Psalm 122 is one of the Psalms pilgrims would sing on their way to and upon arrival
in Jerusalem for the great festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Tabernacles. They weren’t vacationers, or sightseers, or highly motivated people of faith. It was decreed that they make these annual pilgrimages. We blanch over the prospect of religious decrees or days of obligation in worship; but for Israel there was a joy in the discipline. Not “do we have to go to Jerusalem…again? But “we get to go to Jerusalem now!”