“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” comes from Psalm 122:6, a pilgrim song the Church has prayed for two thousand years. To pray it today is to ask God for peace within the walls of the city where Jesus died and rose, for the Christians who still live and worship there, for everyone in the land who is suffering, and for the day when every tear is wiped away in the new Jerusalem.
Below is a prayer you can pray right now, followed by short prayers, Psalm 122 prayed line by line, prayers for the Christians of the Holy Land and for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, prayers for times of war, Catholic prayers, a week of prayer for Jerusalem, and the Bible verses behind them.
A Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem
You told us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and so I do.
Let there be peace within her walls and security within her gates.
Guard the families who wake up there this morning,
the children walking to school, the old people on their doorsteps,
and every home that has buried someone it loved.
Lord Jesus, you wept over this city.
Let your tears be heard again for her today.
Strengthen the Christians who keep your holy places,
give wisdom to those who govern,
and courage to those who work for peace when it costs them.
Where there is fear, send your peace, which the world cannot give.
And until the day the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven,
keep me praying for this city as if it were my own.
Amen.
Short Prayers for the Peace of Jerusalem
For a moment between other things, or for a family to say together at the table.
- Lord, let there be peace within the walls of Jerusalem. Amen.
- Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem. Have mercy on her today.
- Prince of Peace, be the peace of the city where you rose from the dead.
- Father, protect the children of Jerusalem tonight.
- Lord, surround your people as the mountains surround Jerusalem.
- Holy Spirit, make me a peacemaker in my own home, and bless the peacemakers in yours.
- For the sake of the house of the Lord, I will seek her good. Amen.
What “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” Means
Psalm 122 is one of the fifteen Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120 to 134), sung by pilgrims as they climbed the road up to Jerusalem for the feasts. It opens with the joy of arrival (“I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’”) and ends with a blessing on the city. The call to prayer sits at the heart of it:
Many Christians first learned the verse in the King James wording, which is where the phrase about prospering comes from:
“Prosper” here does not mean money. The NIV’s “be secure” is closer to the sense: those who love the city will be at rest and safe. The psalmist gives two reasons for his prayer, and neither is political. He prays for the sake of the people he loves (“my family and friends”) and for the sake of the house of God.
How Christians pray this psalm
Christians pray Psalm 122 through the eyes of Jesus. When he came down the Mount of Olives and saw the city, Luke records that he wept over it:
A small Franciscan church stands on that slope today, Dominus Flevit (“the Lord wept”), built in the shape of a teardrop. It is a good picture of the posture this prayer asks for: not taking sides, but grieving with Christ over a city he loved, and asking for the peace only he gives. Paul says it plainly: “he himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14).
So a Christian praying for the peace of Jerusalem is asking for three things at once: safety and an end to violence for the earthly city today, the flourishing of the Church in the place where the Gospel began, and the coming of the new Jerusalem, where God “will wipe every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4).
You do not need a view on the politics of the region to pray this. Jesus wept first and spoke second. Start there.
Praying Psalm 122 Line by Line
One of the oldest ways to pray a psalm is to read a line, stop, and turn it into your own words. Here is Psalm 122 prayed that way.
“I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”
“Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem.”
“Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together.”
“There stand the thrones for judgment.”
“May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls.”
“For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’”
“For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity.”
Prayers for the Christians of Jerusalem and the Holy Land
The Church in Jerusalem is the oldest Christian community in the world. The first Christians were there at Pentecost, and there have been Christians living and praying in the city ever since. Today they are a small community, and many families have left over the years. When the apostle Paul collected money from the churches of Greece, it was “for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem” (Romans 15:26). Praying for them is one of the oldest habits the Church has.
A prayer for the local Church
you built your Church in Jerusalem before it was anywhere else.
Bless the Christians who still live there:
the priests and religious who keep the holy places,
the families who worship in their own language in their own parishes,
the teachers in Christian schools and the nurses in Christian hospitals.
When it is hard to stay, give them strength.
When they are forgotten by the rest of us, remind us.
Let the light of the empty tomb never go out in the city where it first shone.
Amen.
A prayer for Christian families thinking of leaving
some of your children in the Holy Land are weighing whether they can stay.
They want work, safety, and a future for their children, and those are good things to want.
Give them the wisdom to decide well, whichever way they decide,
and give those who stay the means to live and flourish where they are.
