Psalm 122 · a question people ask
Why does a psalm about going up to give thanks speak of thrones for judgment?
The psalm gives it as a reason: the tribes go up "to give thanks to the LORD’s name" (122:4), and "For there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of David’s house" (122:5). It doesn't explain further. Other verses put going up and judgment together. The Law says that if "a matter too hard for you in judgment" arises, "then you shall arise, and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses" (Deuteronomy 17:8); in Hebrew that verse has the psalm's words for judgment, gates and go up (tap go up). Of David, 2 Samuel says, "David executed justice and righteousness for all his people" (2 Samuel 8:15), where justice is mishpat, the psalm's judgment. And Solomon "made the porch of the throne where he was to judge, even the porch of judgment" (1 Kings 7:7), where throne and judgment are the psalm's words (tap thrones). Psalm 122 doesn't say whose cases came before the thrones. It sets giving thanks and judgment side by side in one city, and these notes leave them there.
The verses
“where the tribes go up, even the LORD’s tribes, according to an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks to the LORD’s name. For there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of David’s house.”
“If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise, and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.”
“David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness for all his people.”
“He made the porch of the throne where he was to judge, even the porch of judgment; and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor.”