JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXX)

“Remember, O Lord, against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem; who say, ‘Raze it, raze it, down to its foundation’.”

(Psalms 137:7)

The psalmist knows very well the enemies of Jerusalem, the children of the heathen nations descendant from Esau/Edom. They represent the lowest thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions and instincts, that prey on goodness to satisfy their insatiable materialistic fantasies and illusions, and fight to impose the rule of wickedness and the destruction of human dignity, making goodness subservient to evil. Here, the “day of Jerusalem” refers to the final redemption of the Jewish people, and the day when the Messianic era begins.

“I bow down toward Your sacredness [Temple], and give thanks to Your Name, for Your loving kindness and for Your truth. For You have magnified Your promise above all Your Name. In the day that I called, You have answered me, You have encouraged me in my soul with strength.” (138:2-3)

The Creator’s promised final redemption, to make goodness rule and prevail in the material world, is evoked again to the point that the psalmist calls it greater than His Name.

It is a clear allegory to the greatness of God’s goodness that He will reveal in the Messianic era. It will be bigger than what we already know about His goodness, which is His Name.

He hears David’s prayer and answers him with the assurance that encourages him to live with a strengthened soul for the Messianic era, when we will see the magnificence of unfathomable qualities of His goodness. Being the Jewish people the inheritors of this divine promise, led the psalmist to exalt this sublime reality.

“Happy are the people whose destiny is this, happy are the people whose God is the Lord.” (144:15)

This verse summarizes the origin, essence, purpose and fate of Israel, with the exact words in their exact meaning. In this awareness we only have words of thankfulness and praise, also stated in the next verse.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXVIII)

“Like the dew of [mount] Hermon that comes down on the hills of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing of life for eternity.”

(Psalms 133:3)

Mount Hermon is the highest peak in the land of Israel, and symbolizes another of the elevated positive traits and qualities of goodness, joining the ones that surround Zion, our connection with God.

In this bond, He bestows goodness for all as His blessing for life, eternally. The verse reiterates that the highest and most sublime traits, “hills” and “mountains”, particularly those around Zion, are inherent to her as the vessel of God’s love.

“Bless the Lord all servants of the Lord that stand in the House of the Lord in the nights. Lift your hands in sacredness and bless the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, who made the heavens and the earth.” (134:1-3)

Those who stand in the Temple of Jerusalem in the nights are its guardians and watchmen. King David invites them to evoke His protection, for which they bless Him, knowing that He cares for them as they care to share the source of goodness that His house is.

The action of sharing is represented by the lifting of their hands, by which we receive goodness and give it. This becomes a sacred action, for all related to goodness is certainly sacred due to its Source.

“Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Praise Him servants of the Lord. [Those] standing in the house of the Lord, in the courtyards of the house of our God. Praise the Lord because goodness is the Lord. Sing to His name because He is pleasant.” (135:1-3)

We truly praise the name of God by emulating and manifesting His ways and attributes, His “Name”, by which we know our bond with Him. Hence we are His servants to do what He wants from us. Thus we “stand in His house and its courtyards”.

We also praise Him for His goodness that is pleasant to us. Reciting and singing His praise are an individual or collective token of our constant exercise of living in and for goodness, as He wants us to.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXVII)

“We come to His sanctuaries, we bow at His footstool. Arise, O Lord, to Your sanctuaries, You and the ark of Your might. Your priests clothed with righteousness and Your loving ones singing of joy.” (Psalms 132:7-9)

Our Sages refer to the Temple of Jerusalem as God’s footstool, where the majesty of His goodness rests and touches the world. In this context, the Temple is where His “sanctuaries” are, and these are indeed His ways and attributes. Their sacredness is such that they are actually sanctuaries for us to meditate, contemplate and to dwell in.

When we allow God’s ways to inspire us in every mode, we pray to Him to take charge and turn us into vessels, worthy enough to keep up to His goodness, in order to make it ours to be, to have and to manifest it. This is the way God “arises” in us.

We have to call our Creator to dwell again in the sanctuaries of the Temple He once built in us, and for us to bond permanently with Him. This bond is the “ark of God’s might”, understood as the covenant that He sealed forever with His people.