Amen.
A Prayer for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands over Golgotha and the tomb of Christ. It is shared by six Christian communities: Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Syriac Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox. Since Ottoman decrees of 1757 and 1852, an arrangement called the Status Quo has fixed who may use each part of the church and when, and nothing can be changed without everyone’s agreement.
Above the main entrance, a wooden ladder has rested against a window ledge since at least the 1720s, because no one could agree to move it. When Pope Paul VI visited in 1964, he spoke of it as a sign of how divided Christians are. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem begins at home, with the peace of Christ’s own family.
on the night before you died, in this city, you prayed that all of us would be one.
Look with mercy on the church built over your cross and your tomb.
Bless every community that keeps it,
every priest who prays there before the doors open,
and every pilgrim who kneels at the place of your resurrection.
Where we are divided, make us humble.
Where we have made your tomb a place of argument, make it again a place of wonder.
That the world may believe.
Amen.
Read more about the church itself on our Church of the Holy Sepulchre page and about the Chapel of St. Helena, where prayer requests are photographed.
Prayers When There Is War in the Land
When the news from Jerusalem and the Holy Land is bad, many Christians feel they should pray but do not know what to say. These prayers stay close to what Scripture asks of us: to pray for all people, for those in authority, for peacemakers, and even for those we find it hard to love.
For those who are grieving
tonight there are mothers and fathers in the Holy Land who will not sleep,
because a child is missing, or wounded, or gone.
There are children who have lost their parents.
I do not know their names, but you do.
Hold every one of them. Send people to sit with them.
And let them not grieve without hope.
Amen.
For the wounded, the frightened and the displaced
Be with the doctors and nurses working through the night,
the families who have fled their homes,
and everyone who is afraid of what tomorrow will bring.
Give them shelter, food, medicine and rest,
and let them feel your presence in the people who help them.
Amen.
For leaders and those in authority
you told us to pray for those in authority, so I pray for everyone who holds power over this land.
Give them wisdom they do not have on their own,
restrain every decision made in anger or pride,
and turn their hearts toward whatever makes for peace.
Amen.
For peacemakers
Bless the people in the Holy Land who are working for peace when it is unpopular and dangerous:
the negotiators, the aid workers, the teachers, the pastors, the neighbours who still knock on each other’s doors.
Protect them, and let their work bear fruit.
Amen.
For my own heart
the news makes me angry and I find myself hating people I have never met.
You told me to love my enemies and pray for those who persecute.
Take the hatred out of me before it takes root.
Let me pray for this land as you would, with tears and not with fury.
Amen.
If the news is making you anxious, switch it off after you pray. Praying for a place does not require watching it all day. Hand it to God and go and do the next good thing in front of you.
A Prayer for Pilgrims to Jerusalem
Psalm 122 was written for pilgrims, so it is fitting to pray it for anyone making the journey, and for anyone who longs to go and cannot.
Before a pilgrimage
I am going up to Jerusalem, as your people always have.
Keep me safe on the road and in the air.
Open my eyes in the places where you walked,
and let me come home changed, not just with photographs.
Bless the people I will meet, and let me bring peace with me and not take it away.
Amen.
For someone who cannot go
I may never stand in your city, but you have stood in mine.
Let my prayer go where I cannot,
and let me find you here, in my own church and my own home,
until the day I see the new Jerusalem with my own eyes.
Amen.
For the journey itself, see our prayers for a safe journey.
Catholic Prayers for Peace in the Holy Land
The Catholic Church has a long and particular bond with Jerusalem. In 1342, Pope Clement VI named the Franciscans custodians of the holy places, and the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land still serve at the Holy Sepulchre today. Every Good Friday, Catholic parishes around the world take up the Collection for the Holy Land, formally established by Pope Paul VI in 1974, which supports the Christians of the region and the holy places.
The Peace Prayer (Prayer of St. Francis)
This prayer is loved by Franciscans and is often prayed for the Holy Land. It is attributed to St. Francis, but it first appeared in a French Catholic magazine in 1912, so it is better thought of as a prayer in his spirit than one he wrote.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
A prayer to Our Lady for Jerusalem
you stood at the foot of the cross in Jerusalem
and waited in prayer with the apostles in the upper room.
You know the streets of this city and you know its sorrows.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,
for the Christians of the Holy Land,
and for every mother there who is afraid for her children.
