Let Us Go to the House of the Lord.
The fifteen psalms that make up the ‘Songs of Ascents’ seemed to illustrate various stages of the pilgrimages to the various festivals in Jerusalem. When we get to Psalm 122 it’s clearly about the arrival in Jerusalem. The first two verses illustrate that the Psalmist, David, is thrilled at the idea of going up to the house of the Lord, which at that time was the tabernacle. The phrase: ‘let us go to the house of the Lord!’ indicates fellowship with the others on the journey as well as in worship. But this zeal does not abate once the 
journey is over as he’s just as the zealous when he gets there. So this is not just a psalm about good intentions, but rather about seeing them through and maintaining the zeal when the journey is over and it comes to worship!
Verses 3-5 illustrates that Jerusalem was a wonderful place, a really great city and meeting place where the tribes gather to worship at the house of the Lord. But that wasn’t always the case as in the past, when David conquered it (2 Samuel 5:6-9) it was probably just a collection of houses in a strategic situation rather than the capital that David transformed it into. This was the city that he’d used to unify Israel not just as a nation but also in worship! And that is illustrated by the use of the covenant name of God, Yahweh (LORD) in verse 4. They worshiped God because of who he is. The covenant existed purely because of God’s initiative when he’d rescued them when they were slaves in Egypt. Therefore, it illustrated his character. The word: ‘judgement’ in verse 5 can be rendered ‘justice’ in the Hebrew. So he was a God who they could always depend on to do right! So Jerusalem symbolised unity amongst God’s people and spiritual reform!
But David takes nothing for granted, just because things are OK now doesn’t mean they always will be. So he urges his fellow countrymen to: ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ (v6). His prayer is simple, that peace and security would continue. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer who wrote the ‘Book of Common Prayer’ and what became the ‘Thirty Nine articles of the Church of England’ was a major figure during the Reformation in England. But what isn’t commonly known is that he had further reforms in mind which he was unable to ever get around to due to his martyrdom! That illustrates that great men of 
God never assume anything; the Christian faith is a reforming faith based on the unchangeable Word of scripture! In other words, the church has to be constantly reforming itself in the light of scripture.
And that’s illustrated in the last verses of this psalm as they show that David is praying that genuine fellowship will continue. The phrase: ‘For my brothers and companions sake’ (v8) illustrates this. His prayer is that: ‘For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good’ (v9) illustrates he is concerned that pure true religion would continue and the nation would grow because of it. So, just as David is praying for their next part of their growth, we need to as well if we are looking to the Lord to take us to the next stage of spiritual renewal.
Would you like to listen to a sermon on this Psalm? Let us go to the House of the Lord.