I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
As Psalms 121:1-8 was sung in sight of Jerusalem's distant hills, so this psalm at the gates, when the pilgrims halted to form the procession to the sanctuary. Psalms 122:1-9. Introduction (Psalms 122:1-2); excellency of Jerusalem, the civil and religious capital of all Israel (Psalms 122:3-5); prayers for its peace, as involving the interests of the whole national brotherhood, and of the house of God (Psalms 122:6-9). Compare Psalms 122:3 with 2 Samuel 5:9; 2 Samuel 5:11,
The internal evidence of the psalm confirms the title, which assigns it to David as the author. His design was to conciliate the Ten northern tribes, which had been slower in recognizing him as king, to Jerusalem, the newly-constituted capital and religious center of the nation. The ark, 'the heart of the Israelite religion' (Hengstenberg), had been just brought up to Zion by David (2 Samuel 6:13). Traces of pilgrim procession to it appear in Psalms 42:4; Psalms 55:14.
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Each one is glad at the other saying so. Isaiah 2:3 refers to this. What in early times the pilgrim Israelites used to say, that in Messianic days shall the pagan nations say to one another.