Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 120:5
Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, [that] I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
5. I sojourn I dwell ] The perfect tenses of the Heb. are rightly translated by the present. The experience is not a thing of the past. He has long dwelt and still must dwell among these uncongenial neighbours. P.B.V. (= Great Bible of 1539) Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech and to have my habitation among the tents of Kedar is from Mnster, Heu mihi quod cum Maesech peregrinari cogor, et habitare cum tabernaculis Kedar. Coverdale’s earlier version was, Wo is me, y t my banishmt endureth so lge: I dwell in the tabernacles of the soroufull; derived from the Zrich: “Ach dass mein ellend so lang wret, ich wonen in den htten der traurigen.”
Meshech, mentioned in Gen 10:2 as a son of Japheth, was a barbarous people living between the Black Sea and the Caspian, probably the Moschi of Herodotus (iii. 94), and Mushki of the Assyrian inscriptions: Kedar, mentioned in Gen 25:13 as the second son of Ishmael, was one of the wild tribes which roamed through the Arabian desert, “whose hand was against every man” (Gen 16:12). Obviously the Psalmist cannot mean to describe himself as actually living among peoples so remote from one another, but applies these typical names of barbarian tribes to his own compatriots, as we might speak of Turks and Tartars.
in the tents ] R.V. among the tents.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5 7. The Psalmist laments that he is compelled to live among neighbours who are as hostile as rude barbarians.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Woe is me – My lot is a sad and pitiable one, that I am compelled to live in this manner, and to be exposed thus to malignant reproaches. It is like living in Mesech or in Kedar.
That I sojourn – The word used here does not denote a permanent abode, but it usually refers to a temporary lodging, as when one is a traveler, a pilgrim, a stranger, and is under a necessity of passing a night in a strange land on his way to the place of his destination. The trouble or discomfort here referred to is not that which would result from having his home there, or abiding there permanently, but of feeling that he was a stranger, and would be exposed to all the evils and inconveniences of a stranger among such a people. A man who resided in a place permanently might be subject to fewer inconveniences than if he were merely a temporary lodger among strangers.
In Mesech – The Septuagint and Vulgate render this, that my sojourning is protracted. The Hebrew word – meshek – means, properly drawing, as of seed scattered regularly along the furrows Psa 126:6; and then possession, Job 28:18. The people of Meshech or the Moschi, were a barbarous race inhabiting the Moschian regions between Iberia, Armenia, and Colchis. Meshech was a son of Japheth, Gen 10:2; 1Ch 1:5. The name is connected commonly with Tubal, Eze 27:13 : Tubal and Meshech they were thy merchants. Eze 39:1 : I am against … the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, Herodotus (iii. 94; vii. 78) connects them with the Tibarenes. The idea here is, that they were a barbarous, savage, uncivilized people. They dwelt outside of Palestine, beyond what were regarded as the borders of civilization; and the word seems to have had a signification similar to the names Goths, Vandals, Turks, Tartars, Cossacks, in later times. It is not known that they were particularly remarkable for slander or calumny; but the meaning is that they were barbarous and savage – and to dwell among slanderers and revilers seemed to the psalmist to be like dwelling among a people who were strangers to all the rules and principles of civilized society.
That I dwell in the tents of Kedar – The word Kedar means properly dark skin, a darkskinned man. Kedar was a son of Ishmael Gen 25:13, and hence, the name was given to an Arabian tribe descended from him, Isa 42:11; Isa 60:7; Jer 49:28. The idea here also is, that to dwell among slanderers was like dwelling among barbarians and savages.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 120:5
Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mosech.
The sojourn in Mesech
Mesech was the son of Japheth, from whom were descended the men who inhabited that most barbarous of all regions, according to the opinion of the ancients, the northern parts of Muscovy or Moscow, and Russia. The inhabitants of the tents of Kedar were the descendants of one of the sons of Abraham, who had taken to nomadic habits, and were continually wandering about over the deserts; and were, besides, thought, and doubtless were, guilty of plundering travellers, and were by no means the most respectable of mankind. We are to understand, then, by this verse, that the people among whom the psalmist dwelt were, in his esteem, among the most barbarous, the most fierce, the most graceless of men. This has been the cry of the children of God in all ages. You have longed to be far away from this dusky world, so full of sin, and traps, and pitfalls, and everything that makes us stumble in our path, and of nothing that can help us onward towards heaven.
I. First, then, a word or two in justification of the psalmists complaint. I will not say that it is thoroughly commendable, in a Christian man, to long to be away from the place where Gods providence has put him. But I will say, and must say, that it is not only excusable, but scarcely needs an apology.
1. Think how the wicked world slanders the Christian. There is no falsehood too base for men to utter against the follower of Jesus.
