Going 'Round Zion in Circles

Ps. 48:12-13

Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him)

Jun 13, 2024

Will Zion once again be home for peace?

What will the future look like? For the poets of the psalms the future will be as beautiful as Jerusalem - the city chosen by YHWH and the seat of all peace and justice, if not now - then at the end of time. In so many homes worldwide there are photos and images of this city’s sacred shrines - for Jews, Christians and Muslims - it is a sacred destination, although with very different meanings. We are walking around this complex place in careful circles — and one day, we hope, it will be a circle dance.

Whoever wrote these psalms and came up with these future visions may have been living in the actual city -either during its glory days or in the centuries after the Babylonian exile, as it was slowly coming back to life as the nation’s sacred center.

Throughout this psalm the poet imagines what’s yet to come, as Jerusalem will once again be depicted as the future center of the nation - and the world, the pilgrim’s destination.

The term Zion is repeated here - the mountain that became the name for the city, for the land and for the movement that’s now so mired in bloody political claims and narratives of blame and longing. Somehow this term captures both the complexity and the capacity for all that can be beautiful in the world.

How will one appreciate the city? By walking around it in circles, as pilgrims do, not as its owners, with humility, respect — and as one circulates in sacred shrines:

סֹ֣בּוּ צִ֭יּוֹן וְהַקִּיפ֑וּהָ סִ֝פְר֗וּ מִגְדָּלֶֽיהָ׃ שִׁ֤יתוּ לִבְּכֶ֨ם ׀ לְֽחֵילָ֗הֿ פַּסְּג֥וּ אַרְמְנוֹתֶ֑יהָ לְמַ֥עַן תְּ֝סַפְּר֗וּ לְד֣וֹר אַֽחֲרֽוֹן׃

Walk around Zion,

circle it;

count its towers,

take note of its ramparts;

go through its citadels,

that you may recount it to a future age.

Ps. 48:12-13

The biblical scholar Nahum Sarna wrote about this verse:

“Zion is lauded many times in the Book of Psalms… Psalm 48 is the most prominent and exemplary of the compositions that focus on the city.”

Ezra Butler invites us to imagine this circular walk as a circle-tour of our creative imagination, beyond the specific geo-politics:

“A city is more than its buildings. Those are built, torn down, and rebuilt. Jerusalem and its buildings are metonyms for something else. Who designed the fortresses and its towers? Who built the walls? Who cobbled the streets? Who washes those walls and cleans those streets?

With this in mind, a possible reading of the psalmist’s advice in 48:13-14, in which he exhorts the reader to walk around the city and pay careful attention, is that he is talking about more than just a physical city. It is to create sanctuaries of imagination for yourself.

Slow down and become like a tourist in your own city. Rediscover the familiar. Don’t only count the towers, but tell the stories of their builders and inhabitants alike. Instead of the fear of the unknown and the foreign, embrace the new cultures and people you encounter.”

I have been fortunate enough to walk around Jerusalem many times, fulfilling the dreams that my ancestors may never have thought could become reality. I’ve walked here with my parents, and with my children. I’ve protested on the walls and sat in prayer with people of different faiths, sharing our love and hope for better days.

Taking Jerusalem in as both a physical place - where my mother lives and my father is buried — and the imagined sacred center, I long for the days in which we will walk through this city with full knowledge that all its inhabitants are safe and secure, equally honored and partaking in its becoming a sacred center , pilgrimage site for all who want a better world. For now, we walk in circles, praying for the peace of this place and for safety and serenity on every step and every stone.

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Below the Bible Belt

Going 'Round Zion in Circles

Ps. 48:12-13

Will Zion once again be home for peace?

Whoever wrote these psalms and came up with these future visions may have been living in the actual city -either during its glory days or in the centuries after the Babylonian exile, as it was slowly coming back to life as the nation’s sacred center.

Throughout this psalm the poet imagines what’s yet to come, as Jerusalem will once again be depicted as the future center of the nation - and the world, the pilgrim’s destination.

How will one appreciate the city? By walking around it in circles, as pilgrims do, not as its owners, with humility, respect — and as one circulates in sacred shrines:

Walk around Zion,

circle it;

count its towers,

take note of its ramparts;

go through its citadels,

that you may recount it to a future age.

Ps. 48:12-13

The biblical scholar Nahum Sarna wrote about this verse:

“Zion is lauded many times in the Book of Psalms… Psalm 48 is the most prominent and exemplary of the compositions that focus on the city.”

Ezra Butler invites us to imagine this circular walk as a circle-tour of our creative imagination, beyond the specific geo-politics:

“A city is more than its buildings. Those are built, torn down, and rebuilt. Jerusalem and its buildings are metonyms for something else. Who designed the fortresses and its towers? Who built the walls? Who cobbled the streets? Who washes those walls and cleans those streets?

With this in mind, a possible reading of the psalmist’s advice in 48:13-14, in which he exhorts the reader to walk around the city and pay careful attention, is that he is talking about more than just a physical city. It is to create sanctuaries of imagination for yourself.

Slow down and become like a tourist in your own city. Rediscover the familiar. Don’t only count the towers, but tell the stories of their builders and inhabitants alike. Instead of the fear of the unknown and the foreign, embrace the new cultures and people you encounter.”

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