Praying for the Peacemakers of Jerusalem
As far as the East Jerusalem is from the West Jerusalem, as far as Gaza is from the West Bank, as far as the City of Peace is from peace, still God removes our transgressions, bringing his compassion
For all the Palestinian Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem and throughout the Holy Land who are laboring in love for peace in their homeland, pray that the Lord will hear their prayers, that God’s righteousness and justice, healing and forgiveness will prevail.
For all the religious and secular Jews in Jerusalem and throughout the Holy Land who are laboring in love for peace
in their homeland, pray that the Lord will hear their prayers, that our Father in heaven’s righteousness and justice, healing and forgiveness will prevail here on earth.
Jesus of Nazareth, the Anointed One, the Son of David, proclaimed a gospel of healing, deliverance, rescue, and salvation to the children of Abraham.
The proclamations of peace with the Almighty were good news to the impoverished men and women in the Promised Land who wondered if the promises of the Creator had been forgotten if they had been abandoned to the violence and chaos, the cruel Imperial terror of the Roman Empire.
But the Son of David became one of them, grew up among them, labored as one of them, and then was baptized in the Jordan like so many thousands of them, becoming the answer to their prayers for the ones who trusted God, seeking forgiveness of their sins and healing for all that ailed them.
Psalm 103 is a song of hope born out of lament, a lyrical cry to the Lord yearning for strength and deliverance amidst a hopeless crises, almost a kind of rebel cry of praise to a Creator that we still barely trust - but just enough - to keep looking for his justice to prevail through our works of healing and forgiveness in his Name.
If only peace in the Holy Land was less complicated, if only the path to reconciliation and friendship was easier...
For all who want to become peacemakers in Jerusalem and throughout the world, for those of us who trust in the Peacemaker who was crucified in Jerusalem but then resurrected from the dead, for those of us who refuse to quit believing in the enduring promises of Jesus to forgive all our sins and heal all our diseases, for those of us who still hold on to the hope of the God of Abraham, David and Mary: that our Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love.
The same Spirit that was upon them is also available to us. May it be so…
In the meantime, keep telling the truth regarding the injustices of the oppressed, alongside our defiant praise of the Lord in our soul - that part of us which the pit of despair and death cannot crush…
Psalm 103
New International Version
Of David.
1 Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit [of death]
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.6 The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.20 Praise the Lord, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.Praise the Lord, my soul.