2. Besides, the Christian is conscious that evil companionship is damaging to him. If he is not burnt, he is at least blackened by contact with the ungodly.
3. The continual process of temptation which surrounds the Christian who is situated in the midst of men of unclean lips.
II. Having thus spoken a word of justification for the psalmists complaint, I am going, next, to justify the ways of God with us, in having subjected us to this dwelling in the tents of Kedar.
1. It is right and just, and good that God has spared us to be here a little longer; for, in the first place, my brothers and sisters, has not God put us here to dwell in the tents of Kedar, because these, though perilous places, are advantageous posts for service? That was a noble speech of our old English king, at Agincourt, when he was surrounded by multitudes of enemies, Well, be it so. I would not lose so great an honour, or divide my triumph. I would not, said he, have one man the fewer among my enemies, because then there would be a less glorious victory. So, in like manner, let us take heart even from our difficulties. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge; Jehovah-Nisei is inscribed on our banner.
2. You never will wish, I am sure, to get away from the tents of Kedar if you will recollect that it was through another Christian tarrying here,–when, perhaps, he wanted to be gone ,–that you are this day a Christian. If you were to go to heaven now, perhaps you would go almost alone; but you must stop till there is a companion to go with you.
3. Perhaps our Master keeps us in the tents of Kedar because it will make heaven all the sweeter.
III. A word of comfort to the Christian while placed in these apparently evil circumstances. Well, there is one word in the text that ought to console him in a case like this. Woe is me, that I sojourn–thank God for that word sojourn. Yes, I do not live here for ever; I am only a stranger and a sojourner here, as all my fathers were; and though the next sentence does say, I dwell, yet, thank God, it is a tent I dwell in, and that will come down by and by: I dwell in the tents of Kedar. Ye men of this world, ye may have your day, but your day will soon be over; and I will have my nights, but my nights will soon be over, too. It is not for long, Christian, it is not for long. The end will make amends for all that thou endurest, and thou wilt thank God that He kept thee, and blessed thee, and enabled thee to suffer and endure, and at last brought thee safely home. This, however, is not all the comfort I have for you, because that would look like something at the end, like the child who has the promise of something while it is taking its medicine. No, there is something to comfort you during your trials. Remember that, oven while you are in the tents of Kedar, you have blessed company, for God is with you; and though you sojourn with the sons of Mesech, yet there is Another with whom you sojourn, namely, your blessed Lord and Master. Brethren, ye may be comforted yet again with this sweet thought,–that not only is God with you, but your Master was once in the tents of Kedar; not merely spiritually, but personally, even as you are; and inasmuch as you are here too, this, instead of being painful, should be comforting go you. Have you not received a promise that you shall be like your Head? Thank God that promise has begun to be fulfilled. What more can you want? Is not this a sufficient honour, that the servant is as his Master, and the subject is as his Sovereign? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Murmuring, its cause and cure
The disposition of which such words as these are the indication is familiar to all of us. We continually observe it. We at least occasionally experience it. It is the disposition to regard ourselves as unfortunate in our circumstances or surroundings, and to fasten upon them the responsibility of our own indolence or failure.
I. Aimlessness is the mother of murmur. Take all the men you know who are always complaining of everything and every one, and I think you will find that they are persons who have no perceptible object in life, and of whose continued appearance upon the stage of this world you can give no account; except that it is not the will of Providence that they should die, and that it is not their own will that they should commit suicide.
II. There is such a thing as spiritual aimlessness, and it is precisely the same in kind as that with which we are all familiar. It is of this that I am about to speak. It, too, is the parent of murmuring. From it springs dissatisfaction with our circumstances, impatience of our position, weariness of our enforced employments, and a general state of feeling leading up to such an exclamation as that of the text.
III. What, then, do i mean by spiritual aimlessness? To make this clear we must understand what is spiritual aim. There are a great many kinds of aim connected with, and even tending towards, religious objects, and yet you may have any or all of them distinctly before you, and be all the while spiritually aimless. There is aim in the conversion of the heathen, the correction of religious error, the building of churches, the government of the Church in general, the improvement of ritual or of worship in some church in particular, the teaching of the young, the visiting of the sick, the comforting of the afflicted. But there is one from which all these ought to spring–one in which they ought all to centre–one to which they ought all to be subservient. That one is the salvation of your own soul. We all need to keep before our minds the end (aim) of our faith even the salvation of our souls. That faith is the substance of things hoped for: the evidence of things not seen. That faith includes–nay, that faith is a belief that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose–that from His love neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword shall separate us, that, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. And so, in proportion to the reality and constancy of that faith, will be our power to repress each rising murmur, of which I have taken the text as an example.