Lead us all to your Son, the Prince of Peace.
Amen.
A decade of the Rosary for Jerusalem
Many Catholics offer one decade of the Rosary each day for peace in the Holy Land. The Sorrowful Mysteries and the first three Glorious Mysteries all took place in or near Jerusalem, from the Agony in the Garden on the Mount of Olives to the Resurrection, the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. If you are new to it, our guide on how to pray the Rosary walks you through it.
A Week of Prayer for Jerusalem
Psalm 122 ends with a promise to keep seeking the city’s good. A simple way to do that is to give each day of the week its own focus. Pray the short prayer, read the verse, and add your own words.
- Sunday: the Resurrection. Thank God for the empty tomb in Jerusalem. Read Luke 24:1-6.
- Monday: the local Church. Pray for the Christians of Jerusalem and their clergy. Read Romans 15:25-27.
- Tuesday: families and children. Pray for every family in the land, and for children who are afraid. Read Psalm 125:2.
- Wednesday: those in authority. Pray for wisdom and restraint for all who govern. Read 1 Timothy 2:1-2.
- Thursday: peacemakers. Pray for everyone working for peace and reconciliation. Read Matthew 5:9.
- Friday: the suffering. Pray for the grieving, the wounded and the displaced, at the hour of the cross. Read Luke 19:41-42.
- Saturday: the new Jerusalem. Pray in hope for the city where every tear is wiped away. Read Revelation 21:1-4.
Many churches keep the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem on the first Sunday of October. It is a good day to begin this week of prayer, but any week will do.
Bible Verses to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem
Isaiah 62 is the one to hold on to if you want to make this a habit. God posts watchmen on the walls who “will never be silent day or night.” Every Christian who prays for Jerusalem joins them.
Send Your Prayer for Jerusalem to Jerusalem
If you would like your own prayer for the peace of Jerusalem, or for anyone you love, to be prayed in the city itself, you can send it through the form on this page. A priest prays it in English at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, your printed prayer is placed in one of the chapels inside the church, and a candle is lit on your behalf. You receive photos of your prayer and of the candle inside the church by email.
Who Writes These Prayers
The prayers on this page were written by the Holy Land Prayer team, who carry the prayer requests sent to us into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The traditional prayers are reproduced as they have been prayed for generations, with their origin named each time. Scripture is quoted from the NIV unless another translation is named, with the reference so you can read it in context.
Last reviewed 25 September 2026 by the Holy Land Prayer team.
Questions People Ask
What does “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” mean?
It is a call from Psalm 122:6 to ask God for peace and security within the walls of Jerusalem. The psalm was sung by pilgrims going up to the city to worship. Christians pray it today for an end to violence in the city, for the Church that lives there, and in hope of the new Jerusalem where God wipes away every tear.
Where in the Bible does it say to pray for the peace of Jerusalem?
Psalm 122:6: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May those who love you be secure’” (NIV), or in the King James Version, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.” Isaiah 62:6-7 also calls God’s people to pray for Jerusalem without resting, and Jesus himself wept over the city in Luke 19:41-42.
What does “they shall prosper that love thee” mean?
It is the King James wording of Psalm 122:6. The Hebrew word is about being at ease and secure, which is why modern translations such as the NIV say “May those who love you be secure.” It is a blessing of peace and safety, not a promise of wealth.
Should Christians still pray for the peace of Jerusalem?
Yes. Jerusalem is where Jesus died and rose, where the Church was born at Pentecost, and where Christians have lived and worshipped ever since. Scripture tells us to pray for all people and those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2), and Jesus blessed the peacemakers. Praying for the city is a way of sharing his tears over it.
When is the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem?
It is kept by many churches on the first Sunday of October each year. You can pray for Jerusalem on any day, and the week of prayer on this page works whenever you start it.
How can I pray for Jerusalem if I cannot go there?
Pray Psalm 122 slowly, one line at a time, and use the week of prayer above to keep it going. If you would like your prayer to be prayed in the city, you can send it to be prayed at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre using the form on this page.
More Prayers
Prayers for Peace
For a restless mind, a divided home, and a world that will not settle.
Pray for peaceHow to Pray the Rosary
The mysteries step by step, with a decade you can offer for Jerusalem.
Learn the RosaryBrowse every prayer in our Prayer Library.
