JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XIX)

“You [God] have risen, You have had compassion for Zion for it is the time to grace her, for the appointed time has come. Because Your servants desire her stones, and in her dust they grace themselves.”

(Psalms 102:13-14)

The allegory of God’s “rising” suggests the culmination of His will, as a lengthy process through which we learn how to integrate in our individual and collective consciousness His ways and attributes. The ways God relates to His creation are indeed His will. Hence rising implies a dynamic action in contrast to the apparent stillness of sitting.

We mention often the reason why the Hebrew prophets present their visions or revelations in past tense, because they speak about what already happened in their perception. As they witness the Jewish final redemption, they foretell it as an already accomplished prophecy.

For us is just a matter of assimilating the aspects and conditions for their prophecies to happen, and from them we begin to live the foretold “end of the times”, in regards to the transformation needed to acquire the new consciousness where only goodness reigns in all facets and expressions of life.

This transformation can only take place in Zion as the full awareness of our permanent connection with the Creator of all. At some point in time, hopefully in our times, by His compassion He puts an end to the dual “good and evil” approach of human consciousness, and makes Zion to rise with Him towards new heights where only goodness rules us to engage in new paths unfathomable in our long standing conditioned understanding of life.

King David tells us that the appointed time for our final redemption is already established for us to also rise and elevate our thoughts, emotions and feelings to the highest expressions of goodness, as God commands us to be, to have and do.

Those who serve goodness desire is stones as its foundations, which are the ethical ruling principles that define its nature. As we live by them, gracefulness is their outcome. The more we live in goodness, the more we are graced with it as the permanent blessing bestowed by the Creator in His creation.

“So the nations shall revere the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory. For the Lord has built Zion, He has been seen in His glory.” (102:15-16)

Jerusalem again is reaffirmed as the place where God is acknowledged as the only ruler in our consciousness. We have said that His “name” is how He relates to His creation. This name encompasses His ways and attributes by which we also relate to Him, as the ways in which we “revere” Him.

“Nations”, “peoples” and “kings” represent our human traits, trends, qualities, talents, skills, along with intellect, mind, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passion and instinct. All are destined to honor God’s “glory” by fully living in His will, for this is His glory.

We accomplished His will in complete awareness of the goodness that we “see” in Zion as the highest level of consciousness from which we bond with the goodness that emanates from Him.

“[In order] To declare in Zion the name of the Lord and His praise in Jerusalem. In the peoples gathered together and the kingdoms to serve the Lord.” (102:21-22)

We praise and honor God by the way we relate to Him, which as we said is by emulating the goodness He bestows in His creation, for this is how we “serve” Him.

We are destined to gather together all that our consciousness encompasses (“the nations”) in order to be manifested as a functioning harmonic unity ruled by goodness for the sake of goodness.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XVIII)

“Zion has heard and rejoiced, and the daughters of Judah are joyful because of Your judgments, O Lord.”

(Psalms 97:8)

Many of King David’s psalms are clearly prophetic; some in a specific way, others in a veiled way like this one. The veiling is an invitation for us to consider the meanings of Zion, Jerusalem and the Temple, and how these resonate in our consciousness.

Zion is the highest level of consciousness in which we permanently bond with our Creator, and “hearing” and “rejoicing” are complementary situations where one leads to the other.

We often relate hearing to understanding, and seeing to knowing. As we fully understand goodness as our bond with God, the immediate outcome is enjoyment, for what would be more rejoicing than bonding with Him?  

The “daughters” of Judah, as well as the ones of Jerusalem mentioned in other passages of the Hebrew Bible, are the positive traits, qualities, trends and expressions related to goodness as our connection with God. Hence these rejoice while emulating and sharing His ways and attributes, which are also His “judgments”.

“The Lord in Zion is great, and high He is over all the peoples.” (99:2)

Zion is where God dwells in us, for it is the highest awareness of His presence in our consciousness. God’s greatness is indeed His presence that encompasses His entire creation.

God is high over all, including the “peoples”, which usually also represent the negative traits and trends that separate us from the ways and attributes of goodness, that are higher and above to rule over all.

