Psalm 120

I Am For Peace

This short Psalm is the first of 15 so-called "Songs of Ascents".  These songs were traditionally sung by pilgrims to various places; Some say it was pilgrims to Mt. Zion, where the ascent speaks to climbing the holy mountain.  Others say that pilgrims to Jerusalem sang as they climbed the hills surrounding the city.  Additionally, they were sung by priests as they climbed the 15 steps of the Temple in Jerusalem.  They don't seem to have any connection thematically, but do share a common thread of repetition, where a word or phrase from one verse will be continued in the next.  All of that has little to do, however, with what this psalm tries to tell us.

What caught my attention in this psalm is verse 5, where the author claims he lives in Meshech and Kedar.  Since it was a very short psalm, I assumed that an understanding of where those places are is a necessity to understand the psalm.  It turns out, those two places are nowhere near one another.  Meshech is in Turkey on the Black Sea, while Kedar is a region of the Arabian peninsula.  These places are 1,000 miles apart, so what does it mean to dwell in both places?

We can look to the rest of the psalm for help.  The author seems to have the same issues as David (makes me wonder if David wrote this too, but it doesn't say), that he is surrounded by enemies who "hate peace" and have "deceitful tongues".  The author hopes that those wicked people get their just due for their deceit and war.  He writes "Too long I have lived among those who hate peace".  Perhaps Meshech and Kedar are not literal places, but a state of mind.

When surrounded by those to whom you can't relate, can you not feel like a stranger, even in a place that should be home?  Perhaps the author is in his own land, not in Meshech and Kadar, but he is surrounded by people who do not live the way he does.  Even though he is in his home, he feels like he is 1,000 miles away in an unfamiliar foreign land.  When the people around you don't love God the way you do, it's hard to feel like you're someplace where you belong.

I believe the author he is lamenting this.  He has chosen to remain true to God, but the people around him have not.  He feels like a stranger.  That is not an unfamiliar feeling to many people, even today.  In a world with instant connectivity, when the people around you are wicked, you can feel like you're in a place you don't belong.  The important thing to remember is that even when you're a stranger in a strange land, that God is always besides you.  There is no place he will not go with you.