The priests represent our connecting good traits that establish the bond, and these are good as long as they remain loyal to their ethical ways, mentioned here as righteousness, for they must be righteous as part of what goodness is.

God’s “loving ones” (the term is usually translated from the original Hebrew as “pious”) are the complementary qualities for being righteous, for they go hand in hand when true love is given. A loving action is expressed in the same way a joyful song is chanted, as we will see it in the next verses.

“For the Lord, He has chosen Zion for a seat for Him: ‘This one of My eternal rest, here I shall dwell because I desired it. Her provision I have blessed and shall bless. Her needy ones I satisfy with bread. And her priests dressed of redemption, and her loving ones singing of praise. There shall soot the vine for David, I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one’.” (132:13-17)

These verses reaffirm what Jerusalem and its Temple are for the Creator in relation to His eternal bond with Israel. The psalmist remarks the city of God as the vessel where He bestows His sustenance for the world.

This is the reason for His continuous blessings to her, and those who keep it sacred for Him. These are the priests that represent our best traits and qualities in the highest level of our consciousness, for these are the means through which we find our redemption.

Here redemption is called the vine of David, which represents the Messianic consciousness, destined to prevail for eternity. It is also the lamp that will enlighten all aspects and expressions of life, all dedicate to pursue the endless knowledge of our Creator.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XX)

“The scepter of your strength the Lord sends from Zion, [to] rule in the midst of your enemies.” (Psalms 110:2)

This is another of the most profound verses in the Hebrew Bible, related to the Jewish final redemption and the Messianic era. We must understand it only in the context of God’s promised new consciousness in the advent of the end of times.

King David addresses the promised Messianic consciousness to Israel as his “lord”, telling us that its leading power is the ruling principle (“the scepter”) that comes from the Creator through Zion as the connecting point with Him and His creation.

We understand the Jewish final redemption as God’s fulfilled promise to Israel as the chosen people to become “a nation of priests” (Exodus 19:6) and “a light for the nations” (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6, 51:4). Therefore, Israel is the bearer of the Messianic consciousness, as it is addressed by King David.

Hence we assimilate that the quality of this future revealed consciousness will rule over the negative traits and trends, redirecting them to serve the ways and attributes of goodness. The verse that precedes this one confirms it.

“God says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool’.” (110:1)

As long as we remain permanently close to goodness, which is His “right hand” to prevail in His creation, He will turn all that is against goodness into servants as a footstool.

Thus we realize that Israel represents the traits, trends and qualities of goodness destined to prevail in human consciousness forever, as it is later reiterated.

This means that evil won’t exist in the way we know it, but as another aspect of human consciousness that will be manifested in positive and constructive expressions. This is so under the direct emanation of the goodness God promised to reign forever from Zion as His dwelling place in the material world.

“The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” (110:4)

This is Israel’s priesthood established by God as an eternal decree.

The Torah and the Jewish oral tradition tell us that Melchizedek was the king of Salem (later called Jerusalem) who received Abraham after his victory over four kings of Canaan and gave him the tithe of all (Genesis 14:18-20), officially passing the eternal priesthood to Abraham and Israel his descendant. Hence the kingdom of peace (Salem) was given to Israel as their divine inheritance, as King David states in this verse.

Thus we realize that Jerusalem and Zion represent the full awareness of peace as the means to bond with the Creator, who gives it to us as the utmost expression of goodness.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XV)

“O God, nations have come into Your inheritance, the altar of Your sacredness they have defiled, they have made Jerusalem for rubble.”

(Psalms 79:1)

In the Jewish tradition, the “nations” represent negative traits and trends derived from an egocentric approach to live, what we frequently call “ego’s fantasies and illusions” that defile what is good in all, for goodness is the sacredness that dwells in us we call Jerusalem.

In contrast, Israel is the nation that represents the positive qualities in human consciousness destined to be guided by goodness forever.

King David laments the permanent fight among good and evil, for goodness is the natural, logical and obvious choice to live in its total freedom as the inheritance God created for all to enjoy eternally.

