Psalm 122

“I will seek your good”

We continue with the Songs of Ascent here with Psalm 122. The song is a prayer for the unity, health, security, peace, and prosperity of Jerusalem. The final lines of the song:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers.”
For the sake of my relatives and friends
I will say, “Peace be within you.”
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.

Is there a political theology being espoused in this song? And if so, how does it apply to our time and place?

As you know, this is a pressing and contentious question. What does it mean to “seek the good” of our cities? Cities where we desire security, peace, and prosperity.

Israel was a theocracy, faith and politics were interwoven. Just as we see in Psalm 122. By contrast, we live in a liberal democracy. Some take this situation to be an invitation to use electoral power to shift the nation toward theocracy. This agenda is pejoratively called “Christian nationalism.” And yet, as my colleague Brad East has pointed out, this label is often messily and unhelpfully thrown around. For the simple reason that the values we hold, often religious values, inform how we vote, the policies we support, and the political actions we undertake. And if you’re a Christian that means you’re going to seek a more Christian vision of your nation, no matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. Your vision of the good affects the sort of peace and prosperity you want the nation to pursue. To press the point, was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of the “beloved community” a more Christian vision of America? I believe so. Does that make me a “Christian nationalist” if I seek and pursue that beloved community?

The response here is predictable: “You’re being too precious. By ‘Christian nationalism’ we don’t me that. You know what we mean and of whom we speak.” I do know what you mean. But I’m trying to point out that our pushback to Christian nationalism isn’t really about the “nationalism.” It’s with the “Christian” part. By this I mean both progressive and evangelical Christians pray the prayer from Psalm 122:

“May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers.”

We each want the nation to be prosperous, peaceful, and secure. The differences emerge with what a Christian vision of that peace, security, and prosperity might entail, along with a Christian vision of the means used to achieve these ends. The conflict is theological. Well, I’d argue the conflict is more precisely Christological. As Bonhoeffer put it, Jesus is “the man for others.” So my vision of Christian nationalism is a politics that shows concern for others. Specifically those same others Israel’s politics were to be concerned with, the quartet of the vulnerable:

Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. (Zechariah 7:10)

Such commands inform the political vision of Psalm 122, giving precise definition for words like “peace” and “prosperity.” And as we know, Israel’s politics failed. This was the prophetic indictment Jesus leveled at his nation in Matthew 25 in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, their failure to care for the vulnerable. Israel had not pursued the beloved community. And I believe that the judgment that befell the politics of Israel--“Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons!”--hangs over our politics today.