Some thoughts on Psalm 122: 6, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”.
by Rev. K. D. MacLeod, South Harris.
Psalm 122 is one of the Songs of Degrees, which were sung by the Israelites as they made their way up to Jerusalem for the stated feasts of the Lord, the Passover, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. It is not difficult to imagine the spiritually minded Israelite rejoicing at the thought of seeing Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen as the place where His house was to be built, and as such the centre of Old Testament worship. It was there that the sacrifices were offered, which taught that “without shedding of blood (there) is no remission of sin”, but which taught also that there is forgiveness through guilt being transferred to a substitute. And so the believing Israelite could in Jerusalem enter all the more feelingly into the great provision that his God had made for the salvation of sinners through the great Substitute yet to come.
As the Israelites were taught by this Psalm to remember their duty of giving thanks to God at their feasts in Jerusalem, so their minds were directed also to their duty of praying for the peace of the city. And as they thought of Jerusalem, their capital city, they would surely think of, and pray for, their whole country. But, as pilgrims ascending to one of their Lord’s feasts, they would think more particularly of the Lord’s cause on earth as centered in Jerusalem, and their minds would go out to their Father in heaven seeking for its peace in their own time and in their own
land, to which land the Church of God was then almost entirely confined. We cannot believe, however, that believing Israelites could confine their prayers to their own generation. Nor can we believe that those well instructed in the revelation that God had given to His people at that time could confine their hopes and desires to their own land. Well might they express their hopes and desires in words suggested by those of Psalm 72: 8, which speak so wonderfully of Messiah’s kingdom, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”
Without doubt to pray for the peace of Jerusalem is to express one’s desires for harmony there, but it goes much further. Shalom, the word translated peace, includes also prosperity and well-being. To this day the Jews greet each other with “Shalom“. So we can see that in this Psalm the Israelites were being taught to pray for the well-being of Jerusalem, and with it the well-being of God’s cause in every age and generation. So we also in our generation are to pray, not only for the harmony, but, more generally, for the well-being and the prosperity of God’s cause, both today and throughout all future ages till the end of time.
It goes without saying that peace within God’s Church on earth is eminently desirable. Paul’s counsel applies both inside and outside the Church, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Rom. 12: 18). But it is only in the Jerusalem above, where “there shall be no more curse” (Rev. 22: 3), that there can be perfect peace; and it is quite clear that Paul recognises this. To speak the truth is often to run the risk of stirring up opposition and controversy, and while we must, according to the Master’s counsel, be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matt. 10: 16), we must also be faithful to God’s testimony. Israel were condemned at one stage in their history for desiring preaching that would not disturb their consciences. “This is a rebellious people,” was the Lord’s complaint, “lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord; which say unto the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Is. 30: 9,10). And the prophets who would listen to such a request, and as a result kept back any part of God’s revelation, even for the sake of peace in Israel, would quite clearly have been at fault.
We need not therefore be surprised to find a faithful apostle like Paul stand against Peter, his fellow-labourer, when in a moment of weakness he went wrong. Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles because he was afraid of the Judaisers. We can be sure that Paul, who could counsel others to live at peace as far as possible with everyone, had as much dislike as anyone could possibly have to the coldness that might have come between him
and his brother-apostle. He had a full-hearted love for peace between the brethren; of course he had. But he had a greater love for the prosperity of Peter’s soul and for the well-being of God’s cause on earth, and he could see that it was through Peter coming once more to act rightly that there could be genuine and lasting harmony in the Church.
None of these comments is intended to encourage or excuse needless controversy. It is only intended to be a reminder that there are times in the history of the Lord’s cause in the world, when His people have a duty to take a long-term view, when they have to engage in present controversy or conflict, with a view to the well-being of the Church in the longer term. There is a time when harmony for the present can only be at the expense of truth.
Where, humanly speaking, would the cause of God in Europe be today, were it not for Luther’s willingness to buckle on his armour to fight his Lord’s battles? Where would that cause be in Scotland today had the leaders of the Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland in the early 1840s not been willing to engage in conflict with those who were prepared to have the Church subject to the State? Certainly the controversy resulted in a split in the Church, the Disruption of 1843, but their stand was a testimony to the sole headship of Christ in His own Church, without which the Church in Scotland could not have been expected to prosper.
