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 (XXXI)

“The Lord reigns forever, the God of Zion, forever and ever. Praise the Lord.”

(Psalms 146:10)

Eternity is the reward for bonding in God’s love through the blessings He constantly bestows in us with His goodness. Thus we realize that it is as eternal as Him, and this happiness beyond possible description is only manifest in Zion, Jerusalem; the utmost joy of all hearts. Hence we will praise Him for eternity, for this praise is as infinite as Him.

“The Lord builds up Jerusalem, He gathers together the dispersed of Israel.” (147:2)

This realization will be factual when all the dispersed children of Israel are gathered by their God. Our Sages understand this as the prelude to the rise of the Third Temple that God builds along with Jerusalem, for these are irrelevant without the entire gathering of the Jewish people in the land of their divine inheritance.

This last and eternal Temple and its city are rebuilt with spiritual materials and qualities that will reflect the new consciousness the Creator promised for the Messianic era. Hence the edifices and towers of the city are already made of light columns and beams with compartments made to last forever, as the verse suggests in regards to eternity. Likewise, human and material life will be also spiritual as it was originally created at the beginning of God’s creation in the Garden of Eden.

“Glorify the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. For He has strengthened the bars of your gates, He has blessed your children in your midst. He established peace in your borders; He fulfills you with the best of wheat.” (147:12-14)

These verses reiterate the previous ones in regards to Jerusalem, as it was originally created by God; and as is going to be in the Jewish final redemption and the advent of the Messianic era.

The strengthening of the bars that protect Jerusalem tells us about the strong spiritual qualities that dissipate wickedness in all forms, for evil will fade before them. Goodness is the blessing that spreads out in levels, aspects, dimensions and expressions of our new future consciousness dwelling in the city of God. Hence peace is the air we will breathe in its midst. Our food will be from the best of wheat that can only be God’s love.

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 (XXIX)

“Blessed is the Lord from Zion that dwells in Jerusalem, praise the Lord.” (Psalms 135:21)

Once again, the psalmist proclaims God’s presence in Jerusalem. He blesses Him, for He is the Source of all blessings. In this awareness we praise Him forever.

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept when we remembered Zion.” (137:1)

In prophecy, the psalmist evokes the children of Israel’s exile in Babylon, where they lamented their estrangement from the house of their God. The remembrance of Zion was all they had, hoping to return to their permanent bond that will be fully fulfilled in the Messianic era.

“For there [in Babylon], our captors requested from us words of song. ‘Sing for us the songs of Zion’.” (137:3)

The captors of the Jewish people are aware of the qualities inherent in Israel’s spirituality. The nations can recognize them in the praises to their God. They know that these songs are a soothing balm that harmonizes thoughts, emotions and feelings, something unique to the traits of goodness all the nations covet. Yet, to subject them to their materialistic attachments, obsessions and addictions.

Ultimately, in Israel’s final redemption, they will appreciate goodness in its ethical and moral principles, aimed to elevate the dignity they owe to the human condition in this world. The fact that they recognize the beauty of the “songs of Zion” is a first step to later embrace the essence that makes these songs the way they are.

The “songs” that Israel sings are pure praise of the traits and attributes of goodness, when it manifests in life, making it an exultation of God’s love.

“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign soil? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her skill. Let my tongue cleave to my palate, if I don’t remember you; if I set not Jerusalem above my greatest joy.” (137:4-6)

God’s song is also Israel’s, therefore it must be sung for each other, and no one else; neither in a place other than His house. In the name of the children of Israel, King David wonders about the aberration of trying to bond with God’s love out of His Promised Land, Jerusalem, and the Temple, the place of His dwelling.

This bond is referred here as God’s “song”. Hence forgetting Jerusalem is equivalent to forget our Father in Heaven, which means to live without the goodness represented by the ‘skill” of the right hand. The same goes for our speech, for without God’s goodness in our thoughts, words are meaningless. These verses reveal why Jerusalem is the greatest joy, for His loving kindness dwells in her.

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 (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 (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.

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 (XXIII)

“Pray for Jerusalem of peace, in abundance those who love you.” (Psalms 122:6)

We refer often to praying and praising, not as a passive but a dynamic process by which we attune our consciousness with what we do.