IV. At the very best such a murmur is the expression of a regret that we cannot do more for God. And so its obvious corrective is the deepening of our conviction that even so He may be–nay, He certainly is–if we really love Him above all things, doing more for us than if He gave us our desire and sent leanness withal into our soul. Perchance we are right in our belief that other positions, companionships, or employments would tend to the fuller development of that part of our constitution–intellectual, moral, or spiritual–to which we feel as towards some favoured child. But are we so sure that the course we should mark out for ourselves would tend to the forming of our characters all round? No. We do not believe in the love of God if we do not believe that He is doing what is best towards such a formation of us; which, after all, is conformity, as far as we can be conformed hero below, to the perfect character of Him whoso name we bear, whose life is our example, whose death is our hope. (J. C. Coghlan, D. D.)
Mesech and Kedar
The language is metaphorical, for the same people could not be in opposite countries remote from each other, and the two races did not intimately mingle in any border land. The implacable people among or near whom the children of the captivity had to work and wait, whether degenerate countrymen, oppressive Chaldeans, or, more probably, malicious Samaritans, were no better than the fathers of the Muscovites or the offspring of Hagar. In the same way we speak of the Goths whom we encounter, Arabs in our streets, and heathens in Christendom. The psalm, passing from figure to fact, explains itself in the concluding verses. My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. By Mosech and Kedar are meant the disturbers of Israel. The missionary abroad, persecuted by ungrateful pagans, and maligned and hindered by immoral and envious settlers; the evangelist at home, whom Pharisees pronounce a low person, and infidels despise; the Methodist, nicknamed by one party a schismatic, and by another now patted on the back, and then cuffed and kicked; the Christian student, in a class composed mainly of disdainful unbelievers and provoking worldlings; the religious workman hated by intemperate associates for his purity, and cursed by blasphemers among them for his piety; the God-fearing apprentice, under an ill-tempered taskmaster who construes his mistakes into proofs of hypocrisy, and among thoughtless shop-mates who ridicule his habits of devotion and his scrupulous behaviour; the converted youth whose parents are not ashamed of being without sittings in the sanctuary, and whose brothers and sisters are Sabbath breakers; any one of these tried saints of the Lord, and many another sufferer from proud and false tongues, may use the words, Woe is me, etc. (E. J. Robinson.)
Grace independent of ordinances
When there was no rain from heaven, God could cause a mist to arise and water the earth (Gen 2:6); even so, if the Lord should bring us where there be no showers of public ordinances, He can stir up in our souls those holy and heavenly meditations, which shall again drop down like a heavenly dew upon the face of our souls, and keep up a holy verdure and freshness upon the face of our souls. Egypt is said to have no rain; but God makes it fruitful by the overflowing of its own river Nilus. And truly if God bring any true believer into a spiritual Egypt, where the rain of public ordinances doth not fall, He can cause such a flow of holy and heavenly thoughts and meditations as shall make the soul very fruitful in a good and a holy life; and therefore we should oft, in such a condition, believingly remember, that if we do our endeavour, by private prayer, meditation, reading, and such like, God is able, and will, in the want of public ordinances, preserve the life of religion in our souls, by private helps. (J. Jackson, M. A.)
Forced association with the ungodly
Religious people are sometimes forced by the necessity of their lives to associate with those who are worldly and irreligious. Woe is me, that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech, and to have my habitstion among the tents of Kedar. How shall those who have to dwell in the tents of ungodliness keep their souls from being contaminated by bad examples? The following anecdote furnishes a useful hint. A certain nobleman, we are told, was very anxious to see the model from whom Guido painted his lovely female faces. Guido placed his colour-grinder, a big coarse man, in an attitude, and then drew a beautiful Magdalen. My dear Count, he said, the beautiful and pure ideal must be in the mind, and then it is no matter what the model is. He in whose heart and mind is enshrined the beautiful and pure idea of Christ has a model after which to shape his life, and then it is no matter about other models. (Quiver.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. That I sojourn in Mesech] The Chaldee has it, “Wo is me that I am a stranger with the Asiatics, ( useey,) and that I dwell in the tents of the Arabs.” Calmet, who understands the Psalm as speaking of the state of the captives in Babylon and its provinces, says, “Meshec was apparently the father of the Mosquians, who dwelt in the mountains that separate Iberia from Armenia, and both from Colchis. These provinces were subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar; and it is evident from 2Kg 17:23-24; 2Kg 18:11; 2Kg 19:12-13, that many of the Jews were held in captivity in those countries. As to Kedar, it extended into Arabia Petraea, and towards the Euphrates; and is the country afterwards known as the country of the Saracens.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Mesech and
