Psalm 122 is a short psalm of only four verses, but expressive of deep emotion growing out of an ancient story of Jewish sorrow and loss. In this psalm, the Jewish people of Judah have returned from Babylonian captivity of about seventy years. In 586 B.C., Jerusalem and its great temple were destroyed. The leading citizens were exiled to Babylon, leaving behind the poorest and the weakest. This psalm gives communal voice to the sense of loss but also of trust
Verse 1: The first line expresses terrible despair. No words, just eyes looking up to the sky. Maybe accompanied by a deep sigh - everything is ruined. We have the saying, "There are no words to describe how I feel."
Verse 2: Again, giving expression to the weary and dis-spirited community, the psalmist references his eyes. They are the eyes of a slave (or servant) who anticipates being told where to go and what to do.
Yet again, eyes. As if to say, We'll just wait patiently, trusting that in God's own good time, God will see fit to extend his restorative and renewing kindness to us. In one of his poems, Pope John Paul II writes of the years of Communist occupation, when one could hear women weeping, as each night they would sneak into the churches to lay out the vestments for the next morning's Masses, which wouldn't take place because the priests had been killed or taken away to concentration camps. Weeping and waiting on God: "...till he show us his mercy."
Verse 3,4: Here the psalmist pleads a third time for God's mercy. Mercy doesn't mean, "Please don't ping us off into an eternal sea of flame." Mercy is God's kindness. Some folks don't like that Pope Francis speaks so often of God's mercy; they prefer he'd speak about God's judgments - even harsh and condemning judgments. What's that about? Do they think threats and intimidation will draw souls to love God?
The psalmist reminds God that his people have been through a very great trial—that they have suffered a bitter hatred, that they have been mocked and humiliated by arrogant captors. Remember Psalm 136 which recalls the sadness the people felt while exiled to Babylon:
By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat and wept,
remembering Zion;
on the poplars that grew there
we hung up our harps.
For it was there that they asked us,
our captors for songs,
our oppressors, for joy.
'Sing to us,' they said,
'one of Zion's songs.'
Zion is Jerusalem. The captives were taunted to sing the songs they remembered from their Jerusalem Temple worship.
But for the Christian, there is more! The psalms were composed long before the birth of Jesus, whose Incarnation changes everything. Psalm 122 sees us as God's slaves. But slaves are degraded, un-free people, greedily owned, often brutalized, stolen from their homeland and away from their own people. That's not how Jesus sees us. Instead he says:
"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." John 15:15
And here's what St. John has to say about who we are before God:
"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are...Beloved, we are God's children now..." 1 John 3: 1,2
Might I then suggest a second read of the psalm, though this time, praying it with the new awareness of myself as God's dear friend; dear child.
But for the Christian, there is more! The psalms were composed long before the birth of Jesus, whose Incarnation changes everything. Psalm 122 sees us as God's slaves. But slaves are degraded, un-free people, greedily owned, often brutalized, stolen from their homeland and away from their own people. That's not how Jesus sees us. Instead he says:
"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." John 15:15
And here's what St. John has to say about who we are before God:
"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are...Beloved, we are God's children now..." 1 John 3: 1,2
Might I then suggest a second read of the psalm, though this time, praying it with the new awareness of myself as God's dear friend; dear child.
