Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 125:2
As the mountains [are] round about Jerusalem, so the LORD [is] round about his people from henceforth even forever.
2. “All around Jerusalem are higher hills: on the east, the Mount of Olives; on the south, the Hill of Evil Counsel, so called, rising directly from the Vale of Hinnom; on the west the ground rises gently while on the north, a bend of the ridge connected with the Mount of Olives bounds the prospect at the distance of more than a mile.” Robinson, Biblical Researches, 1. 259. This girdle of mountains is an ever-present symbol to the dweller in Jerusalem of Jehovah’s guardianship of His people. Cp. Zec 2:5, “I will be unto her a wall of fire round about.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem – Hebrew, Jerusalem – the mountains are round about her. Jerusalem, except on the north, is encompassed with hills or mountains, so that although the city was built on hills – Zion, Moriah, Bezethah, Acra – it was itself surrounded by hills higher than any of these, and was, in a certain sense, in a valley. See the notes at Mat 2:1. Compare the notes at Psa 48:1-14.
So the Lord is round about his people … – As Jerusalem is thus protected by the hills around, so the people of God are protected by Yahweh. He surrounds the church; he is exalted far above the church; he guards the approaches to the church; he can defend it from all its foes. Under his protection it is safe. Jerusalem, as surrounded by hills and mountains, has thus become an emblem of the church at all times; its security was an emblem of the security of all who trust in the Lord.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 125:2
So the Lord is round about His people.
The Divine protection
The 125th Psalm is of the returning exiles. They are only about fifty thousand. They have made the difficult journey across the desert sands. They have reached Jerusalem. It is an utter ruin–walls levelled, Temple destroyed, everything in confusion. There are Samaritan enemies, too, and all sorts of obstacles, as they set about the enormous task of rebuilding, reorganizing. How unable, defence-less, they seem to themselves! But if, to-day, one stands in what was the Temple area at Jerusalem and looks about him, he will see, rising above him and around him, on the east the Mount of Olives; on the south, the Hill of Evil Counsel; on the west, the ridge beyond the valley of Jehoshaphat; on the north, the high ground about Scopas–all these loftier than Jerusalem. Well, one day the singer of this psalm did stand there amid the ruined Jerusalem, did feel his own helplessness and shetterlessness; but, seeing how Jerusalem was girded by the higher hills, he saw the only real refuge for helpless and shelterless man anywhere, viz. in God; and, getting figure for his trust in what he saw, he bravely sang: As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever. Think, then, of the Divine protection of man, helpless and shelterless in himself.
I. God stands about His people, as the mountains do about Jerusalem, with protecting atonement of sin.
II. God stands about His people, as the mountains do about Jerusalem, with the protection of discipline administered with infinite and loving wisdom. For a forgiven man is by no means a perfect man.
III. God stands about His people, as the mountains do about Jerusalem, with the protection of proffered help for the daily duty.
IV. God stands about His people, as the mountains do about Jerusalem, with the protection of a final and triumphant deliverance. (W. Hoyt, D. D.)
The security of the Church
I. The Church as a whole is secured by God beyond the reach of harm. She is ably garrisoned by Omnipotence, and she is castled within the faithful engagements of the covenant. How often has the Church been attacked; but how often has she been victorious! The number of her battles is just the number of her victories. Foes have come against her; they have compassed her about, but in the name of God she has destroyed them.
1. Persecution has unsheathed its sword, and sought to rend up the Church by its roots, or fell it with its axe. Tyrants have heated their furnaces, have prepared their racks, have erected their stakes. But has the Church been subdued?
