Jerusalem, which art built as a city that is compact together,
Psalm 122 is a pilgrim's song, and verse 3 is the moment the traveller looks up at the city itself. He sees a city "bound firmly together" — older versions read "compact together," and that is the wording in the quotes below.
Is this Jerusalem as it stood, or Jerusalem as God means it to be? The psalmist speaks of the city as finished. No pilgrim's eyes could confirm that. Commentators say the description belongs to God's purpose, not to the city's state at the time.
In the confidence of faith, the godly man views Jerusalem, their journey's goal. He sees it not as it has been through the ages, but as it will be according to God's purpose. In Nehemiah's day the wall of Jerusalem lay broken down and its gates burned with fire. Now, the godly man, looking beyond the ruin, sees it not just being built, but finished — "a city that is compact together." There are no breaches left in the wall.
Later in these same pilgrim songs the singers work out who does the building. The vision of verse 3 is one thing; the power to bring it about is another.
So, in the course of these pilgrim psalms, the godly own three things. It is the Lord who sets them free. It is the Lord who keeps them on their pilgrim journey. And it is the Lord who establishes them in the home to which they are going. They had seen the purpose of the Lord to have Jerusalem "builded" and "compact together" (Ps. 122:3). Now they recognise that only the Lord can carry out His purpose.
The picture is first of all architectural: a city whose parts fit. One writer names what the pilgrims admire, and points to another city Scripture measures the same way.
First, it is the form, the beauty of the city itself which excites admiration: it is built as a city that is compact together. The symmetry and completeness of the city arrest the attention. This is the city as it will be in the future glories of the kingdom, though the splendour of Jerusalem in David's reign may have supplied its prophetic type. The Christian will at once recall the measurements of the new Jerusalem. The earthly city will stand in direct relationship to it: "And the city lies foursquare, and its length is the same as its breadth… The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal." This is finite perfection, pictured by the shape of a cube — a finite perfection that God bestows.
A city can be packed tight by walls or by trade. One writer points to a different bond here, and to something the psalm's first verse already said.
This city compacted together is indeed a resurrection: all are firmly united, because the divine attraction that the first verse expresses holds them. No other bond can unite like this, and no other bond lasts for ever as this one does.
One writer reads verses 3 and 4 together as one picture: the union of the whole nation. The old rivalry between its tribes is over.
Verses 3, 4 express the perfect union in blessing of the entire nation. Ephraim no longer envies Judah, nor does Judah trouble Ephraim. They flow together as a testimony to Israel.
Another writer sets that unity against the old mixture of godly and ungodly, and against the discord of cities today.
The city will be built. It will no longer loosely hold both godly and ungodly together. It will be compacted together — a unity so unlike the discord seen in cities today (v. 3).
One writer looks back at what Jerusalem had been, and at what had happened to her since.
Such had been the glory of Jerusalem, the centre for worship and centre of government. How could they ever forget what she had once been? But how mixed her history had been! The house of the Lord, to which he turned with joy, had lain in ruins for ages, and its holy site had been given over to other uses. The city too had for centuries ceased to be the centre of government. But now their hopes revive, and, with the Lord as their keeper, they can look for peace.
- Attraction. The city holds together by the divine attraction the psalm's first verse expresses. No other bond unites like this one.
- Compacted. The word describes fit and finish: symmetry and completeness, a city with no breaches left in its wall.
- Gathered. What is true of the stones is true of the people. The tribes flow together, and Ephraim no longer envies Judah.
- Built by God. Faith sees the finished city while the ruins still stand. Only the Lord can carry His purpose through.
- Centred. Jerusalem had been the centre of worship and of government, and there the hope of peace revives.
Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of Jah, a testimony to Israel, to give thanks unto the name of Jehovah.
Psalm 122 is a pilgrim song, and verse 4 is the moment the singer looks around and sees the whole nation on the road with him. ESV reads "as was decreed for Israel." Older translations read "a testimony to Israel." The writers quoted below follow that older wording.
The psalm's title points to a journey. One writer traces the name of the whole series back to this very verse.
These "songs of degrees" are better called "songs of the ascents." We are surely right to explain that name first of all by the going up of the tribes three times a year to the feasts at Jerusalem, which the third psalm of this same series speaks of (Ps. 122:4). But that is only a clue to the inner meaning. This repeated call to the city of God has in view the "set times" of Leviticus 23, which speak of God's gracious acts toward His people — acts that will gather them round Himself in praise for ever. The "ascents" are, therefore, above all else, ascents of the heart to Him because of His grace.
The tribes are not travelling to a capital but to a house. Their name — "the tribes of the LORD" — also describes what they will become.
The psalm shows Jerusalem as the gathering-point for all the people... Jerusalem will be Israel's true centre because of the house of the Lord. So the city's name in that day will be Jehovah-shammah — the Lord is there. His presence there, as always, will be the attraction for all His own. Notice here that the tribes are called "the tribes of the Lord." By then their stubbornness and rebellion will all be over, and they will plainly belong to Him whose name they bear.
Another writer names what holds the city together.
Jerusalem is now the uniting centre for Israel — in fact, though the psalm does not say so, of the whole earth. The first verse gives the basis of that unity: the power of Jehovah's house over the soul.
Ephraim and Judah, two rival parts of the nation, had envied and troubled each other. Verse 4 pictures that rivalry gone.
Verses 3, 4 express the perfect union in blessing of the entire nation. Ephraim no longer envies Judah, and Judah no longer troubles Ephraim. They flow together as a testimony to Israel.
The clause can mean a testimony given to Israel, not something Israel owns. On that reading, the crowd on the road is itself the message.
The next clause is better translated: "A testimony for, or to, Israel"... This means that the gathering of all the tribes, their shared going up to the house of the Lord, would go out as a testimony to the whole nation.
The journey ends in one activity, and it aims at a person, not a place.
The tribes gather in order "to give thanks to the name of the LORD," to Jehovah as He is revealed among Israel. One of David's last acts was to appoint the Levites "to stand every morning, thanking and praising the LORD, and likewise at evening" (1 Chr. 23:30). But at the time our psalm speaks of, all the tribes together will share this blessed service of thanksgiving and praise.
One writer uses this verse to settle which Jerusalem the psalm means.
This Psalm is clearly about the earthly Jerusalem, not the heavenly one. The tribes do not go up to the heavenly city to give thanks. The thrones of David's house are not set there. And no house or temple of God can be seen in that lasting city of His rest (Rev. 21:22).
The psalm still speaks to the reader. Another writer links love for God's dwelling with love for God's people.
Love for that place of God's dwelling comes with the sense that all of this is joined together in blessing. We love it not only for the Lord's own sake, who is the centre of all, but for the sake of all the saints, for our brothers and companions. This cannot be the first thing, but it is the first circle round the true centre — love to all saints.
- Ascent. The psalm's title means "going up." The climb to the feasts pictures the heart rising to God because of His grace.
- Centre. What pulls the tribes up is God's house — His presence, so that the city's future name means "the Lord is there."
- Unity. At that centre the old split between Ephraim and Judah ends. The whole nation flows together.
- Testimony. The gathered tribes are the witness. Read as "a testimony to Israel," the sight itself preaches to the nation.
- Thanks. The journey ends in one purpose: thanks to the name of the LORD. Writers tie the scene to the earthly Jerusalem still ahead, not the heavenly one.