“Their blood [the righteous] they have shed like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them.” (79:3)

The nations are denounced again as the persecutors and tormentors of the ethical values and principles that guide us to live in, with, by, and for goodness. The latter are the righteous leaders of the people that bear the responsibility of showing us the ways and attributes needed to make goodness lead all aspects and expressions of life.

We see that the righteous’ life force that is goodness is spilled by the nations that pursue the destruction of Jerusalem as the highest level of consciousness in which only goodness rules.

“Happy those who dwell in Your house, yet they praise You forever.” (84:4)

This is one of the most profound verses in the book of Psalms, yet its literal meaning reveals something quite obvious. If we live permanently with our Creator, we are destined to praise Him for this privilege.

The verse suggests that a happy heart is the precondition to approach God, for if we want to be, have or do something, we must begin to embrace it as part of us. Besides, we already know and anticipate that being with our Creator happens to be the most indescribable experience of all.

The verse may also indicate that those who dwell in the Temple of Jerusalem, the house of God, have been traditionally by divine decree the Levites who also guard it, and care for what the priests needed for their daily service.

Our Jewish tradition tells us that part of the Levites’ service in the Temple included singing praises to honor, exalt and celebrate God’s presence in His house.

We realize that living in goodness as God’s chosen dwelling in human consciousness is the cause and effect of total freedom, for in goodness we are completely free.

“They have gone from strength into strength, the Almighty God shall appear in Zion.” (84:7)

This verse relates to the journey we make to Jerusalem as the destination of hearts and souls seeking to bond with the eternal goodness of God’s love. We ascend to Zion by gaining the strength that adds to strength, that only goodness provides.

The more goodness we do, the better we become to manifest higher expressions of goodness the Creator will reveal when He appears to us in Zion as the eternal time and space where we bond with Him, as He has promised.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XIII)

“For God redeems Zion, and builds the cities of Judah; and they have dwelt there, and have it in possession. And the descendants [lit. seed] of His servants inherit it, and those who love His Name dwell in it.”
(Psalms 69:35-36)

These verses underline the eternal bond between God and Israel. No matter the separation and destruction, He promised to redeem the traits, ways and attributes that both share. These are the “cities” as values and principles where we dwell, which are also our inheritance and possession.

We can understand our descendants as our “seed”, not only as children and grandchildren, but also as the goodness we create with our actions. Thus we assimilate that by being and doing goodness we love God’s Name, which is also the goodness where we are destined to dwell forever.

“Remember Your congregation that You acquired long ago, which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance; this mount Zion, [where] Your presence comes.” (74:2)

Again, the promise to redeem Israel is mentioned as the long time God’s acquisition to prevail in goodness as His inheritance. All this happens in Zion as the bonding time and space between God and Israel, where His presence “comes”.

Let’s notice that no matter where Zion and Jerusalem are mentioned in the book of Psalms, every verse quoted is a continuous affirmation of the same principle and message. The verse in 74:2 is the continuation of what is said in 69:35, as it happens with all the remaining quotations.

“Lift up Your steps to the perpetual desolation. Defeat all the evils of the enemy in the sacredness [of Your temple]. Your foes roared in the place where You have met with us. They set up their banners as signs. They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground. They have desecrated the dwelling place of Your Name.” (74:3-4, 7)

King David cries up to God for His complete final redemption from those that pretend to occupy His dwelling place, and to make their lower traits and trends conduct every aspect and expression of consciousness. These are indeed perpetual desolation as the predicament of self-centered materialistic fantasies and illusions.

The verse continues to indicate that only in the sacredness of the goodness that dwells in God’s sanctuary we can defeat all forms and expressions of evil.

By embracing goodness as our essence and true identity, and as the sanctuary where we bond with the goodness of our Creator, there is no evil that we can overturn and transform into something positive to make life even much better.

In order to return to goodness, not only as our real identity but also as our constant redemption, we must begin to remove the labels, banners and signs that define us as what they represent.

These are the negative and destructive traits that desolate what we once believed were the best in us. These are the evils that burn our bond with goodness as our essence and true identity that comes from the goodness that speaks of the Name of God.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XI)

“Praise waits for You, O God, in Zion; and to You the vow is performed.”