Kedar are two sorts of people, oft mentioned in Scripture, and reckoned amongst the heathen and barbarous nations. But their nurses are not here to be understood properly, (for we do not read that either David or the Israelites in the Babylonish captivity dwelt in their lands,) but only metaphorically, as the ungodly Israelites are called Sodom and Gomorrah, Isa 1:10, and Amorites and Hittithes, Eze 16:3,45, and as in common speech among us, men of an evil character are called Turks or Jews. And so he explains himself in the next verse by this description of them, him or them that hated peace, although David sought peace with them, Psa 120:7. And so he speaks either,
1. Of the Philistines, among whom he sojourned for a time. But he did not seek peace with them, but sought their ruin, as the event showed; nor did they wage war against him, whilst he lived peaceably among them. Or rather,
2. The courtiers and soldiers of Saul, and the generality of the Israelites, who, to curry favour with Saul, sought Davids ruin, and that many times by treachery and pretences of friendship; of which he oft complains in this book; whom as he elsewhere calls heathen, as Psa 9:5; 59:5, it is not strange if he compares them here to the savage Arabians. And amongst such persons David was oft forced to sojourn in Sauls time, and with them he sought peace by all ways possible; but they hated peace, and the more he pursued peace, the more eagerly did they prosecute the war, as it here follows.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. A residence in these remotelands pictures his miserable condition.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech,…. Meshech was a son of Japheth, Ge 10:2; whose posterity are thought by some to be the Muscovites z and Scythians, a barbarous sort of people: Mesech is frequently mentioned with Tubal and his brother, and with Gog and Magog, Eze 38:2; the Targum here calls them Asiatics. Rather the Cappadocians, according to Josephus a; and Strabo b makes mention of a city of theirs, called Mazaca: and the rather, since they are mentioned with the Kedarenes, or Arabian Scenites, and were nearer to the land of Judea than the former;
[that] I dwell in the tents of Kedar; Kedar was a son of Ishmael,
Ge 25:13; whose posterity were Arabians, as the Targum here renders it; and Suidas c says, they dwelt not far from Babylon, when he wrote; they lived a pastoral life, and dwelt in tents: Pliny d makes mention of Arabs, called Cedrei; and also of Scenite Arabs, from the tents they dwelt in, which they could remove from place to place for the sake of pasturage. And among these David dwelt, when in the wilderness of Paran, 1Sa 25:1; though some think David never dwelt among any of those people, but among such who were like unto them for ignorance, idolatry, and barbarity. Some render the words, “woe is me, that I sojourn so long, dwelling as in the tents of Kedar” e; as when he was among the Philistines and Moabites; nay, even he may compare his own people to those, many of whom it was as disagreeable dwelling with as with these: and we find Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, speaking of them in their times in like manner, and making the same complaints, Isa 6:5. And very grieving and distressing it is to good men to have their abode among wicked men; as well as it is infectious and dangerous: to hear their profane and blasphemous talk, to see their wicked and filthy actions, and to observe their abominable conversation, is very vexatious, and gives great uneasiness, as it did to righteous Lot, 2Pe 2:7. The first clause is rendered by the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, “woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged”; to which the next words agree,
Ps 120:6.
z Davide de Pomis, Lexic. fol. 86. 1. 3. a Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. b Geograph. l. 12. p. 370. Rufi Fest. Breviar. Vid Suidam in voce
. c In voce . d Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 11. e Weemse’s of the Ceremonial Law, c. 3. p. 8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Since arrows and broom-fire, with which the evil tongue is requited, even now proceed from the tongue itself, the poet goes on with the deep heaving (only found here). with the accusative of that beside which one sojourns, as in Psa 5:5; Isa 33:14; Jdg 5:17. The Moschi ( , the name of which the lxx takes as an appellative in the signification of long continuance; cf. the reverse instance in Isa 66:19 lxx) dwelt between the Black and the Caspian Seas, and it is impossible to dwell among them and the inhabitants of Kedar (vid., Psa 83:7) at one and the same time. Accordingly both these names of peoples are to be understood emblematically, with Saadia, Calvin, Amyraldus, and others, of homines similes ejusmodi barbaris et truculentis nationibus . (Note: If the Psalm were a Maccabaean Psalm, one might think , from , , alluded to the Syrians or even to the Jewish apostates with reference to , (1Co 7:18).)
