Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

Please join in the "Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem." However expressed, in whatever bible version, the Lord in Psalm 122:6 asks us to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem."

In my favorite version of the bible, the Revised Standard Version (RSV), Psalm 122, verses 6-9 read as follows:

6: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! "May they prosper who love you! 7: Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers!" 8: For my brethren 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.

Pat Robertson of the 700 Club reminds us all of our call to intercede:

October 2: Day to Prayer for Jerusalem's Peace
The 700 Club

CBN.com – Robert Stearns, worship leader and founder of Eagles’ Wings Ministries, is praying for the peace of Jerusalem, and he’s calling others to do the same. A day of prayer for the peace of Jerusalem has been established and is held on the first Sunday of every October each year until the return of Jesus. Last year more than 50,000 churches and 70 nations united in this prayer initiative, and double that number are expected to participate this year on October 3, 2005. Robert and over 500 other major Christian leaders are following God’s mandate from the Psalms to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

PAT ROBERTSON: Would you please welcome back to The 700 Club Robert Stearns. Robert, I understand 53 churches, 72 nations?

ROBERT STEARNS (Founder Eagles' Wings Ministries): Well, we had an extraordinary response for the first Sunday day of prayer for the peace of Jerusalem last year. You were with us at the Rose Garden in the Knesset. And we had 53,000 churches and 72 nations around the world, 27 languages. The Lord is raising up watchman on the wall to fulfill the biblical mandate to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

PAT ROBERTSON: That’s what it says. “Blessed are they that love you. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” And I was there. It coincided, of course, with the Feast of Tabernacles. And that’s coming up very shortly, Rosh Hashanah and then sukkot. This is a key time. Do you see the prophetic significance in this particular feast in the Bible?

ROBERT STEARNS: I really do. I believe that the season of the high holy days is just such a special time, and Christians around the world are awakening to the Jewish roots of the Christian faith and the reality that God has His hand on Israel in such a covenantal and unique way. And so the first Sunday of October day of prayer has been positioned to coincide with the high holy days so that Christians around the world in the season of the high holy days are standing in prayer on behalf of Jerusalem.

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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 8:29 AM