2. But by and by the devil grew wiser. He saw that overt persecution would not suffice for the putting down of Gods Church, and he therefore adopted another measure not less cruel but more crafty. I will not only slay them, said he, I will malign them. Did you ever read in history the horrible reports which were set afloat in the early ages of Christianity concerning the Christians? Never were men so fearfully belied. The very heathens, who revelled in vice, despised the followers of Jesus on account of crimes which the voice of the liar had laid to their charge. A few years elapsed and the mud which had been cast upon the snow-white garments of Christs Church fell off from them, leaving them whiter than before. But the devil has adopted the same plan in every period. But has the Church suffered through their slander, or hath ever a solitary Christian lost aught by it? No; the Lord God who set the mountains round about Jerusalem has so put Himself about His people, that no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth against us in judgment we shall condemn.
3. Again Satan learned wisdom, and he said, Now, inasmuch as I cannot destroy this people, neither by sword nor slander, lo, this will I do; I will send into their midst wolves in sheeps clothing; I will inspire divers heretics, carried away by their own lusts, who shall in the midst of the Church promulgate lies and prophesy smooth things in the name of the Lord. And Satan has done all this with a vengeance. In every era of the Church there have been numberless bands of heretics. Now, this is one of the attempts of the enemy to put down the truth; but he will never be able to do it, for As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever.
4. The craftiest invention of the devil, with which he seeks, in the last place, to put out the Church, is a device which has amazed me above every ether. Now, says Satan, if I can quench the Church, neither by persecution, nor slander, nor heresy, I will invent another mode of destroying her. And I have often marvelled at the depths of deceit which are centred in this last invention of Satan. Satan seeks to divide the Church, to set us apart from one another, and not allow those who love the same truth to meet with each other and to work together in love, and peace, and harmony. But, despite all this, the Church is secure, for God hath set Himself round about her even as the mountains, etc.
II. The fact which relates to the Church includes in it every member of the Church. God has fortressed His people; so that every believer is infallibly secure. The Christian is fortified and secured from all harm. And yet, O child of God, there be many that will seek to destroy thee, and thy fears will often tell thee that thou art in the jaws of the enemy.
1. Providence will often seem against thee, thine eyes shall be seldom dry; it may be funeral shall follow funeral; loss shall follow loss; a burning house shall be succeeded by a blasted crop. The Christian in this world is not secured against the perils which happen to manhood. Oh! child of God, it may seem that all things are against thee; perhaps all Gods waves and billows will go over thee; but, oh I remember, that neither famine, nor hunger, nor poverty, nor sickness, nor weakness, nor contempt, can separate thee from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus thy Lord.
2. Again, you may be tempted by the world; traps may be set for you on every hand, you may be tempted by your flesh; your corruptions may have great power over you, and often stagger your faith, and make you tremble, lest you should be utterly overthrown, and the devil may set upon you with fiery darts; he may pierce you with foul insinuations, he may almost make you blaspheme, and with terrible suggestions he may drive you well-nigh to despair.
3. And thou mayest, too, be overcome by sin. Thou mayest fall. Conscience will whisper, How couldst thou be a child of God, and yet sin thus? And Satan will howl in thine ears, He that sinneth knoweth not God. And so thou wilt be ready to be destroyed by thy sin. But do thou then, in the hour of thy dark distress, read this verse–As the mountains, etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem] Jerusalem, according to Sandys, was situated on a rocky mountain every way to be ascended, except a little on the north, with steep ascents and deep valleys, naturally fortified. It is surrounded with other mountains, at no great distance, as if placed in the midst of an amphitheatre; for on the east is Mount Olivet, separated from the city by the valley of Jehoshaphat, which also encompasses a part of the north; on the south, the mountain of Offiner interposed with the valley of Gehinnom; and on the west it was formerly fenced with the valley of Gihon, and the mountains adjoining. The situation was such as to be easily rendered impregnable.