Meshech is reckoned to Magog in Eze 38:2, and the Kedarites are possessed by the lust of possession (Gen 16:12) of the bellum omnium contra omnes . These rough and quarrelsome characters have surrounded the poet (and his fellow-countrymen, with whom he perhaps comprehends himself) too long already. , abundantly (vid., Psa 65:10), appears, more particularly in 2Ch 30:17., as a later prose word. The , which throws the action back upon the subject, gives a pleasant, lively colouring to the declaration, as in Psa 122:3; Psa 123:4. He on his part is peace (cf. Mic 5:5, Psa 119:4; Psa 110:3), inasmuch as the love of peace, willingness to be at peace, and a desire for peace fill his ; but if he only opens his mouth, they are for war, they are abroad intent on war, their mood and their behaviour become forthwith hostile. Ewald (362, b) construes it (following Saadia): and I – although I speak peace; but if (like , Psa 141:10) might even have this position in the clause, yet cannot. is not on any account to be supplied in thought to , as Hitzig suggests (after Psa 122:8; Psa 28:3; Psa 35:20). With the shrill dissonance of and the Psalm closes; and the cry for help with which it opens hovers over it, earnestly desiring its removal.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Mournful Complaints. | |
5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! 6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. 7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
The psalmist here complains of the bad neighbourhood into which he was driven; and some apply the Psa 120:3; Psa 120:4 to this: “What shall the deceitful tongue give, what shall it do to those that lie open to it? What shall a man get by living among such malicious deceitful men? Nothing but sharp arrows and coals of juniper,” all the mischiefs of a false and spiteful tongue, Ps. lvii. 4. Woe is me, says David, that I am forced to dwell among such, that I sojourn in Mesech and Kedar. Not that David dwelt in the country of Mesech or Kedar; we never find him so far off from his own native country; but he dwelt among rude and barbarous people, like the inhabitants of Mesech and Kedar: as, when we would describe an ill neighbourhood, we say, We dwell among Turks and heathens. This made him cry out, Woe is me! 1. He was forced to live at a distance from the ordinances of God. While he was in banishment, he looked upon himself as a sojourner, never at home but when he was near God’s altars; and he cries out, “Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged, that I cannot get home to my resting-place, but am still kept at a distance!” So some read it. Note, A good man cannot think himself at home while he is banished from God’s ordinances and has not them within reach. And it is a great grief to all that love God to be without the means of grace and of communion with God: when they are under a force of that kind they cannot but cry out, as David here, Woe to me! 2. He was forced to live among wicked people, who were, upon many accounts, troublesome to him. He dwell in the tents of Kedar, where the shepherds were probably in an ill name for being litigious, like the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot. It is a very grievous burden to a good man to be cast into, and kept in, the company of those whom he hopes to be for ever separated from (like Lot in Sodom; 2 Pet. ii. 8); to dwell long with such is grievous indeed, for they are thorns, vexing, and scratching, and tearing, and they will show the old enmity that is in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman. Those that David dwelt with were such as not only hated him, but hated peace, and proclaimed war with it, who might write on their weapons of war not Sic sequimur pacem–Thus we aim at peace, but Sic persequimur–Thus we persecute. Perhaps Saul’s court was the Mesech and Kedar in which David dwelt, and Saul was the man he meant that hated peace, whom David studied to oblige and could not, but the more service he did him the more exasperated he was against him. See here, (1.) The character of a very good man in David, who could truly say, though he was a man of war, I am for peace; for living peaceably with all men and unpeaceably with none. I peace (so it is in the original); “I love peace and pursue peace; my disposition is to peace and my delight is in it. I pray for peace and strive for peace, will do any thing, submit to any thing, part with any thing, in reason, for peace. I am for peace, and have made it to appear that I am so.” The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. (2.) The character of the worst of bad men in David’s enemies, who would pick quarrels with those that were most peaceably disposed: “When I speak they are for war; and the more forward for war the more they find me inclined to peace.” He spoke with all the respect and kindness that could be, proposed methods of accommodation, spoke reason, spoke love; but they would not so much as hear him patiently, but cried out, “To arms! to arms!” so fierce and implacable were they, and so bent to mischief. Such were Christ’s enemies: for his love they were his adversaries, and for his good words, and good works, they stoned him. If we meet with such enemies, we must not think it strange, nor love peace the less for our seeking it in vain. Be not overcome of evil, no, not of such evil as this, but, even when thus tried, still try to overcome evil with good.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
