Peace

Today’s Reading : Psalms 122

Contrary to popular belief, peace is not the absence of chaos, but the relationship that you have for God in the midst of the chaos. 

Sanctuary can be a place or a time in our lives where we are at peace.  Sometimes we have to have a particular place or a time so that we are able to be grounded and have peace. David is using this passage to show us that we can have peace by where we are and what we are doing. 

“ I was glad when they said to me,

    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Our feet have been standing

    within your gates, O Jerusalem!

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

    “May they be secure who love you!

7 Peace be within your walls

    and security within your towers!”

8 For my brothers and companions’ sake

    I will say, “Peace be within you!”

9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

    I will seek your good.

Psalms 1-2;6-9

David is showing two things here:  The first thing that David is showing us he is standing. When you’re standing, you are still and you are not in motion. So many times in David’s life he was moving and he was continuously searching or escaping or evading. In this particular passage, he says that “ Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem” David is still. David is at rest. David is not running or moving. He has found peace in his body, and he has found peace in his person.

David is at a particular place, Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the epicenter of the Jewish faith. It is still the epicenter of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic faith. It is the city in which David ruled and the kings of Israel ruled. 

When you step into the gates, you are free from harm and danger. You are free from attacks. You are surrounded by protection. We are at a place where we can feel at peace. This is the sanctuary that many people searched for.

As we have completed our Advent season and are celebrating our Christmas season and beginning of a new year, many people will be in the state of flux and unrest.

Many people will have ideas of what they wanted and those ideas were not fulfilled. 

Many people will have memories of past hurts or past grief and are not at peace. 

But this passage shows us that when we have a relationship with God and we are able to be rested and be in a place of protection, we can find peace. Sometimes we don’t need these things to find peace, but it gives us a reassurance of peace in the midst of this chaos.

As we journey into this next year, let us ask God for his continuous relationship with us to grow and allow us to find peace within Him. In the Christmas story, the angels come upon the shepherds and say peace beyond to you.

At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.  – Luke 2:13-14

In a mist of the storms, Jesus told the waves “peace be still”

39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. – Mark 4:39

Allow our next year to give us a fraction of these proclamations of peace.

Be blessed.