Scott Schutte: Psalm one twenty two. I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord.' And now here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a well built city. Its seamless walls cannot be breached. All the tribes of Israel, the Lord's people, make their pilgrimage here.
They come to give thanks to the name of the Lord as the law requires of Israel. Here stands the thrones where judgment is given, the thrones of the dynasty of David. Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces.
For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, may you have peace. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, oh Jerusalem. Psalm one twenty two is another one of the songs of ascent as people are traveling to Jerusalem for, the days festival. And this is one of the songs that they would sing. And, this psalm is really one of, joy, being able to have a place where they can go and worship.
And it's also a song of interceding for each other and praying for peace. And so I really love this psalm and I think it has major application for us today because we live in a place where we are also free to come and worship and where we can do it out in the open, where it's not against the law, which isn't the case for so many places. And I would challenge us to also do what it says here in this passage of praying for peace in Jerusalem. And wherever your Jerusalem is, whatever city or state or even the nation that we live in, I think that it's good to pray for peace in those areas so that we can continue to worship as we we want to, as the Lord provides for us. And so, God, we just thank you for today, and, we are so thankful that you have provided a place for us to worship.
And we ask that you would continue, to provide peace there for us so that we can continue to worship in those ways. We give you all the glory and the praise, and we ask for your hand of blessing over our lives and over our places of worship. And all this we lift up in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.