By Danny Aramouni, a sophomore molecular biology/biochemistry and Bible and religion major from Manhattan, Kansas
Scripture: Psalm 122 (NRSV)
Assalaam alaikum. Peace be with you. This I say for the sake of my relatives and friends, and for the sake of the house of the LORD our God, which will be called a house of prayer for all peoples, all nations (Psalm 122:8-9, Isaiah 56:7, Mark 11:17).
The Psalmist in today’s reading is awed by the beauty, common worship, and just governance of Jerusalem, and, moved by the holiness of that place, prays for peace and welfare in the city. “Let us go to the house of the LORD!” writes the Psalmist. Let us go to the place where God dwells, the reason for the holiness of the city! And please, please, may it be a place of peace.
How this prayer rings true today. Jerusalem is a divided city, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine is a far cry from the just governance of the house of David for which the Psalmist praises the city. The God to which the Psalmist prays is a God who lifted an oppressed people out of slavery, a God, as the prophet Isaiah repeatedly reminds us, of “the orphan, the widow, and the stranger.” In short, God is a God of the vulnerable, and the peace for which the Psalmist begs in the last four verses today will only exist in Jerusalem when we recognize the injustice of the occupation and cry out for the justice that is in God’s heart.
The peace that becomes tangible when we recognize all people as children of God was especially evident to me on Study-Service Term (Goshen’s pioneering study abroad program) in Senegal last summer, where the greeting extended to all people, regardless of religion, expresses the same profound hope as the Psalmist.
Assalaam alaikum. Peace be with you.
Wa alaikum assalaam. And unto you, peace.
Scripture: Psalm 122 (NRSV)
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
2Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.
3Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together.
4To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.
6Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.
7Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.”
8For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.