A Real Peace March

I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the LORD!”
Psalm 122.1

The infantry does not often receive an invitation to a Peace March. Most of the time foot soldiers tramp long and exhausting miles only to have a desperate battle waiting for them at the end. We can well imagine how little a soldier looks forward to an order to “March!” But the author of Psalm 122 belonged to an entirely different sort of army, if you will, an army of worshipers.

So, when the word came to move out, it really was a summons to move up, to rise and climb the dusty paths and roads that led to Jerusalem, and to the temple, the house of the LORD. And this, far from danger, was an occasion for celebration and joy. The people of God, his troops (The Psalmist identifies them as the tribes of Israel), were summoned to assemble in the presence of the commanding general at his personal headquarters. And the purpose of the gathering was not battle, but thanksgiving, and the worship and praise of God. Rather than a desultory journey to a violent clash, all Israel would have walked with a spring in its step, already engaging in worship as it sang this, and the other Songs of Ascent, while on the march to Jerusalem.

And, when assembled, there would not be cries for war, but prayers for peace. What other army in history can you think of that regularly fell-in in order to conduct a peace vigil?

Sadly, the Psalmist’s, and all Israel’s, hopes for peace would repeatedly be frustrated, no few times because of the nation’s sins and the fatal decisions of kings who warred like the kings of nations who knew not God. Even when Israel’s Messiah, the Prince of Peace himself, arrived, the peace of Jerusalem would be broken by the shedding of his blood on a cross just outside the city’s walls. Nonetheless, this is a hopeful, and hope-filled song. May its words inspire and direct our steps.