The Lord is round about his people] He is above, beneath, around them; and while they keep within it, their fortress is impregnable, and they can suffer no evil.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem; by which it was defended both from stormy winds and from the assaults of its enemies.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
As the mountains [are] round about Jerusalem,…. There was Mount Zion on the side of the north, and the mount of Olives on the east, and other mountains on the other sides of it; so that it was encompassed with them, and was naturally as well as artificially fortified. Tacitus k describes Jerusalem as inaccessible, walls and mountains, rocks and towers, surrounding it: and the poet Coerilus l makes mention of a people that spoke the Phoenician language, by whom he plainly means the Jews, ‘ , “that inhabited the mountains of Solyma”; which are spoken of by Homer m, from whence, according to Tacitus n, Jerusalem had its name: yet, as Kimchi observes, this did not hinder the enemy from taking it; wherefore the Lord is a greater security to his people;
so the Lord [is] round about his people, from henceforth even for ever; he encompasses them with his favour and lovingkindness as a shield; he encircles them in the arms of everlasting love; he guards them by his providence all around, and keeps a wakeful and watchful eye over them, that nothing hurts them: he keeps them, as in a garrison, by his almighty power: these are the walls that are around them, yea, he himself is a wall of fire about them, and the glory in the midst of them, Zec 2:5; and so he continues; he never leaves his people, nor forsakes them, but is their God and guide even unto death. The Targum is,
“the Word of the Lord is round about his people;”
Christ, the essential Word of God.
k Hist. l. 5. c. 11. l Apud Euseb. Praerar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 9. m Odyss. 5. v. 283. n Ut supra. (Hist. l. 5. c. 11.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) As the mountains.In the first verse, the stability of the faithful is compared to that of Mount Zion; here their security to that of the city girt by its hills. (On the geographical reference, see Dean Stanley, S. and P., pp. 174, 175.) Robinsons description isThe sacred city lies upon the broad and high mountain range, which is shut in by the two valleys, Jehoshaphat and Hinnom. All the surrounding hills are higher: in the east, the Mount of Olives; on the south, the so-called Hill of Evil Counsel, which ascends from the valley of Hinnom; on the west, the ground rises gently to the border of the great wadi, as described above; while on the north the bend of a ridge which adjoins the Mount of Olives limits the view to the distance of about a mile and a half. In Zec. 2:4-5, the protecting care of Jehovah is likened to a wall round the city, instead of to the rampart of mountains, as here.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Mountains round about Jerusalem Jerusalem lies close upon the watershed of the great range of mountains running from the plain of Esdraelon to the latitude of the southern limit of the Dead Sea, 2,500 feet above the sea level. Viewed from its immediate vicinity, it appears to stand on a ridge of land, the backbone of the mountain, guarded on the east, southeast, and northeast by Olivet, but apparently open on the west and north. On the west and northwest, however, at the distance of about six miles, rise the hills of Mizpeh, Ramah, and Gibeah; on the north, the bend of the ridge which connects with the Mount of Olives, (Robinson,) and on the immediate south, the hill of Evil Counsel, and farther on, the ridge which divides it from Bethlehem. Back of Olivet, in the remoter east, rise the mountains of Moab, as a guard against an eastern invasion. Thus the plain on the west and north of the city “is encompassed with a barrier of heights, which shut out the view of Jerusalem till within a very short distance of the city, and must always have acted as a defence to it,” (Stanley,) while the background of eastern mountains wholly obstruct all approach of a hostile army. These were the emblems and pledges of God’s care and defence of the homes of his ancient people the Jewish Church.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 125:2. As the mountains are round, &c. This allusion to the situation of Jerusalem expresses very properly the divine protection, which defended them on every side from the outrages and insults of their enemies. Perhaps the short description of it which Mr. Sandys has given us, may help us to conceive this matter the better. “This city,” says he, “is seated on a rocky mountain, every way to be ascended, except a little on the north, with steep ascents and deep vallies naturally fortified: for the most part environed with other not far removed mountains, as if placed in the midst of an amphitheatre; for on the east is mount Olivet, separated from the city by the valley of Jehoshaphat, which also circleth part of the north. On the south the mountain of Ossiner interposed with the valley of Gehinnom; and on the west it was formerly fenced with the valley of Gihon and the mountains adjoining.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 125:2 As the mountains [are] round about Jerusalem, so the LORD [is] round about his people from henceforth even for ever.
