A song of ascents
120:Title The fifteen psalms beginning with this one are all called songs of “ascents” (from a Hebrew word which means “to go up”). Scholars have speculated a great deal about the significance of the word as used here and have offered many diverse suggestions. Perhaps the best suggestion is this: According to Ex 34:23-24 and Deut 16:16 and the custom of the Jews, at the times of religious festivals, three times a year, the people went up to Jerusalem as pilgrims to worship the true and living God. Jerusalem was high in the hills of Judah, so that it meant that most of the people had to ascend to get there. It is likely that they sang these “songs of ascent” on the way. \fp Verses 1 and 4 of Psalm 122 may well be key verses of this whole group of psalms. The chief concern of believers now should be to ascend spiritually, drawing nearer and nearer to God. This will surely result if we put into practice the spiritual teachings of these songs of ascent. Most of these psalms are quite short. They show that prayers need not be long to be weighty and powerful.⚜
120
📚In my distress I cried out to the LORD, and he heard me.
2 📚Rescue my soul, O LORD,
from lying lips,
and from a deceitful
tongue.
3 📚What shall be given to you?
or what shall be done to you,
you false tongue?
4 📚Sharp arrows of the mighty,
with coals of fire
of the broom tree!
120:3-4 God will deal with liars and deceivers at the proper time and in a perfectly fitting way. Lying tongues are like sharp arrows (Ps 57:4; 64:3; Prov 25:18; Jer 9:8), and a burning fire (Prov 16:27; Jam 3:6). Arrows and fire will be God’s punishment for such. For God’s way of dealing in just judgment see Ps 18:25-27; 63:9-10; 64:7-8. Eventually God will deliver all His people from liars and slanderers and make the world free of them (Rev 21:8, 27).⚜
5 📚Woe is me, that I live
in Meshech,
that I dwell in the tents
of Kedar!
120:5 Meshech was far to the north of Israel, Kedar to the south. The writer could not live in both places at the same time. He is speaking metaphorically. It seems to him that his neighbors were like those barbaric peoples who did not know God.⚜
6 📚My soul has dwelt too long
with him who
hates peace.
7 📚I am for peace:
but when I speak,
they are for war.