it remained the capital of Judah, which was ruled by David’s descendants, until Judah was destroyed by the Babylonians.

David is arguably the most significant figure in the Old Testament because to him God had made the grandest promises of all. “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom,” God told him. “He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. … Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-16). God would cut off all his enemies before him, make him a great name, and appoint a place where his people Israel could “dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more” (2 Samuel 7:9-10). Sadly, none of David’s descendants who reigned in Jerusalem lived up to this grand promise, and the nation eventually went into exile.

The third reason David gives to pray for the peace of Jerusalem is that God’s people dwell there (Psalm 122:2, 4). Thus, he says, “For my brothers and companions’ sake I will say, ‘Peace be within you!’” (Psalm 122:8).

These people, their prosperity, and even their very existence, served to give glory to the name of the Lord their God. He it was who raised up a barren couple from Mesopotamia, turned Jacob into a nation in exile, and carried them out of Egypt and into Canaan by his strong arm. Moses’ prayer of intercession after Israel sinned with the golden calf stressed how God’s own glory is tied up in the survival of his people (Exodus 32:12-13). More immediately, David writes that these faithful Israelites have come to Jerusalem “to give thanks to the name of the Lord” (Psalm 122:4).

These three reasons provide insight into how Christians, living 21 centuries after Jesus Christ walked the earth, should apply the command to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Jesus predicted a time “when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father … but the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:21, 23). Thus, in the physical city of Jerusalem today, there is no temple and no Davidic throne, while the people of God have been scattered abroad.

Rather, the temple of God is identified with those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, both corporately (Ephesians 2:21) and individually (1 Corinthians 6:19). “The root and the descendant of David” is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (Revelations 22:16), who reigns as “head of the church” (Ephesians 5:23). And, while Israel was meant to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6), now Christians are called “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession,” — likewise for God’s glory, “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

So, the reasons Psalm 122 provides to instruct are in praying for the peace of Jerusalem point not so much to a physical location as they do to the people of God, engaged in the worship of God, ruled over by God’s anointed king — today found most directly in the church.

This doesn’t necessarily mean we shouldn’t pray for the nation of Israel and its temporal capital. There are good and biblical reasons to do so. But, while we’re praying for the nation of Israel, let’s also pray for the peace of the church of Jesus Christ, particularly its unity (Psalm 122:3) and security (Psalm 122:7). And let’s keep searching the Scripture until our Lord and Savior returns.