We pray to evoke God as the ruler of the best in us, in order to allow goodness to be with us, and provide us with what we need us and for those who benefit from us. We certainly pray for goodness to be with us, not with a selfish approach but to make us better to ourselves, and as a source of goodness for others.

We praise, not to experience an emotional or passionate feeling of closeness and attachment to God, but to evoke His ways and attributes and emulate them in what we say and do.

We say “praise the Lord” as the invocation of His loving kindness to awaken our goodness, and be able to manifest it in what we are and do. In this sense praising is acknowledging, thanking and recognizing God’s presence in us, and to express it in our moment to moment engagement to life.

In this verse the Psalmist invites us to evoke the peace of Jerusalem as what makes it complete, wholesome, total, eternal and undivided. As we have said, peace in Hebrew means all these words, for this wholesomeness is the culmination of unifying our consciousness through goodness.

Loving the peace of Jerusalem is living in goodness as the abundance that makes us constantly fulfilled in plenitude. Thus we realize again that love and goodness belong to each other as the source of what we truly are, our essence and identity.

“Peace is in your bulwark, abundance in your strongholds.” (122:7)

Bulwarks and strongholds share the same qualities, whose function is to protect something. Peace encompasses these qualities as our strongholds, for these are our strength as well as the bulwarks that shield us against anything opposite to goodness, hence abundance is the outcome.

Once we achieve the committed and diligent process of unifying the diverse traits, trends, dimensions and aspects of our consciousness, the end result is peace as the functional harmonized unity that Jerusalem represents.

JERUSALEM IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS (XXII)

“Jerusalem, built as a city that is together, united.” (Psalms 122:3)

This verse is the answer to those who want to divide it as the capital of two different peoples that don’t share the same connection and relationship with the Creator.

The divine establishment of Jerusalem, called here “built”, is meant to reflect the oneness of the God that calls her His house on earth.

This is the same oneness of goodness, which is not a divided or disperse ethical ruling principle as the head (in Latin, “capital” means “head”) that can’t be split into parts because it is a unit.

In Jerusalem everything is not only “together” but also “united”, forming a functional harmonic unity where all is bound by goodness which purpose is to unite the diversity in all levels, aspects and expressions of human consciousness through goodness, for the sake of goodness.

“For there have tribes gone up, the tribes of the Lord, companies of Israel to acknowledge [thank] the name of the Lord.” (122:4)

As we have mentioned, the tribes of Israel represent the potential of goodness in what comprises human consciousness, including creativity, inventiveness, skills and talents that must be elevated by and for goodness in order to ascend to God, from whom emanates all.

In this ascent we acknowledge what God is for us, and that compels us to revere Him in gratitude because thankfulness is the immediate response to goodness when we receive it.

The verse relates also to the offerings the children of Israel brought thrice a year to the Temple of Jerusalem, commanded by God in the Torah, as the means to renew their bond with Him in a united and harmonized fashion, consonant with the unity of Jerusalem.

“For there [in Jerusalem] are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.” (122:5)

The verse clearly states that judgment as the outcome of discernment must come from the highest level of consciousness that Jerusalem represents, for it is the “place” were we connect with our Creator through goodness as our bond with Him.

Here we understand judgment as the righteous approach we must have in every instance of living. Hence, having a “good judgment” means letting goodness direct our thoughts, emotions, feelings, speech and actions. Thus we assimilate that goodness is the throne as the seat from which we rule all aspects and expressions of life.

The “thrones” mentioned in the verse refer to the ways and attributes of goodness that delineate its ethical qualities. From these we harmonize the necessary interaction of intellect, mind, thoughts, emotions, feelings, passion and instincts, in order to live a unified consciousness destined to function by and for goodness.

In this context, the house of David represents the willingness, commitment and determination to lead in goodness the tribes of Israel that, as we have said, encompass the positive creative potentials in human consciousness.

King David is the paradigm of the leading and ruling expressions of goodness, also called the Messianic consciousness destined to reign forever after the Jewish final redemption.

Jerusalem is the place where this new transforming consciousness is manifest to reign in the same chosen dwelling place of the Creator in this world.