5. Alas for me! that I have been a sojourner in Mesech. David complains that he was doomed to linger for a long time among a perverse people; his condition resembling that of some wretched individual who is compelled to live till he grows old in sorrowful exile. The Mesechites and Kedarenes, as is well known, were Eastern tribes; the former of which derived their original from Japhet, as Moses informs us in Gen 10:2; and the latter from a son of Ishmael. (Gen 25:13.) To take the latter for a people of Italy, who were anciently called Hetrurians, is altogether absurd, and without the least color of probability, Some ‘would have the word Mesech to be an appellative noun; and because מש mashak, signifies to draw, to protract, they think that the Prophet bewails his protracted banishment, of the termination of which he saw no prospect. (55) But as immediately after he adds Kedar, by which term the Ishmaelites are unquestionably intended, I have no doubt that Mesech is to be understood of the Arabians who were their neighbors. If any one is of opinion that the Mesechites obtained this name from their dexterity in shooting with the bow, I will make no objections, provided it is admitted that the Prophet — as if he had been confined within a country of robbers — expresses the irksomeness of an uncomfortable and an annoying place of residence. Although he names the Arabians, yet under the terms employed he speaks metaphorically of his own countrymen, just as he elsewhere applies the appellation of Gentiles to the corrupt and degenerate Jews. (56) But here, with the view of putting still more dishonor upon his enemies, he has purposely selected the name by which to designate them from some of the savage and barbarous nations whose horrible cruelty was well known to the Jews. From these words we are taught, that scarcely a more distressing evil can befall the people of God, than for them to be placed in circumstances which, notwithstanding their living a holy and an inoffensive life, they yet cannot escape the calumnies of venomous tongues. It is to be observed, that although David was living in his own country, he yet was a stranger in it, nothing being more grievous to him than to be in the company of wicked men. Hence we learn that no sin is more detestable to God, by whose Spirit David spake, than the false accusations which shamefully deface the beauty of God’s Church, and lay it waste, causing it to differ little from the dens of robbers, or other places rendered infamous from the barbarous cruelty of which they are the scene. Now if the place where the uprightness of good men is overwhelmed by the criminations of lying lips is to the children of God converted into a region of miserable exile, how could they have pleasure, or rather, how could they fail to feel the bitterest sorrow, in abiding in a part of the world where the sacred name of God is shamefully profaned by horrible blasphemies, and his truth obscured by detestable lies? David exclaims, Alas for me! because, dwelling among false brethren and a bastard race of Abraham, he was wrongfully molested and tormented by them, although he had behaved himself towards them in good conscience. (57) Since, then, at the present day, in the Church of Rome, religion is dishonored by all manner of disgraceful imputations, faith torn in pieces, light turned into darkness, and the majesty of God exposed to the grossest mockeries, it will certainly be impossible for those who have any feeling of true piety within them to lie in the midst of such pollutions without great anguish of spirit.
(55) This is the sense in which the word is rendered in most of the ancient versions. Thus the Septuagint has ἡ παροικία μρυ ἐμακρύνθη, “my sojourning is protracted;” and it is followed by the Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic versions. Aquila has προσηλύτευσα ἐν μακρυσμῷ I was a stranger for a long time;” and Symmachus, παροικῶν παρίλκυσα “I have protracted sojourning.” Bishop Patrick and Dr. Hammond, following these authorities, render משך , mesech, adverbially. But though this is a meaning which the word will bear, yet as Calvin observes, there is little room for doubting that it is here a proper name. The parallelism which enables us in many instances to determine the accurate interpretation of a word in Hebrew poetry when other helps entirely fail, decidedly favors this interpretation. The term corresponding to משך mesech, in the next hemistich, is קרר kedar; and as it is universally admitted that this is the name of a place, it cannot be justly questioned that such is also the case with respect to משך mesech. To render it otherwise is destructive of the poetical structure of the passage. “If,” says Phillips, “the adverbial sense be intended, then the expression should not have been גרתי משך, but something analogous to רבת שכנה in the next verse. Many localities have been mentioned for the geography of Mesech, as Tuscany, Cappadocia, Armenia, etc., which proves that the particular district called by this name is uncertain.” It is however obvious that some barbarous and brutal tribes of Arabs are intended.
(56) A similar mode of speaking is not uncommon in our own day. Thus we are accustomed to call gross and ignorant people Turks and Hottentots.
