“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they be secure who love you. Peace be within your walls and security within your towers. For my brothers’ and companions’ sake, I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.”
– Psalm 122:6–9
And so Psalm 122:6–9 ends and there’s a ton we could talk about with this Psalm altogether, but specifically these last four verses, there’s so much we could dive into. The picture I want us to see, though, in what I just read is the desire for peace, for goodness, among the people of God in the house of God or the city of God. So Jerusalem is mentioned, “the sake of the house of the Lord our God,” talking about the temple. So this is the place where God’s glory dwelled among his people in the Old Testament. And it’s a prayer for peace among God’s people, for God’s people in that place.
Unified During this Pandemic
So here’s why these verses in particular stuck out to me, as we’re praying for specific needs that people are sending in at radical.net/prayer requests. I encourage you to continue to send these in. It’s so humbling reading through these, but this is one particular request that came in.
In light of the pandemic going on around us, will writes, “I’m an elder at a church. And in our state, there is a lot of division about the state’s plan to reopen. Some think it puts people at risk health-wise. Others think it will cause more people to suffer because of the slow economic recovery. And this division in our state is also present in the church.” And he goes on to talk about how people are posting different things on social media that are charged and directed at one another. And he just says, “Please pray that the church would be unified during this time, that we would compassionately care for each other and for our community.”
Psalm 122:6–9 Prays for Peace and Unity in the Church
As I read that, I thought about all the news headlines I see, you see, about as states reopen and even as churches think through what to do when, there is so much in this discussion that is politically charged and there is so much opportunity for division even in the church. And this is where I want to lead us all to pray for Will’s church specifically, and for all of our churches, that God would give us the unity of his Spirit in the bond of peace. That’s the exact phrase we see describing the church in the New Testament, that picture of the bond of peace that brings us together. And it’s exactly what Psalm 122:6–9 is praying for.
So God, we pray that you would give government leaders and church leaders wisdom as we discern how to open up this part or that part of our society and specifically our life together in churches. God, we pray that you would give us wisdom to know how best to love our neighbors as ourselves, how best to care for each other. God, we pray that amidst differing opinions, you would help us to guard our unity around the gospel.
Psalm 122:6–9 Prays for a Unified Church Community
So God, we pray for the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. God, I pray that, we pray together that reality over Will and the church that he’s a part of leading. And God, we pray that over all of our churches. I pray this for the church that I pastor, for every church represented in people who are listening to this right now. And God, we pray that you would help us to strive together with humility for peace, for our brothers’ and companions’ sake, for the good of one another in the church. Please help us to make wise decisions, to humbly encourage one another. Guard us from getting caught up in all the divisiveness that is around us in our culture.
God, we pray that we would indeed, just like Will said, that we would be a unified, shining light in this time as we compassionately care for each other and our communities. God, please may it be so. Peace be within the walls of your people and within your churches. We pray for your peace, for the unity of your Spirit in the bond of peace. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
