Psalm 122

“For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say: ‘May peace be within you’” (v8).  In ancient Israel, peace was the product of God’s people being in right relationship with Him and with each other.  No enemy could prevail against them when they were united in the kind of life that God desired.  And if there was peace in Jerusalem, then the people could say: “Let us go to the house of the Lord” (v1), to worship the Creator.

Peace is not just the absence of war.  It is the presence of God-centered life, in which our relationships and work reflect His self-giving love.