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 (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 (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 (XXI)

“I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people. In the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst Jerusalem, praise the Lord.” (Psalms 116:18-19)

Jerusalem is where we integrate through, in, with and for goodness, all levels and aspects of consciousness (“God’s people, the tribes of Israel”) with conviction and determination (“vows”).

The “courts” and the “midst” of the city of God are His ways and attributes, with which we “praise” Him by what we are and do in the material world. Living in the premises of goodness is dwelling in the house of God that is built in Jerusalem.

“I have rejoiced in those saying to me, ‘Let’s go to the house of the Lord’.” (122:1)

We can read this verse in several ways. King David is happy because of those who invite him to visit the Temple of Jerusalem. They certainly are not only his friends but also those in whom he rejoices, as his source or cause for happiness.

These are the positive traits and qualities that define goodness by their expressions in what we do for our individual and collective well being, hence the best reasons to rejoice, for they are destined to direct our lives as God’s will, which is His “house”. Going to God’s house is what the best in us does when live permanently in goodness.

“Our feet have been standing in your gates, Jerusalem!” (122:2)

Coming to Jerusalem, as well as anywhere, requires from us the full awareness and determination to move in that direction. Our feet indeed take us to where we need or want to go, but they only respond to our will. Once we stand where we want to be, it becomes our accomplishment.

The Psalmist makes the words in this verse sound as the culmination of a long journey, which is about leaving behind the negative traits and trends of ego’s fantasies and illusions, in order to commit to permanently live in the ways and attributes of goodness.

It is not an easy task, for it is an ongoing process of transforming our consciousness to redirect it in the right path. Once we complete this challenging journey we will be literally at the gates of the city of God, calling at her name to let us in and dwell in it bonding with 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 (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.