For Jerusalem

Submitted by Heather on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 01:58

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

The city torn by age-old war

The holy city of the Jews

Razed by years of war

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

The holy city of the kings

The city of David, Solomon, Judah

The symbol of hope that God brings

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

The city Abraham’s children founded

Where love and laughter once had shown

Now death and dying lay mounded

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

They who turned away from God

Children of Israel, turn back! Repent!

Your hardened hearts only evil forebode

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

The city of Messiah’s gruesome death

The people there are hardened still

Refusing the touch of God’s cleansing breath

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

The city drenched in Hebrew tears

The Temple has fallen, it stands forgotten

Through the many years

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

The city of enemies throughout the ages

The battle-ground of Arabs and Jews

Long predicted by ancient mages

A house divided cannot stand

And neither can Jerusalem

copyright 2008 by Magical Ink (magical-ink.blogspot.com)

Author's age when written
18
Genre
Notes

Based on Psalm 122:6--"Pray for the peace of Jerusaleml May those who love you be secure." And also thanks to the Joel C. Reosenberg book The Ezekial Option for drawing my attention to the verse!

Comments

That was beautiful. The imagry in the poem takes me back to the streets, the buildings, the shops, the people. The wailing wall especially comes to mind with the line, "The temple has fallen, it stands forgotten". It is so sad to see so many people there ferverently praying, yet rejecting the only one who can save them.

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"The idea that we should approach science without a philosophy is itself a philosophy... and a bad one, because it is self-refuting." -- Dr. Jason Lisle

Hey, nice job-as usual.
I especially liked the lines,

A house divided cannot stand/ And neither can Jerusalem

It reminds me of the time when Israel and Judah split.

"Sometimes even to live is courage."
-Seneca

I love your poem, Heather.

I've always wanted to go to Israel... however living in the Middle East makes that hard.
I find it funny how a place that more or less brought us Shalom now longs for it so much...
I find it funny how a place that our faith began in is now so faithless... and the faithful are still lost.
I find it funny how the Arabs and the Israelites came from the same father, and are so similar - language, culture, dress... and yet they manage never to agree.

And yet I can have so little peace... be so faithless compared to God's faithfulness... and get angry at those I should love...

Thanks, everyone! I really appreciated the comments. Israel has always fascinated me. Not only the country and her history, but the name itself, Israel. It makes a part of me ache when I think about her, the part that always longs for something above this world.
The interest has also come from reading the Joel C. Rosenberg books, starting with The Last Jihad and ending with Dead Heat. If anyone wants some scary, real-life, its-happening-now reading, along with some ideas about the End Times, I'd check those books out.

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And now our hearts will beat in time/You say I am yours and you are mine...
Michelle Tumes, "There Goes My Love"