(Psalms 65:2)

We evoke and call for our Creator in the place where we can find Him. In this verse once more King David invites us to reflect on Zion. It is reiterated again that we find, recognize and acknowledge God in what we have in common with Him, which is goodness.

When we call God, let’s do it in goodness for the sake of goodness, for the place of His dwelling is goodness. In that place in consciousness we praise Him and make our vows to Him, which are the commitment and determination to being, having and doing goodness.

“Happy is the man whom You choose and bring near, that he may dwell in Your courtyards, be satisfied with the goodness of Your house. Sacred Your temple!” (65:5)

Many are the times when we are chosen, but few when we choose to be chosen. This verse is about choosing to be near God. We also can understand this as being happy to be chosen by the goodness others bestow on us. Certainly true happiness and joy come from living in goodness, for it is our complete fulfillment and plenitude.

This verse reminds us the sacredness of goodness as the house where we find our Creator, from whom all goodness comes. Let’s remind ourselves that a house with its courtyards represents the consciousness with which we live. All we have in that place determines who we are, what we have and do.

“I will come to Your house with burnt offerings. To You I will perform my vows.” (66:13)

Once more, God’s “house” is where our highest level of consciousness and utmost awareness of goodness meet with His goodness. Hence it is where we offer the best in us to renew and replenish it with the promise of making it prevail in what we are and do.

“A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows, is God in the habitation of His sacredness.” (68:6)

We are fatherless when there are no ruling and guiding principles for which to live. In this sense, father and mother are the sustaining, nurturing and conducting sources that give meaning to our life.

The same goes to having or lacking judgment to do what is right, proper and just, in situations when we don’t have the material and moral support to cope with life.

Let's be aware that God’s habitation encompasses the ruling, ethical principles of His ways and attributes that we see in the goodness He wants us to live.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (X)

“And I am like an olive tree in the house of God, and my trust in the loving kindness of God for ever and ever.”

(Psalms 52:10)

King David’s love, devotion and praise to the Creator are emblematic, for there has not been someone like him to exalt His works and wonders.

These qualities also embrace those of an olive tree, deep rooted, strong and long lasting. There seems to be a corresponding nature between the aforementioned qualities and the trust derived from them, with the eternal loving kindness by which God sustains His creation.

Let’s remember that olives produce the oil to light up the darkness of the late and early hours of the day. Every time we hear or speak about anointment, it is about our capacity to enlighten ourselves with the multidimensional and transcendental meanings of the Torah.

This is the same anointment that leads us to our final redemption with the ultimate knowledge and awareness of the Creator in our consciousness that takes place in “the house of the Lord”.

Planting consciousness in this house like olive trees means to live permanently in the awareness of the truth that God’s loving kindness is from where we came, and to where we are destined to live forever and ever.

“Who shall give from Zion the redemption of Israel? The Lord will turn the captivity of His people. Jacob will be glad, Israel will rejoice.” (53:7)

The verse tells us that God’s final redemption for Israel, and consequently for humankind, comes from Zion as the connecting place between the Creator and the material world.

We must realize that Zion, as the total awareness of our connection with God, is the time and space of our complete freedom from anything different from God’s ways and attributes, which we understand as pure goodness free from what is alien to it.

Our captivity encompasses all that lacks goodness, which is living in the negative and destructive predicament of the evil ways of an egocentric approach to life.

As long as we don’t lose focus of goodness and acknowledge it as our essence and true identity, we recognize ourselves as Jacob and Israel, the two aspects of a life committed to reveal God’s will for the material world, which is to make goodness prevail.

Once we allow goodness to manifest in all levels, aspects and expressions of human consciousness, we begin to rejoice and be glad of living in true redemption, free from the captivity of evil.

As we see it in the following verse, living in this awareness is the culmination of the fulfilled prophecies in the Hebrew Bible with their transcending and eternal quality.

