JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXV)

“In the return of the Lord with the tribes of Zion, we would be like dreamers. Then our mouth would be filled of laughter and our language a song of joy. And in the nations they would say, ‘greatness the Lord has made for them’.” (Psalms 126:1-2)

King David writes again about the Jewish final redemption and the Messianic era. Let’s note that all Jewish prophecies are written in the past tense for two reasons.

Once the Jewish prophets receive their messages from God, they narrate them as something revealed to them. Therefore they refer to them as what already took place, yet will be fully manifested in the future.

The other reason is that God already declared the purpose of His creation since He made it. Hence the final redemption is at our reach as soon as we become fully aware of it.

This total awareness is achieved by allowing goodness to conduct our discernment, mind, thoughts, emotions, feelings, speech and action, for goodness is the ruling principle in God’s creation, and it is destined to prevail in human consciousness. However, it is up to us to initiate the constant awareness of goodness in what we are, have and do.

Let’s reflect on the first sentence of these two verses. God and the tribes are returning together, and that action implies a time and space that once existed. They left with the dispersion of the children of Israel in exile among the nations. The psalmist is referring to the return of the lost tribes by the will of God as the Jewish prophets later confirm.

We have pointed out often that Zion is the bond that unites the Creator with the people of Israel as the tribes of this connection. Also that the tribes of Israel represent the positive creative potentials in all aspects, dimensions, facets and expressions of human consciousness. These are the talents and skills inherent in the diversity of our individual potential.

We can be artists, builders, merchants, farmers, shepherds, warriors, gardeners, judges, healers, teachers, scientists, spiritual guides, care givers, cleaners, writers, wood gatherers, facilitators, administrators, etc., whose lives are ruled by positive creative expressions in whatever we do. The common denominator of our diversity must always be goodness.

The tribes of Zion are certainly the tribes of Israel gathered together by God in their return with Him, with a new consciousness to be manifest in the Messianic times. We call it the Messianic consciousness because it is a collective quality that will be shared by the people of Israel with the rest of the nations, when the latter fully accept that Israel is the chosen people to fulfill God’s will in the world.

King David characterizes this new consciousness where only goodness reigns with its typical qualities, “laughter” and “joy”, for it can’t be less than that. Actually, these are more effects of goodness than its causes.

It’s relevant to remark the participation of the nations in the advent of the Messianic times. As we indicated before, they must recognize the goodness of Israel’s contributions to the world as their first step to partake in the coming final redemption. The last sentence of the second verse confirms this premise.

In this context, the “greatness” mentioned by the psalmist is the goodness the Creator commanded the children of Israel to share with the rest of the world.

It is the same goodness that in the final redemption all humankind will share by the hand of Israel, as the Creator established in His Torah and through His prophets.