Day 7 (17 Dec): Praying for the peace of Jerusalem

Passage: Psalms 122

Displaced Palestinians travel on a cart after fleeing the western part of Khan Younis, Gaza, following an evacuation order by the Israeli army on August 21. Photo by CNN.

Have you heard this statement before, ""Pray for the peace of Jerusalem?"

You might have heard it from the mouths of politicians, pastors and podcasters, or seen it on religious news channels. In our media-saturated time, any person could have his own bully pulpit to sound compelling, proclaiming "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem".

The call to pray for the peace of Jerusalem is the sixth verse of Psalm 122, one of the fifteen songs of ascents in the OT.

I suspect quite a few Christians don't realise it's hard to say anything about Israel and Palestine today without offending someone.

Actually, this risk of effrontery is not new, and has only grown in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, the day Hamas militants launched a brutal terrorist attack on Israel. Israel’s counter-attack on Gaza has now crushed Gaza in a horrific two-year war, the fallout of which was felt, and continues, all over the world, even in Singapore.

But cocooned in Singapore, some of us have remain uninterested. “It's too far away”, we say, “I'm hopeless keeping up with global news. The Middle East is impossible to understand. I'll leave it to the government, and since this is Israel, I'll follow what my pastor says.”

What is worse – ignoring the bloodshed and killing, or getting invested and allowing ourselves to grow numb?

If we leave aside the war dead numbers, the devastation of buildings, the displacement of families, the spread of disease and starvation, and consider first the sundering rifts in societies far removed from the Middle East, what do we see?

Well, in the U.S. which has the largest Jewish community in the world after Israel, American Jews are offended when American Christians criticize Israel for its treatment of the Palestinian people. For their part, American Christians are offended when Jewish friends charge that any criticism of Israel, however reasonable, is anti-Semitic. More cruelly, some Christians have praised Israel, saying the war is right because Israel is God’s people.

Now, because Singapore has a small Jewish population, many of us don't really know what anti-semitism is. To us, anti-semitism is something that happens in Europe and the West. Yet on November 6, our Coordinating Minister for National Security and Home Affairs K Shanmugam said there have been recent instances of antisemitism in Singapore. 

That surely is an eye-opener, but in Singapore, our greater worry is how the Hamas-Israel conflict will dent our trust and friendships with our Muslim friends. Very certainly, our Muslim friends have watched the war with greater dismay and anxiety than we. Whose side is Singapore on? Who is the aggressor, who the victim? When Christians blithely say "Pray for the peace of Israel," does that mean we support Israel over Palestine?

How will these conflicting loyalties affect Singapore society? I worry when the young adults in our churches ask: "Why is the church so pro-Israel when Israel’s unjust war killed civilians, children and innocents?" What good answers do I have?

There are no easy rejoinders. Very certainly, all of us need to understand more deeply what we believe from the Bible, as well the historic narratives and political complexities that envelope the Middle East, and bind the world.

I feel what was lost to war, God will reclaim in welcome. I believe this. But what is the road?

I feel as Christians we need to weigh our words about Jerusalem, Israel and Palestine, for that can affect our moral standing. Our words must heal. As Advent begins, how do we align our longings for peace as we watch for the new creation God is birthing, right in the midst of the savaged present?

When we pray "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," what redeems our prayer? May our Prince of Peace bring everlasting shalom to a land that now flows with blood and hate, not milk and honey.

Elder Lee Chung Horn

True Way Presbyterian Church English Congregation