Sunday, January 4, 2009

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

The title says it all. As things worsen in Gaza let us pray for peace there, not just an end to violence but an end to fanaticism, fundamentalism and racism, to everything that makes one human hate another and fail to see in him the image and the likeness of God. Video from the BBC here.
Perhaps you might pause and pray these three psalms (Grail version)
Psalm 120(119) Ad Dominum

To the Lord in the hour of my distress
I call and he answers me.
"O Lord, save my soul from lying lips,
from the tongue of the deceitful."

What shall he repay you in return,
O treacherous tongue?
The warriors arrows sharpened
and coals, red-hot, blazing.

(Alas, that I abide a stranger in Meshech,
dwell among the tents of Kedar!)

Long enough have I been dwelling
with those who hate peace.
I am for peace, but when I speak,
they are for fighting.



Psalm 121(120) Levai oculos

I lift up my eyes to the mountains;
from where shall come my help?
My help shall come from the Lord
who made heaven and earth.

May he never allow you to stumble!
Let him sleep not, your guard.
No, he sleeps not nor slumbers,
Israel's guard.

The Lord is your guard and your shade;
at your right side he stands.
By day the sun shall not smite you
nor the moon in the night.

The Lord will guard you from evil,
he will guard you soul.
The Lord will guard your going and coming
both now and for ever.



Psalm 122(121) Laetatus sum

I rejoiced when I heard them say:
"Let us go to God's house."
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built as a city
strongly compact.
It is there that the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord.

For Israel's law it is,
there to praise the Lord's name.
There were set the thrones of judgment
of the house of David.

For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
"Peace be to your homes!
May peace reign in your walls,
in your palaces, peace!"

For love of my brethren and friends
I say: "Peace upon you."
For love of the house of the Lord
I will ask for your good.

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