I was struck by this psalm at Morning Prayer today. I thought of a psycho-spiritual reading of it. This reading has nothing to do with any historical or cultural setting of the Psalm. It reads it much like the Fathers and Mothers who read it before historical cultural reading began. You must judge whether this reading is valid.
Psalm 122
1 I was glad when they said to me, *
“Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
So we go to where God is in us. We go with great joy to the Center where “they” have told us God is.
2 Now our feet are standing *
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
That place is our Jerusalem, the inward temple of God, the Center of spiritual geography.
3 Jerusalem is built as a city *
that is at unity with itself;
It is a city, a place with many dwelling places, full of life. A place of living together, a place of meeting and exchange. And it is at unity with itself. So in that Center all of our self is unified, all our aspects and parts work together. The city is like our body, made up of many organs and parts, interrelated and working together to make up a living being. And so it is with that psycho-spiritual Center, unifying us in all our ways.
4 To which the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD, *
All the tribes come here to this Center, all our inner tribes, those voices and urges within us come together as a Unity.
the assembly of Israel,
to praise the Name of the LORD.
And together they praise the LORD. That is their function. That is our ultimate function. It is the ultimate function of all life, of the whole round world. And here we can listen to our parts, our inner tribes and all the tribes of our body. We can hear and see it all working together as lived praise.
5 For there are the thrones of judgment, *
the thrones of the house of David.
There, in that Center, is the place of judgement, the place of discernment where we see our lives and all the other lives from the point of view of this unity.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: *
“May they prosper who love you.
From thence we may look to peace and invite it, implore it, to come to us and indwell our Unity, our Center. From thence we may see all the other Centers around us and pray they flourish.
7 Peace be within your walls *
and quietness within your towers.
In peace and quietness we may dwell in our Centers together and flourish, we may feed on that life of God given us that is our Center.
8 For the sake of my kindred and companions, *
I pray for your prosperity.
Now from our Center we see the other Centers related to us by bonds of bodies and fellowships, and all prosper and flourish together.
9 Because of the house of the LORD our God, *
I will seek to do you good.”
And lies the only good reason for goodness which we find in our Centers and in Jerusalem, the Center of all Centers