Let Us Go To The Holy Land (Audio Sample - 1.16 MB) Song from Psalm 122 I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the Holy Land.' Next year in Jerusalem! Let us go to the Lord's house!   Now we are standing before your gates, my family and friends in Jerusalem, mountain of the Lord's temple! Mighty city of God's house!   Narrow, winding streets, steep the climb, packed with crowds for the festival, come to honor God's earthly home! We have come to the Lord's house!   Here the people come each year praising the Lord for the harvest full, singing of the Lord's goodness! Gladly singing to God's name!   Here King David built his throne, here the shrine of God's holy Law, here the hope of all Israel! Here on this mountain of Glory!   Pray for peace in the Holy Land, peace in your home, where you work and play, peace for all who rule this land! Peace to you, my friends!   A Reflection on Psalm 122:6-9   Sha-lu sha-lom Ye-ru-shal-a-yim   Pray now for peace in Jerusalem, city of peace and prosperity.   Pray for peace within your gateways, dear home of my heart   Pray for peace throughout the land, in palace and household, be peace.   Peace to you, my family and friends, may you be healthy and wise!   May the Lord continue to smile on and fill your days with peace.   Composer's Reflection Psalm 122 is a processional psalm of ascent, sung by the pilgrims as they arrived in Jerusalem and climbed up Mt. Zion, through the city gates, to the Temple. The psalm is in three sections, which may have reflected three stages of the entrance ritual. The psalm most probably evolved from three earlier, independent fragments of texts. vv 1-2 Entrance Song of the Pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem vv 3-5 Hymn to the City, honoring the Past (Exodus) and anticipating the Future (the Messianic Era) vv 6-9 Intercessory Prayer for Peace and God's Continued Presence on Earth It is a song to Jerusalem, Yeru-shalom, City of Peace and Prosperity, God's tent pitched among us on earth. In the final section there is a word game, Sha-lu Sha-lom Yeru-sha-lyem, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. This is a never-ending cycle. We go to Jerusalem to pray for peace; yet because we are blessed by God's peace, we go to Jerusalem. Liturgy is cyclical, covering the same ground year in, year out, a constantly repeating and renewing itself in a never-ending spiral of call and response. God is praised from sunset to sunrise, from sunrise to sunset. Pilgrimage keeps alive that song. And a well-intentioned Pilgrimage results in more than a spinning prayer wheel of good intentions, it results in the restoration of a broken planet, the ultimate sowing of peace on earth. Back