Psalm 122

It’s the First Sunday of Advent. Traditionally the theme of this Sunday is Expectation or Hope. As we read in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – Aslan is coming, and that means that the witch’s spell is broken and the long season of winter is fading (always winter, but never Christmas). All Narnia has been waiting for the dawn of this day! This is exciting news!

Or is it? I think of the song by Carly Simon: “Anticipation – it’s making me wait, it’s keeping me waiting!” The problem with anticipation is, whatever it is you are anticipating is not yet here. And waiting is hard work. Welcome to the first move of Advent. And it is this move that may make this season so difficult for us as we live in a culture of consumerism that waits for nothing.

But Israel knew what it means to wait – to wait in hope – to wait in joyful expectation for Christ, the Messiah of God to make his appearance. And the Messiah did appear, though hardly in the fashion that was expected. The Church also is called to wait in this season of Advent – to wait in hope – to wait in joyful expectation for Christ to come again in clouds of glory – returning to make all things new!

I never much liked waiting. I don’t like to wait in the checkout line at the grocery store, or the long lines to ride my favorite rides at Disney World. Waiting often yields aggravation rather than anticipation. But that is not the idea behind Psalm 122.

Let’s get some context. This is one of the Psalms of Ascent (שִׁ֥יר הַֽמַּעֲל֗וֹת) – a pilgrim song to be sung by the people of God as they go up to Jerusalem (one always goes up to Jerusalem – it is a theological claim more than a geographical one). And the very heart of this song’s concern is the temple – the House of YHWH (note the usage of בֵּ֖ית יְהוָ֣ה in verses 1 and 9 that functions as an inclusio for the psalm). Anticipation rises in the hearts of God’s people as they rise up to Jerusalem to worship God in the place where God rules the cosmos – note the use of “thrones” in verse 5, the place where God dispenses just judgment (מִשְׁפָּ֑ט), and the place where God makes and keeps promises to God’s people (reading the phrase house of David בֵ֣ית דָּוִֽיד – in light of God’s dynastic promise to David in 2 Samuel 7). This is the joyful expectancy of the people of God as they journey to Jerusalem to worship.

That worship is central to the journey of faith (and to the season of Advent) is also seen in some of the other language of the text:

– Verse 4 reminds us that the reason the tribes go up regularly to the city of God is for the very purpose of worship – to give thanks (לְ֝הֹד֗וֹת) to the name of the Lord. The Hebrew noun for “hand” is related to the verb “to give thanks,” so we stretch forth our hands as a gesture of gratitude. This reminds us that worship is very much an embodied act. It was even more so for Israel, as the people moved their bodies on pilgrimage to be present in the house of God.

– Prayer is a central component on this journey, as verse 6 commands the pilgrims to ask for shalom for God’s city. Shalom becomes a primary concern in this psalm, appearing again in verse 6 as the psalmist prays that God’s well-being and blessing (the true meaning of shalom) will be found within the walls of the city. Shalom is also mentioned in verse 7 as it is to be spoken over family and friends (brothers and neighbors in the Hebrew text, the neighbor being pretty much all inclusive according to the Holiness Code of Leviticus 19 – love your neighbor, which means everyone who finds themselves in your neighborhood, including the stranger and the poor).

– There is a tranquility promised to those who come expectantly to worship God. The NRSV translates the word שׁל֗ה as prosper (v. 6) and security (v. 7), but the root idea is tranquility or quietness – the kind of tranquility and ease that comes from those who are both prosperous and secure – in this context, not so much because of one’s economic or political status, but because one has found a home, a sanctuary, a resting place in the house of God.

– The final outcome of this worship, prayer, and tranquility in God’s presence leads to concrete action – not only the speaking of shalom and peace to our family and friends, but seeking the good of the household of God. What a terrible mistake we make when we co-opt these verses to defend a political agenda of allying with the nation state of Israel. The vision of these verses is global and universal – the entire household of God – centered in the city of God, Jerusalem – the place where the entire world streams to worship God, be instructed in Torah, and walk in the ways of YHWH (see Isaiah 2:1-5, the OT reading for this same Sunday).

So as we enter into Advent, we come expectantly and joyously to worship… like a lover standing on tiptoe at the airport, waiting for his wife to return from a tour of duty overseas… like a little boy, his heart racing as he steps into Wrigley Field with his dad to see his first Cubs game… like a child who cannot go to sleep on Christmas Eve, because the anticipation of the joy that comes in the morning is simply overwhelming. Advent calls us into a season of Joyful and Expectant Waiting. And the way the church waits, is in her worship – giving thanks to God, praying for peace, resting in the tranquility of God, and seeking to bless and do good to others.

Let us say with the psalmist “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’”