Ver. 2. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem ] That is, say some, as the angels; but we take it literally. Jerusalem was surrounded with many high mountains, which were a great safeguard to it; yet did not always defend it, as the Lord doth his, by being a wall of fire round about them, Zec 2:5 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
As the mountains: Lam 4:12
the Lord: Psa 34:7, Deu 33:27, Isa 4:5, Zec 2:5, Joh 10:28, Joh 10:29
Reciprocal: Jos 10:6 – mountains 2Ki 18:30 – make you 1Ch 8:28 – Jerusalem 1Ch 11:5 – the castle Psa 87:3 – Glorious Psa 147:13 – he hath Pro 12:3 – the root Isa 22:1 – the valley Isa 30:15 – in returning Isa 31:4 – so shall Jer 21:13 – of the valley Eze 21:20 – the defenced Eze 40:5 – a wall Zec 9:8 – I will Mat 7:25 – for Mat 16:18 – shall not Luk 6:48 – the flood 2Ti 2:19 – sure 1Pe 1:5 – kept 1Jo 2:17 – abideth 1Jo 2:19 – for Rev 20:9 – the camp
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
GODS ENCOMPASSING
The Lord is round about His people.
Psa 125:2
I. It is a beautiful conception.Around the chosen city the mountains stand like sentinels, leaving no part without its barrier. So is God around us, and this enables us to understand how His permissions may become His appointments. It is easy to accept pain and disappointment which comes to us direct from His hand; but not so when they approach us from the plotting and malevolence of a Judas or Shimei. We shall, however, never arrive at a settled peace, so long as we make a distinction between the afflictions which come to us from the Divine, and those which visit us from the human; and indeed, the distinction is untenable.
II. For the assaults of our foes are at least permitted by God, and His permissions are His appointments.This will become evident if we clearly apprehend that God is round about us, as a rampart to the city, as an envelope to a letter, as the atmosphere to the configuration of our bodies. If then He chooses, He can pass off from us any arrow that might harm us, but if He opens His environing protection, so as to let it pass through to us, by the time it has traversed the atmosphere of His care, it has become His will for us. Put God between yourself and everything. Plenty put their anxieties between them and God, and see God as the sun through a fog; mind that you put God between you and the entire world of men and things.
Illustration
The Lord is round about. He is both before and behind.
My eyes look ahead; they peer into the untrodden future; and He is there. Mystery and perplexity may be there; but into the unexplored territory He goes in my company, His word a touchstone to discriminate between friends and foes, His Spirit a constant enlightenment and guide. Loneliness may await me; but He makes His angels my ministers, and His saints my counsellors and comrades. Weariness will probably be my portion; but when there is most to discourage, the best of all is, as John Wesley said, God is still with us. Struggle lies in front; but what of that? His name is Jehovah Nissi, The Lord my Banner.
My eyes look backward; they scrutinise my past; and He is there. He is the Author of the joys behind me. Every Elim with its shade, every great rock in the weary land: it was of His preparing. I have nothing that I have not received from Him. Is it not the antidote to pride? Is it not the medicine which cures the lofty spirit? And He is the Healer of the sins behind me. He redresses the wrongs I have done. He neutralises the consequences of my folly. He gives me a sense of recovered freedom. He enables me to begin anew. I bless Him that He follows as well as leads.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Psa 125:2. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem Defending it, not only from stormy winds and tempests, the force of which these mountains broke, but from the assaults of its enemies. And such a defence is Gods providence to his people. His protection is round about them on every side, and is constant and persevering, from henceforth, says the psalmist, even for ever. Mountains may moulder and come to naught, and the rocks be removed out of their place, (Job 14:18,) but Gods covenant with his people, with those who persevere in faith, love, and obedience, cannot be broken, nor his care of them cease, Isa 54:10.