JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXXII)

“Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise in the congregation of loving ones. May Israel rejoice in his Maker, the children of Zion joyful in their King.” (Psalms 149:1-2)

The “new song” is the expression of the new consciousness that awaits us in the Messianic era, indeed a praise of the loving ones, for love is the reigning principle that bonding with God’s love will manifest new expressions of goodness in all aspects of life.

The goodness of love has the power to unite and assemble in congregation God’s gathered tribes, which will interact as the functional harmonic unity we have mentioned before.

We will rejoice in our Creator, for we finally will fully bond with Him, whose goodness is the utmost of all joys. This is the sacredness that we will praise forever, for we will be living in it for eternity.

“Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sacredness [Temple]; praise Him in the firmament of His power.” (150:1)

King David tells us for the final time in his book of Psalms that our relationship, bond and connection with God culminates in the sacredness of His house, the Temple of Jerusalem, Zion the place of His dwelling in this world for eternity, which is the firmament of His power.

We have seen in all the verses King David writes about Jerusalem the many facets of God’s house, to realize that this awareness called Zion is our bond with Him, in which we live the final redemption He promised us; as long as we embrace goodness as our essence and true identity.

This is the primordial message we are destined to live, for goodness is the cause, the purpose and the end.

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 (XXVI)

“If the Lord does not build the house, in vain its builders labor on it. If the Lord does not guard a city, in vain a watchman wakes.” (Psalms 127:1)

Our Sages say that God is the place of the world, and the world is not God’s place. This conception encompasses the purpose of God’s creation, for all comes from Him and sustained by Him. In that regard, the place as the reason for the world to exist is God. Hence we depend on Him and not all the way around.

With this premise we approach the quoted verse. If God’s doesn’t give us a reason for His creation, how can we make anything of it? The “house” here represents what He gives us to make something out of it, and that is goodness. We live in vain if we have a life without meaning.

If we disregard goodness as the cause and purpose of God’s creation, what can we build with anything different from it? The “house” also means our consciousness, and is our duty to build it from that of which the Creator also sustains us. Again, if there is no goodness, what can we build?

We also have mentioned that “mountains” and “cities” represent strong beliefs and ruling principles or ideas by which we conduct our thought, mind, emotions, feelings and instincts. If these are not sustained on God’s ways and attributes, how can we sustain them? In conclusion, we are vain, meaningless and irrelevant passers-by in this world if we have a life absent of what really matters.

“May the Lord bless you from Zion, and see in goodness Jerusalem all the days of your life.” (128:5)

God’s blessings come out of our connection and bond with His ways and attributes. As long as we keep this awareness permanently, goodness flows in every way we approach the moments and circumstances we face every day.

Jerusalem once more is pointed out as the highest level of consciousness, completely free from anything different from goodness. In this sense, Jerusalem is the place in and from which we want to live in this world.

“Turned back and ashamed will be those who hate Zion.” (129:5)

Anything alien to goodness leads us to our falling down to the negative traits and trends of ego’s fantasies and illusions. The verse can be understood in another way. At some point, those who demise and reject goodness will realize the destructiveness of their predicament, and in their shame eventually turn back to it.

All the prophetic references about “returning” or “turning back” are related to regaining the awareness that living in goodness is what truly matters.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXIV)

“For the sake of my brethren and my loved ones, I will say now, ‘Peace be in you’.”

(Psalms 122:8)

King David tells us that in Jerusalem converges all that unites and bonds everything and everyone. In this unity and togetherness we live in the awareness of peace.

Our brothers, sisters and loved ones are those who in their own individual diversity share goodness as the bond that connects us with each other, and peace is its utmost expression. Hence we pursue peace as the encompassing and integrating awareness that makes us also connected to God.

“For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I seek goodness for you!” (122:9)

God’s house is the Sanctuary that He has established for Him to dwell among (in) us here in this world, and as King David has pointed out often, goodness is our bond with Him. Hence we pursue goodness for the sake of our connection with the Creator.

“Those who trust in the Lord are like mount Zion that is not moved, [for] it sits forever.” (125:1)

Trust is based on what we know or believe as something by which we live and conduct our life. Trusting God is living by what He represents that keeps us alive to prosper with it and for it. Therefore our Creator is the ethical ruling principle by which we exist to live it and experience it in this world.

The psalmist compares this principle to the unmovable mountain named Zion and to its eternal quality, for the fact that God’s eternity sits on it; as it is reiterated in the next verse.

“Jerusalem! Mountains surround her, and the Lord surrounds His people from here to eternity.” (125:2)

Mountains represent unshakable beliefs, ground rules and guidelines by which we direct our lives. As our connecting bond with God, Jerusalem is set on a mountain surrounded by a wall, and also by mountains that reaffirm the prevalence of goodness as the primordial principle in which all levels, aspects and dimensions of human consciousness are destined to be conducted.

In the same way that we are guided by goodness, and protected by its ethical qualities, God also guides His people eternally.

Here we must understand that His will, as well as His ways and attributes exist forever; and, as long as we live in their goodness, we are indeed protected by Him.

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 (XIV)

“And behold, in Shalem is His Tabernacle and His dwelling place in Zion. There He has broken arrows of a bow, shield, and sword, and war, forever.”

(Psalms 76:3-4)

The foundation of God’s presence, the love of His goodness, is peace as the place where He completely reveals His promised redemption, the beginning of living forever in His ways and attributes.

Shalem means wholeness, completion, fullness and the totality where there is no lack and nothing is missed, for all is contained in it. This realization makes us aware of peace, shalom; and Zion the awareness that in this completion we live permanently in God’s presence, for His oneness encompasses everything.

Thus we learn about our need to build the Temple of Jerusalem as the Tabernacle by which we connect and bond with our Creator.

We are the ones who have to rebuild the Temple, for it is up the yearning and desire to return to the goodness from which we were created. The love of goodness is the foundation of our bond with God.

Our Sages say that idolatry, murder and incest led to the destruction of the First Temple; uncalled for hatred caused the destruction of the Second Temple; and that uncalled for love will build the Third and final Temple that will last forever.

We have to recognize goodness as our essence and true identity, for goodness is what will bring us together and will show us new ways and means to experience it, once we live it as our permanent connection with God’s love.

This is the awareness that goodness doesn’t dwell with negative traits and trends, represented by arrows and bows, shields and swords that herald disputes, conflicts, confrontations and wars.

“But [He] chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He has loved. And He built His sanctuary [lit. sacredness] as a high place, like the earth which He has founded forever.” (78:68-69)

As we know, Judah is the tribe that remained faithful to their God, in spite of the divisions, confrontations and disputes among the children of Israel. This is why they have been known as Jews, for they are the descendants of Judah.

In His prophetic awareness, King David knew this, and wrote these verses to praise them as the bearers of the transcendental responsibility of building the Third Temple that, like the Earth, will last forever.

In the second verse, we see that the promised revelation of God’s presence in Zion is a two-way event that demands the participation of the Creator and the Jewish people. He will establish (“build”) His sacredness in a “high place” that can only exist in the highest level of our consciousness.

Hence we understand that in such place dwell our best traits and qualities nurtured only by goodness for the sake of goodness as the purpose of God’s creation, for it is its foundation by which we build the eternal bond with Him.

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”.