Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
"I am for peace,
but when I speak, they are for war!"
The psalmist is an idealist and a realist. He walks a middle road and is torn between extremes.
Why would anyone hate peace? Do any actually hate peace?
As we often say, we follow the benefit trail. If we perceive that we benefit more from animosity, violence, hatred, war, dissension, division, mistrust, and intimidation with oppression, we probably will be for war.
The exploratory territory for me in this scripture today, is within my own soul.
Am I for peace or am I for war? My first dwelling place is within myself and I too often am for peace and hate peace at the same time because peace is a long term gratification while war gets my juices flowing.
"Too long have I had my dwelling
among those who hate peace.
I am for peace,
but when I speak, they are for war!" -Psalm 120:6-7 (ESV)—————————————-
God dwells in the heart of each of our cities, walks the streets, hears the angry cries, the frustrations of conflicting forces, and the pain of broken dreams.
God is present in the cities … in every Jerusalem when His walking, talking, living, breathing temples dwell. God weeps over the cities and is ready to hear our prayers for the cities.
Everyone in the city is an object of His concern. When we align ourselves with that concern, we are moving toward prayer for the shalom of the city.
This sort of prayer is hard work because it moves into active seeking of the good of the city and that is messy work – building community, sharing our faith and its implications, loving our neighbors, working for progress, living the good news of the Kingdom of God.
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
“May they be secure who love you!
Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers!”
For my brothers and companions' sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your good." – Psalm 122:5-9 (ESV)—————————————-
So easily we make ourselves at ease. So destructively, we build our protective fortresses of contempt and pride. So precariously we draw lines of mistrust and and scorn for our own false notions of well being and so readily we find ourselves at odds with those who do the same from their own vantage point of dubious self-protection.
"Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than enough
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud." – Psalm 123:3-4 (ESV)—————————————-
Eight words of open-ended, eternal truth … "If it had not been for the LORD."
" If it had not been the LORD who was on our side—
let Israel now say—
if it had not been the LORD who was on our side
when people rose up against us,
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
then over us would have gone
the raging waters." – Psalm 124:1-5 (ESV)
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