In the declension that followed in the original Free Church should James Begg and John Kennedy, to name but two of the worthies of the time, have chosen a peace-at-any-price policy? Their’s was a testimony for truth, however unpopular it may have been in many quarters and however disruptive in itself of the peace of the Church. But should we not look elsewhere for the real cause of the absence of genuine harmony at that time? Did it not lie with those who introduced unscriptural practices and false views of Scripture into the Church? So also it is not those who were instrumental in founding the Free Presbyterian Church who are to be accused of disrupting the peace of the Church, but those who passed the Declaratory Act in the Free Church and thereby demonstrated their unwillingness to submit to the plain Word of God. In each division of the Church of God including the most recent, what has to be asked is, Who is departing from the testimony of God’s Word? We certainly cannot believe that the Free Presbyterian Church has yet been allowed to depart from its moorings.
It is a solemn thought that the Saviour Himself said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10: 34). So often the result of faithfulness even to the Prince of Peace is disharmony with our fellow-creatures. Where then shall such a
thought send us? Where better than to the throne of grace? And let us go with the realisation that when the Church will come to the zenith of her prosperity, then it is that there will be greater peace than at any time in her history. We are told that “they shall see eye to eye when God shall bring again Zion.” (Is. 52: 8).
It is when God revives His Church that we can expect to see widespread harmony between brethren and the breaking down of those barriers which were the result of error both in doctrine and practice. Yet times of revival have often been times when the Devil has made special efforts to disrupt the harmony of the Church. With what longing then should the Church look forward to the time when Satan shall be bound up for a thousand years. Then, not only will sinners in vastly greater numbers than ever before be brought out of Satan’s dark kingdom into the glorious liberty of the children of God, but Satan’s freedom to sow discord in the Kingdom of God on earth will be drastically reduced. Likewise, because of the greatly increased understanding of the Scriptures that will be more universally given, the differences between professing Christians over matters of doctrine and practice, to go no further, will substantially melt away; “they shall see eye to eye.”
We are to come to God in prayer pleading the promises that He has given us, as when He spoke through Joel, “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” (2: 28). Certainly Peter recognised on the Day of Pentecost the fulfilment of this prophecy. But at Pentecost there could have been only a beginning of that fulfilment. And though the gospel has now reached almost every part of the inhabited world in the mercy of God it still cannot be said that the world has seen the fulness of blessing that the Scriptures encourage us to believe is yet to be given. In one of his visions Daniel saw a stone which was to smite the image which represented various world powers; it was then to become a great mountain and to fill the whole earth. The stone, we are told, represents the Kingdom of God. But however the subjects of this Kingdom are spread out over the greatest part of the earth, such expressions surely hold out to us something more wonderful still, the major part of mankind coming under the sway of the gospel. These prophecies and promises are sure, and they are left on record in the Scriptures both to encourage us and to stimulate us in prayer.
Time and again there are recorded in the Bible the petitions of the saints of old as they poured out their hearts in desire to God for the spiritual prosperity of His cause on earth. It was natural to their renewed souls to do so, and they doubtless remembered the call, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”. We can feel the intense earnestness of Jeremiah as he cried,
“O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee. O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy name; leave us not” (14: 7-9). Such prayers are left on record for us to echo, and so that our own petitions might be moulded by them, though first sent up to heaven so long ago. And what gracious heart can fail to echo the plea of Habakkuk, “O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” (3: 2). We can take encouragement too from the fact that there are so many prayers sent up to heaven in generations past which have not yet had their full answer. Surely even those inspired prayers which we have just quoted are to have a fuller answer than yet they have had.
Surely also it is to encourage His children to pray for the peace of Jerusalem that it is added, “They shall prosper that love Thee”. If spiritual prosperity is the highest form of prosperity — and it is — then that is assured to all who love God; absolute perfection is promised to them, all of them, when they are brought to glory. Yet they will also have as much of this world’s goods as their Heavenly Father sees will be good for them — and that is sufficient. But it is those who are most advanced in spiritual things who will be most exercised in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem, and they will have their reward — not least in the increased prosperity of their own souls.
If the main thing we are to look for is the spiritual prosperity of God’s Church on earth that, of course, includes its harmony. Peace, after all, is one of the fruits of the Spirit. And, in praying for the prosperity of Zion, perhaps we are to look for growth in grace, the inward and outward manifestation of holiness, in the lives of those who are already believers, even before the numerical increase of the Church. We live in a time when there is a tendency to think of numbers as all-important, a tendency illustrated by the adoption of unscriptural means of evangelism, as, for example, equating true conversion with a “decision for Christ” by going forward to the front of an evangelistic meeting. But it is God’s usual way of working to raise the standard of godliness in His Church at more or less the same time as He enlarges it by bringing in multitudes of the unconverted. But both aspects are certainly included when a believer prays sincerely for the peace of Jerusalem.
How much should we pray? The answer can only be, “Keep not silence and give Him no rest till He establish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Is. 62: 6,7).