Psalms 2, Shalom

Craghan starts this lesson by speaking a little about the nature of the word Shalom, peace. Most of us know this word as the Hebrew greeting, equivalent to hello or goodbye. But Shalom has a much deeper meaning, as Craghan instructs us on page 90. Shalom…

“is the fullest union of heaven and earth, the Lord and humans.”

As seen in the book of Numbers, God instructed Moses himself about how Aaron and the priests would bless the Israelites.

The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

St. Paul frequently opens his letters with the greeting, “Grace and peace to you.”

These blessings seek a place where worries are few, where there is a natural equilibrium in a person’s life, a placid state.

How do we achieve this peace? Is it by winning the lottery? Do we find peace through money, titles, defeating our enemies? I think that on the surface, the psalms of this lesson could falsely lead us to believe that the wealth and power of a handsome king are the foundations of peace. But the psalmist, I believe, wants us to go much deeper to the essence of shalom, to understand that peace comes from living your life in a way that fulfills God’s hopes and dreams for you.

In the prayer for the King in the Time of War, God’s help comes from the temple, a holy place — not a praetorium, or a forum, or some similar place of authority. It comes from the place where holiness reigns. Whatever the king endeavored, God’s intervention came because the royal entity sacrificed to and for God.

I think this is why Craghan ends the lesson talking about one of the least peaceful moments in Jesus’ life; the arrest of John the Baptist. Jesus knows that the peace of the world will only be achieved if he shuns a future of worldly royal glory, and sacrifices his very life, the very purpose God gave him life for.

So if we want to find shalom, we too must be willing to seek God’s plan for us and sacrifice for Him.