(57) “ D’autant que dcmeurant entre des faux freres et une race bastardc d’Abraham, a tort il est par eux molest4 et tourment( cornroe ainsi soit th’envers eux il se porte en bonne conscience.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) Mesech.This name is generally identified with Moschi, mentioned by Herodotus (iii. 94), a tribe on the borders of Colchis and Armenia. It appears again in the prophet Eze. 27:13; Eze. 38:3; Eze. 39:1. The only reason for suspecting the accuracy of this identification is the remoteness from Kedar, who were a nomad tribe of Arabia. (See Gen. 25:13; Son. 1:5.) But in the absence of any other indication of the motive for the mention of these tribes here, this very remoteness affords a sufficiently plausible one; or they may be types of savage life, selected the one from the north, and the other from the south, as poetry dictated. It is quite possible that the circumstances amid which the poet wrote made it necessary for him to veil in this way his allusion to powerful tribes, from whose violence the nation was suffering. At all events, the two concluding verses leave no doubt that some troubled state of affairs, in which the choice of courses was not easy, and affecting the whole nation. not an individual, is here presented.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Mesech Kedar The Septuagint and Vulgate, following the radical sense of the word, render “Mesech” by prolonged: “Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged.” But the word is to be taken as a proper name, the patronymic of a people descended from Meshech, son of Japheth, (Gen 10:2,) and known in history as the Moschi, dwelling near the southeastern shore of the Black Sea, north of Armenia. Later, they penetrated southward into Cappadocia, ( Jos. Ant. b. i, c. 6, 1,) and northward beyond the Caucasian mountains, and probably reappear in Europe under the name of Muscovites. They commonly stand associated with the Tibareni, (from Tubal, Gen 10:2,) as in Eze 27:13; Eze 32:26; Eze 38:2-3. ( Herod., b. vii, c. 78.) In our psalm the name “Mesech,” or Meshech, is a synonyme for northern barbarians, as “Kedar,” (son of Ishmael, Gen 25:13,) was for Ishmaelites, or southern barbarians. On “Kedar,” as the common title for northern Arabians, see Son 1:5; Isa 21:13; Isa 21:16-17; Eze 27:21. Meshech and Magog had to the Hebrews the same proverbial sense of unsubdued barbarians that Scythian had to the Greeks; and it was but a natural association with “Kedar” in the mind of David, dwelling, as he now was, among these wild desert robbers. See, on his place of abode, 1Sa 25:1
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 120:5. That I sojourn in Mesech, &c. Woe is me that my sojourning is so long protracted, while I dwell in the tents of Kedar! Houb. and many other commentators. On the other hand, many learned men suppose ours to be the proper rendering: They observe that Mesech, in the Chaldee and Syriac language, signifies a skin, and is supposed to denote a place in Arabia; so called from the skins with which the Arabians covered their tents. The barbarous people, who lived in that part of the country, were termed Scenitae, because they continued in tents without houses. Kedar is the name of another place or territory in that part of Arabia; so called from Kedar, the son of Ishmael, (Gen 25:13.) whose posterity dwelt in that country. This may either be understood literally of David, or metaphorically, of dwelling among people as much averse to peace as the wild Arabs, who live a life of rapine and plunder.
REFLECTIONS.David was now an exile from his native country, flying from the malice of his enemies.
1. He complains of his sad estate, which in prayer he spreads before God. In my distress I cried unto the Lord; driven from his home, a stranger in a strange land; and, as his prayer imports, maligned, reproached, belied, betrayed. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue; not his own, for he abhorred the sin, but from others, such as Doeg’s and Saul’s courtiers’, who by flattery, falsehood, and misrepresentation, sought his ruin. Thus was the innocent Lamb of God persecuted and reviled; and false witnesses laid to his charge things which he knew not of. Let it not seem a strange thing to us, if our characters, for his name’s sake, suffer under the falsest and most cruel aspersions; the day of detection for lying lips will come.
2. He acknowledges God’s kind attention to his prayer. He heard me, and disappointed the malice of his enemies; with him we may ever contentedly leave our case.
3. He foresees the miserable end of these men. What shall be given unto thee, or what will it give unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Did sinners for a moment consider the end of their ways, terrors would take hold of them; for their decreed portion is, Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper; the wrath of an Almighty God, sharper than arrows in the conscience, and scorching with fiercer and more enduring torment than coals of juniper. Note; The everlasting burnings are the defined place of abode for all who love or make a lie, Rev 22:15.
