Psalm 120

Psalms 120:1-2

Psalm 120 opens fifteen psalms carrying the title A Song of degrees in the Hebrew, unshown by this database's floor text, running through Psalm 134. The readings on what the ascent names are given without a verdict: the pilgrim's climb to Jerusalem for the three annual feasts, so most of the older commentators; the fifteen steps of the temple courts, one for each psalm, an association named in the Mishnah; and the return of the exiles up to the land, so others. This first psalm of the group begins the ascent not on the road but in distress, a soul crying out against lying lips before any climb toward Zion is named.

Psalms 120:3-4

The psalm turns to address the false tongue directly, what shall be given unto thee, or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue, before answering itself, sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper. The commentators read the arrows and coals as picturing the tongue's own consequences returned on itself, a lying word met with wounds and a slow burning heat rather than a quick fire, since juniper coals were known to hold heat long after other wood cooled.

Psalms 120:5-7

The psalm closes naming the psalmist's situation in figures rather than plain fact, Mesech in the far north and Kedar among the Arabian tents, distant and hostile regions the older commentators read as standing for exile among enemies of peace rather than a literal double residence, since the two lay far apart. My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace states the psalm's real complaint, prolonged nearness to hostility rather than a single incident. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war closes the first step of the ascent already longing for the peace that the very name Jerusalem carries, and that the pilgrim has not yet reached.