“I will dwell in Your tent forever. I will take refuge in the covert of Your wings, forever.” (61:5)

In the Hebrew tradition, tents are related to places of learning and study of the Torah in regards to how God relates to His creation. God’s tent is as unfathomable and impenetrable as the Creator, for He is eternal.

This is the transcendental time and space where our consciousness is promised to dwell as in a refuge under eternal divine protection.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (VIII)

“God in Your palaces [You are] known for stronghold.” (Psalms 48:4)

We have said that Jerusalem, as the city of God, is also the place of His dwelling. We understand that a “place” is to be or to stand on as the leading and driving force of life and foundation of our consciousness, and in this sense that place is goodness.

The “palaces” are the positive traits, ways, means, trends and qualities which are the strongholds by which we protect ourselves and prosper, for goodness is the purpose of goodness.

“As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of multitudes, in the city of our God. God established it for eternity, forever.” (48:9)

Goodness is destined to prevail in God’s creation, for eternity. We come to this ultimate realization in the awareness that the city of God is such goodness. In this way we understand that “multitudes” are also the unfathomable ways and dimensions where God reigns and rules over His entire creation, as the Psalmist also proclaimed.

“And David blessed the Lord before all the assembly; and David said, ‘Blessed are You, O Lord, God of our father Israel in all the realms, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty! For all in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom and You are exalted as head above all.”

(I Chronicles 10-11)

In this blessing King David invites us to reflect on who we are, what we have and do, for these also come from the Creator and we are destined to fulfill His will.

“We have reflected on Your loving kindness, O God, in the midst of Your temple.” (Psalms 48:10)

Loving kindness is a primordial attribute of goodness, in which we inspire ourselves in our bonding with the Creator that is represented by the Temple of Jerusalem.

Abundant loving kindness is referred in the Torah (Exodus 34:6-7) as one of God’s thirteen attributes of compassion. These are considered also as the references for His judgments.

“Rejoice, mount Zion; be happy, daughters of Judah, because of Your judgments.” (48:12)

This verse invites us to understand God’s judgments as a source of rejoicing, for these come from His goodness that stands in the mount of His sacredness.

The “daughters of Judah” are expressions of our recognition of goodness as our link with the Creator. These also can be understood as expressions of gratitude and recognition for God’s goodness, for in Hebrew Judah literally means “I shall thank/acknowledge God”.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (VII)

“God is in the midst of her [Jerusalem], she shall not be moved. God shall help her, at the approach of morning.”

(Psalms 46:6)

Jerusalem is God’s chosen place for His dwelling in the world, that He won’t move or change. We have said that God and His dwelling are inherent in each other, which makes Jerusalem as unchangeable as Him.

“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?”

(Numbers 23:19)

“And also the preeminence of Israel does not lie or repent, for He is not a man to repent.”

(I Samuel 15:29)

“I profane not My covenant, and that which is going forth from My lips I change not.”

(Psalms 89:34)

Thus we understand God’s oneness as immutable, for that is a quality of what is completed and completion does need addition, subtraction or change.

The second sentence of the verse speaks about God’s revelation in His promised final redemption. In this sense, the latter is related to enlightenment as “the approaching morning”, a new day as a new beginning for human consciousness.

This is the “help” humankind has been hoping for since its beginnings, to finally see the advent of a new life without any trace of evil.

“Great is the Lord and exalted highly in the city of our God, the mount of His sacredness.” (48:2)

Our Sages relate God’s greatness to His infinite loving kindness from which all came to existence, for all exists by God’s goodness and nothing else. This divine attribute is manifest in all its dimensions in Jerusalem, which also represents the highest level of consciousness by which we bond with God.

As we have mentioned earlier, sacredness as an evil-free consciousness is the precondition to engage into the next level where our bonding with God’s sacredness takes us to a higher and more spiritual approach to life in this world.

“Beautiful sight, the joy of the whole earth [is] mount Zion, the northern sides, the city of the great King.” (48:3)

This verse speaks about the unfathomable and indescribable experience of living in, with and by our sacred bonding with the Creator, represented by mount Zion. Beauty becomes an expression of goodness, for goodness is beautiful in any form, way or direction it manifests, for it encompasses all.