“Exalt the Lord our God and bow at the sacredness of His mountain, for sacred is the Lord our God!” (99:9)

We bow to sacredness in reverence to what is higher and above us, without which we can’t exist. Awe and reverence is the least we can have before what we completely depend on.

Knowing and understanding otherwise is pure arrogance, disdain and total lack of appreciation and gratitude for the sacredness that gives us life.

“Constantly (lit. all mornings) I cut off all the wicked of the land, to cut off from the city of God all the doers of evil.” (101:8)

In this verse King David pioneered the phrases “not deviating from a straight path requires eternal vigilance” and “eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”, and he actually goes beyond what these mean.

The constant vigilance to live free from negative traits and evil ways requires keeping them away from us, by cutting them off our thoughts, emotions, feelings, speech and actions.

All the “doers of evil” do not belong to the city of God, for His ways and attributes do not dwell with wickedness.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XVII)

“Honorable things are spoken about you, O city of God, forever.”

(Psalms 87:3)

All that is related to Jerusalem is of the highest nature and quality, as it is all related to goodness, simply because is “the city of God” as its immutable ruling principle for His creation. Hence, it is an eternal, absolute, self-sufficient entity destined to direct all aspects and expressions of life.

“But about Zion it shall be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her’; the Most High himself establishes her.” (87:5)

Here, the verse equates the place of birth to the essence of one’s identity. Therefore Zion, as well as the Torah, defines the Jewish identity as the bonding quality that the Creator of all with Israel.

The essence of this identity is goodness as the expression of every aspect and facet of Jewish life. Thus we are recognized by the principle that guides our actions, for it is what identifies who we are, that has been established for us by our Creator.

“Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” (92:13)

The Jewish identity is deeply rooted in the principle that encompasses all the principles inherent in God’s commandments, decrees, statutes and ordinances presented in the Torah.

Goodness as the absolute ruling principle is the expression of the positive ideas, beliefs, feelings and emotions that “flourish in the courts of our God”, which are His ways and attributes that we strive to emulate as the source of our plenitude.

This verse reminds us that we flourish only in goodness.

“Your statutes stand firm. Sacredness adorns Your house, O Lord, forever.” (93:5)

God’s commandments, decrees, statutes and ordinances are the firm foundation that delineates the purpose of goodness in the material world.

Thus we realize that in order to grasp this, first we must fully assimilate goodness in our consciousness where we also must stand firm. In this awareness we realize the sacredness of goodness as the eternal splendor and beauty of God’s radiance in His creation.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XVI)

“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand.  I have chosen rather to be at the threshold in the house of my God, than to dwell in tents of wickedness.”

(Psalms 84:10)

In this verse we learn again that Jerusalem is the highest state of consciousness where we fully experience goodness as the common bond with our Creator. It is the time and place where we want to live forever, for if we are in God’s presence; what can we lack, miss or yearn for?

Even standing in the proximity of goodness is better than living out in the open of the negative traits and trends of ego’s fantasies and illusions that make life meaningless.

Wickedness is the outcome of our weaknesses to reject the unnecessary beliefs and feelings of lack that pretend to undermine goodness as something incomplete, insufficient, deficient, and lacking that leads to failure. These are precisely the traits and trends of anything opposed to goodness, for it encompasses plenitude.

The ethical ways, means and attributes inherent in goodness are the courtyards of God’s will for His creation, the tents that give meaning to life in contrast to the tents of lower emotions, feelings, passions and instincts that trample the dignity of life, which is goodness.

“His [God’s] foundation is in sacred mountains. God loves the gates of Zion from all the dwellings of Jacob.” (87:1-2)

As we have mentioned, in the Jewish tradition, “mountains”, “hills” and “high places” represent the highest values, principles and beliefs, by which we conduct our lives in this world. Hence we understand that God’s ways and attributes as presented in the Hebrew Bible are symbolized by sacred mountains.

In this sense, Zion is known as “the mountain of the mountains” as the Prophets remind us (Isaiah 2:2, Micah 4:1), from where God directs His creation. Hence we understand His preference of goodness as His ethical ruling principle that leads the positive aspects, dimensions and expressions of life as Jacob’s dwellings.