4. He bemoans his present wretched abode. Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar? among whom he was forced to take refuge, or among rude and idolatrous nations, like these descendants of Ishmael; or even in the court of Saul, for he found his abode among the wicked courtiers there as irksome as if he had dwelt among the heathen. My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace; either with Saul, whom no kindness could bend to friendly thoughts of him, or those strangers among whom he sojourned, enemies to the God of peace, and to religion, the only true path of peace. I am for peace, or I peace; a man of peace, pursuing it by every means, ready to bear and forbear any thing for the sake of it, and, however offended, the first to seek reconciliation: but when I speak they are for war, reject every kind overture; and, implacable in their malice, fly to arms. Note; (1.) It is a grief to those who love God, to be removed from the public ordinances; and they cannot but sigh for the courts of the Lord’s house. (2.) Bad company, into which by necessity we may be forced, is a burden to the gracious soul. (3.) Every man of God must be a man of peace; envy, dispute, and strife, are all from hell. (4.) Though others continue inveterate, that must not restrain us from the exercise of divine charity: this is truly godlike.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Reading these words with reference to Christ, we may well suppose that the exercises of his holy soul from day to day, were great in the society of those with whom he was constrained, as the sinner’s surety, to sojourn. Hence we find him saying, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you? Mat 17:17 . But chiefly with Judas whom Christ knew from the first should betray him, and whom Christ called a devil. Joh 6:70-71Joh 6:70-71 . Reader! if such were the exercises of Jesus, think it not strange that his people are constrained to dwell as in the tents of Kedar, the Ishmaelites of the present day. As Kedar was the son of Ishmael; so the opposers of the Lord Jesus now are found in the posterity of those born after the flesh. And Jesus saith, Let both grow together until the harvest. But it is sweet to discriminate grace from nature: and as they are frequently found together in the same house, the same family, nay, the same person; doth not the same Lord overrule such events to his glory, and his people’s everlasting welfare? Gen 25:13 ; Gal 4:28-29 ; Mat 13:30 ; Gal 5:17 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 120:5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, [that] I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
Ver. 5. Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech ] That is, in Muscovio, say some; in Hetruria, say others; in Cappadocia rather, Magog’s country, Eze 38:2-3 ; anywhere out of the bosom of the true Church; or (as some sense it) in the Church, but among Israelites worse than any Ishmaelites or Pagans.
That I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 120:5-7
5Woe is me, for I sojourn in Meshech,
For I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6Too long has my soul had its dwelling
With those who hate peace.
7I am for peace, but when I speak,
They are for war.
Psa 120:5 Meshech. . .Kedar These seem to be examples of exploitation (cf. Eze 27:13; Eze 27:21). Possibly the psalmist is attributing to his opponents the violent, sinful qualities of these national groups.
The other option is to see these as geographical opposites, one to the far north, the other to the south. If so, then it is imagery of
1. deliver me far from these hateful people
2. please let me not be so far from the temple
Psa 120:6-7 This hints at the psalmist’s attackers as being political enemies who want military conflict.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.
1. Who is attacking the psalmist?
2. Explain the imagery of Psa 120:4.
3. Why are two ethnic groups mentioned in Psa 120:5?
4. How do Psa 120:6-7 explain or define the possible historical setting?
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Mesech . . . Kedar. Used typically of cruel and merciless peoples; as we use the terms Vandals, Goths, Philistines.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Woe: Jer 9:2, Jer 9:3, Jer 9:6, Jer 15:10, Mic 7:1, Mic 7:2, 2Pe 2:7, 2Pe 2:8, Rev 2:13
Mesech: Gen 10:2, Eze 27:13, Meshech.
the tents: Gen 25:13, 1Sa 25:1, Son 1:5, Isa 60:6, Isa 60:7, Jer 49:28, Jer 49:29
Reciprocal: 1Sa 26:19 – they have driven Psa 35:20 – For Pro 21:19 – better Isa 21:16 – Kedar Isa 42:11 – Kedar Jer 2:10 – the isles Jer 4:31 – Woe Jer 45:3 – Woe Hab 1:3 – General Rom 12:18 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 120:5. Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar Mesech and Kedar are two sorts of people often mentioned in Scripture, and reckoned among the barbarous nations. But their names are here to be understood metaphorically, and so he explains himself in the next verse.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
120:5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in {e} Mesech, [that] I dwell in the tents of {f} Kedar!
(e) These were people of Arabia, who came from Japheth, Gen 10:2.
(f) That is, of the Ishmaelites.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
3. God’s dalliance with liars 120:5-7
The poet bewailed the fact that he had to continue living with people such as liars who continually stir up strife (Psa 120:5-6). Meshech was a barbarous nation far to the north of Israel by the Black Sea in Asia Minor (cf. Gen 10:2; Eze 38:2; Eze 39:1-2). Kedar in northern Arabia was the home of the nomadic Ishmaelites who periodically harassed the Israelites (Gen 25:13; Isa 21:16-17; Jer 2:10; Eze 27:21). These people represented the kinds of individuals that surrounded the writer, namely, heathen liars and hostile barbarians. They seemed to be after war all the time, but he wanted to live in peace.
"If the ’I’ of the psalm is Israel personified, these two names will summarize the Gentile world, far and near, in which Israel is dispersed. Otherwise, unless the text is emended, they must be taken as the psalmist’s figurative names for the alien company he is in: as foreign as the remotest peoples, and as implacable as his Arab kinsmen (cf. Gen 16:12; Gen 25:13)." [Note: Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p. 431.]
The continual antagonism of people who stir up trouble by telling lies, and in other ways, leads the godly to pray for God to deal with them. God’s will is for people to live peacefully with one another (Mat 5:9; 2Co 13:11, et al.).