Psalm 120

⁵ Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech,
That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

⁶ My soul has dwelt too long
With one who hates peace.

⁷ I am for peace;
But when I speak, they are for war.

This psalm begins the distinct subcollection of 15 “Songs of Ascent,” of which four (122, 124, 131, 133) are explicitly attributed to David and one (127) to Solomon. The “Ascents” to which these “songs” appertain has been a subject of no little debate among scholars, the various suggestions including (1) the 15 steps ascending from the Court of the Women in the Temple to the (inner) Court of the Israelites, which steps are explicitly equated in early Jewish tradition with these 15 psalms, and which latter were (apparently) sung by Levites stationed on these steps during the Water-Drawing ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacles; (2) the return of Israel from the Babylonian-Persian exile, which is described in Scripture as an “ascent” or “going up” and support for which is adduced from Psalm 126:1 (“When the LORD brought back the captive ones of Zion …”); (3) the three yearly festal pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem (viz., on Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles), “ascending/going up” to the Temple being the typical expression employed to describe “movement” towards the Temple, regardless of one’s starting point and support for which is adduced from Psalm 122:1 (“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD.’…”); and (4) the technical structure of the psalms themselves, in which the thoughts ascend “in a step-like progressive rhythm” and in which various key words are repeated in “step-like fashion in successive clauses. Excepting this last suggestion, which may be said of the structure of many (if not most) other psalms than these 15, the term “Ascents” in these psalms is in all likelihood tied to and mutually supported by all of these traditional explanations—especially seeing that each of them relates directly, or indirectly, to the overall theme of this Fifth Book of Psalms (viz.: the restoration of God’s people to the Promised Land and their living therein under the perfect and intimate rule of their divine King. — Wechsler, pages 289-290.

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Verses 1-2 — Rather than internalizing and holding in (i.e., stewing over) his experience of persecution—in this case resulting fro lying lips and a deceitful tongue (i.e., slander and false accusation)—the psalmist appropriates, or “reclaims,” it as an opportunity for exercising his privilege of worship—viz. affirming God’s character and role as His Father. It is this which constitutes the essence of worship—the exercise of our relationship with God in any of its manifold aspects, whether crying out to the LORD in our trouble or responding in praise and thanksgiving when He answers us. — Wechsler, page 290.

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Verses 3-4 — The psalmist also takes this opportunity to express his worship by affirming God’s inevitable justice, for though the one who employs a deceitful tongue may discount divine justice … that justice will nonetheless be done to him (such is the point of the rhetorical question in v.3). This just requital is portrayed (in v.4, answering the rhetorical question of v.3) in figurative imagery as sharp arrows of the warrior which … underscores the notion of the punishment being precisely fit to the crime…). The further portrayal of God’s just requital as burning coals, while clearly paralleling “sharp arrows” in suggesting … pain, also hints at the redemptive aspects of  God’s penultimate (i.e., this-worldly) requital of sin—as in other passages where the imagery of “burning coals” heaped on the sinner’s head, symbolizes a response to sin characterized more by mercy and grace than by severity, and which thus serves the sinner as a source of shame, conviction, and ideally, repentance (see Proverbs 25:21-22; Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27; Romans 12:20). — Wechsler, page 291.

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Verses 5-7 — In this final section the psalmist laments the fact that he must sojourn in Meshech (referring to the people descended from the sixth son of Japhet [Genesis 10:2] and situated between the Caspian and Black Seas and in Asia Minor) and among the tents of Kedar (referring to the descendants of the second son of Ishmael [Genesis 25:13] and most powerful of the Ishmaelite tribes, who lived as nomads in the regions east and south of Israel), with those who hate peace, all of which reflects the perspective of an Israelite living outside of the Promised Land (further affirming the pilgrimage/exile venue of these “Psalms of Ascent”). These statements also imply the contrasting yearning to live in the land promised by God to Israel. — Wechsler, page 292.

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The Songs of Ascent, fifteen in number, form five groups of three each. Each triplet has as its theme trouble, trust, and triumph. That is, the first Psalm of each triplet is a cry of distress; the second, a declaration of trust; and the third, a song of triumph. Thus in each group there is an ascent from trouble through trust to triumph. — Williams, page 399.

Meshech and Kedar were sons of Ishmael … who were indeed of the seed of Abraham but born after the flesh. — Williams, page 400.