“I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.”
Psalm 120:7 (NIV)
A psalm of ascent is an expression of the heart desires of the worshippers as they approach the city of Jerusalem to meet with the living God to worship Him in spirit and in truth. The scholars tell us that these psalms would be recited by the worshippers as they walked the climbing road to reach Jerusalem. This first psalm in the series of psalms that end in Psalm 134 has a bitter edge to it, it seems to speak of the desire of the worshipper to live anywhere other than where they live, for they are surrounded by those who want war. The picture I selected for this blog, shows the height that a worshipper would have to climb on foot, but it also shows the Dome situated where the Temple used to be, and as I looked at this photo I wondered how many people have died in war on the slope that I was looking at. And then, how many more will die in the wars to come? Many of us in North America say the wars in the Middle East will never end, for war is a way of life for the people of the Middle East.
The true worshipper longs for peace, true peace that only comes from a restored relationship with our Creator God through his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and their longing causes a distress within them by the truth, that in their present situation lies, deceit and warfare are the way of life. How fitting that the God of Peace would choose the place on the earth where warfare seems to be the way of life, to have His Son the Prince of Peace die on a cross, bringing peace as a way of life to all who surrender to Him. Surely there was no better place to show the peace-making power of God Almighty then in the on place on the earth best known for war.
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