Psalm 122: Now and Not Yet
WORSHIP
LAUDS
Written by Kiry Murray
Read Psalm 122.
The author of Psalm 122, seems like Jerusalem’s biggest fan. He expresses immense joy at plans to walk through those city gates and into the crowded, bustling streets of Jerusalem. He affectionately describes the coming and going of locals and foreigners alike. With pride, he recalls the lawmakers of the land.
Many of these same thoughts cross my mind anytime I look out the window of my car or the descending plane when I return to Washington, D.C.; this city I love and call home. The second I see the monuments come into view, holding all their grief and glory, I know that I have come home. Home doesn’t always describe the place I feel most comfortable. Sometimes it describes a place I am committed to.
The Psalmist prays for the peace of his city and everyone in it. He hopes for stability and flourishing. In the name of God, he seeks the prosperity of his community so that God may be honored. His attitude isn’t one of seeking profit or power for the sake of national pride. From a posture of generosity, he prays for mutual flourishing.
D.C. is a unique city, similar to Jerusalem. It is a place where power is concentrated and where people from all over bring their causes and concerns. There is a type of salvation pursued here. Those of us living here are privileged to welcome locals and foreigners into the hope God offers in a community of mutual flourishing and love. We, as followers of Jesus, are invited to be a city on a hill - in this city that we now call home, but also in any city that we might find ourselves in the future, where God’s glory and goodness cannot be hidden.
The psalmist, David, was a king, but the flourishing of a community doesn’t depend solely on its leader. Mutual flourishing requires joint effort and celebration.
Reflection
Where is flourishing present or absent in your life and in your community? Where it is absent, how could the story transform from one of scarcity to one of abundance?
What would it look like for you to seek the flourishing of your home? Your city? Your neighborhood? Your church? Your small group? Your family, both biological and chosen?
Prayer
Pray for the flourishing of the place you are committed to. Ask God for a vision of what God wants flourishing to look like. Observe the community you are committed to, and ask God to show you where your place is in this journey to mutual flourishing.
VESPERS
In the Garden
By Sarah Klassen
“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image…” (Genesis 1:26)
What were you thinking, God? In spring
The boulevards strut their tenderest green
Spun in your brain. Tantalizing birdsong,
Fragrances float straight to the head. The heart,
As you well know, falters.
We’ll regularly fail to tend the garden,
Forget to feed the animals. Apples
Will be wasted. How extravagantly
Beautiful the blossoms are on the shrubs and trees
In May. Impatient, we want fruit, not green,
But glowing. Want to sink our teeth
Into the flesh of apricots. Our tongues crave
Taste of apples.
What were you thinking, leaving us in charge,
Giving us dominion, as if we were fit
To be emperors, chief executives, micro or macro
Managers, as if we understood
words like, tend, wait patiently and multiply?
As if we were able with our wayward minds
To imagine mercy’s breadth and wideness
Had ears to hear, could learn to linger
Long enough to taste and see.
