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.

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.