Psalm 122 Meditation | Should I Pray for Jerusalem?

Psalm 122 Meditation | Should I Pray for Jerusalem?
How should biblical Christians think about Israel? Psalm 122 calls people to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” and to seek her good (6, 9). Is Scripture calling us to be politically pro-Israel, as many interpret it to-day? Or is it teaching something else?
The psalm is an ode to Jerusalem as the spiritual and political capital of God’s Old Testament people. God placed his name on the city and (2 Chron. 6:6) and symbolically sat enthroned above the ark (2 Sam. 6:2, 12). At least three times a year, Jewish men were to worship the Lord in the centrally-located city (Ex. 23:17; Deut. 16:16; cf. John 4:20). For these pilgrims David provides a stirring song to help worshipers express the joy of going to “give thanks to the name of the LORD” (Ps. 122:4) or receive a decision in a case too difficult for local judges (5; cf. Deut. 17:8-13). It was a great privilege for a pious Israelite to say, “Our feet have been standing within your gates O Jerusalem!” (2).
But to honor Psalm 122 we must know that Jerusalem has always been a symbol of the people among whom God dwells. The physical city played an important role in God’s redemptive work. But a thousand years after David wrote Psalm 122 Jerusalem acted for the nation in rejecting Jesus (John 1:11). So God would take from the Jews his vineyard and give it to others who would respect the Christ (Mark 12:1-9). In the Old Covenant Jerusalem was where God’s people went to meet with him. In the New Covenant Jerusalem is the place from which God’s people told the world how to meet with God by trusting in Jesus.
This psalm is not finally about Jerusalem. You should seek Jerusalem’s good and pray for her citizens, just like you do for all people (1 Tim. 2:1). But Psalm 122 is principally about your relationship to the church of Jesus Christ. “What Jerusalem was to the Israelite, the church is to the Christian.” To honor Psalm 122 you must go to church, pray for the church, seek the good of the church, and respect the judgments of the church. Psalm 122 is an ode to God’s precious bride. It describes how you should think about the church and it anticipates the New Jerusalem. And it promises security who love the church as the body of Christ.