Psalm 120:7
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- אֲנִי'ani·ShaIH589Pro-1csPronoun Personal 1st Singular common gender
- שָׁלוֹםSha·lom[am] peaceH7965N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
- וְכִיve·Khiand thatH3588Conj-w ¦ PrtParticle Conditionalוְandכִיthat
- אֲדַבֵּר'a·da·BerI speakH1696V-Piel-Imperf-1csVerb Piel Imperfect 1st Singular common gender
- הֵמָּהHe·mahtheyH1992Pro-3mpPronoun Personal 3rd Plural Masculine
- לַמִּלְחָמָהla·mil·cha·Mah[are] for [the] warH4421Prep-l ¦ N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absoluteלַ[are] for [the]מִּלְחָמָהwar
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Psalm 120:5–7.
The psalmist here complains of the bad neighbourhood into which he was driven; and some apply the two foregoing verses 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, Psalm 57:4. 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 Peter 2:8); 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.
Historical interpretation
Historical reception
1 surviving comment on this verse from the historical church.
"With them that hated peace, I was peaceful" [Psalm 120:7]. But howsoever ye may hear, most beloved brethren, you will not be able to prove how truly ye sing, unless you have begun to do that which you sing. How much soever I say this, in whatsoever ways I may expound it, in whatsoever words I may turn it, it enters not into the heart of him in whom its operation is not. Begin to act, and see what we speak. Then tears flow forth at each word, then the Psalm is sung, and the heart does what is sung in the Psalm...Who are they who hate peace? They who tear asunder unity. For had they not hated peace, they would have abode in unity. But they separated themselves, forsooth on this account, that they might be righteous, that they might not have the ungodly mixed with them. These words are either ours or theirs: decide whose. The Catholic Church says, Unity must not be lost, the Church of God must not be cut off. God will judge afterwards of the wicked and the good...This we also say: Love ye peace, love ye Christ. For if they love peace, they love Christ. When therefore we say, Love ye peace, we say this, Love ye Christ. Wherefore? For the Apostle says of Christ, "He is our peace, who has made both one." [Ephesians 2:14] If Christ is therefore peace, because He has made both one: why have ye made two of one? How then are you peace-makers, if, when Christ makes one of two, you make two of one? But since we say these things, we are peace-makers with them that hate peace; and yet they who hate peace, when we spoke to them, made war on us for nought.
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This verse
The psalmist is wholly given to peace, yet whenever he speaks, the people around him answer with war.
“I am for peace:”
Literally “I peace”. The psalmist’s character and desire are wholly given to peace.
“but when I speak,”
His words are the point where trouble begins, perhaps because he offers peace or simply says what he wants.
“they are for war.”
The many answer the one with hostility, and the psalm ends there, with the need that sends the pilgrim up toward Zion in the psalms that follow.
A Man of Peace Among People Who Want War
Psalm 120:5–7
Summary
Psalm 120 closes with a man who loves peace living among people who want war. He cries “Woe is me” because he has made his home among Mesech and Kedar, two peoples Israel knew as fierce and far from God, and he has lived there a long time. When he speaks for peace, they answer with war. These three verses give God’s people words for the weariness of living as strangers among hostile neighbours, and the Songs of Ascents that follow turn the pilgrim toward Jerusalem and the peace that God gives.
Where this lament stands in the Psalms
Psalm 120 is the first of the fifteen Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134), which pilgrims traditionally sang as they went up to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. The psalm opens with a prayer to the LORD for deliverance from lying lips and a deceitful tongue (Psalm 120:2), and these last three verses show what living among such people has been like. The psalmist names where he lives, says how long he has lived there, and sets his own heart beside the hearts of his neighbours.
That makes this lament the starting point of the whole journey. The pilgrim begins far from Zion, among people who hate peace, and the collection ends in the house of the LORD with a blessing out of Zion (Psalm 134:3). The peace he longs for in these verses is the peace he goes up to find.
Why does he name Mesech and Kedar?
Who Mesech and Kedar were
Mesech, usually spelled Meshech, is Meshek in Hebrew, a name of foreign origin. It belongs to a son of Japheth and to the people descended from him, often identified with the Muski of Assyrian records, who lived in Anatolia, in what is now Turkey, far to the north of Israel. Ezekiel names Meshech beside Tubal in his prophecy against Gog (Ezekiel 38:2) and again among the fallen nations in the grave (Ezekiel 32:26). To an Israelite they were a distant and warlike people.
Kedar, Qêdâr, comes from a root meaning “dusky”. Kedar was a son of Ishmael (Genesis 25:13), and his descendants became a leading nomadic Arab tribe whose land stretched across the Arabian desert. They were known for their black tents of goat hair (Song of Solomon 1:5), and both the Bible and Assyrian records show them as raiders and troublesome neighbours. Both peoples stood outside the covenant, and in Israel’s memory both stood for hostility to God’s people.
Did the psalmist live among both?
The two names are a picture of his surroundings. Meshech lay in the north and Kedar in the Arabian desert, so by naming them together the psalmist describes what his life among his neighbours is like. They are as fierce as Meshech and as hostile as Kedar, and he is as much a foreigner among them as he would be in either land. Scripture leaves open where he actually lived, and the names carry their meaning wherever it was. The verse after explains them plainly: he lives “with him that hateth peace”.
Woe is me: the cry of a stranger
“Woe” is ʼôwyâh, an interjection that cries out in grief and distress. The psalmist opens with it because his situation has become a burden he can hardly bear, and he brings that burden straight to the LORD in prayer.
The two clauses that follow say the same thing twice, and the second deepens the first. To “sojourn”, gûwr, is to live somewhere as a foreigner and a temporary resident, a guest in a land that belongs to others. To “dwell”, shâkan, is to settle down and stay. He is a stranger in Mesech, and yet he has settled in the tents of Kedar, so the stay that should have been short has become his life. Tents belong to a people on the move, and he lives among them without ever belonging to them.
A soul that has lived long with one who hates peace
“My soul” is nephesh, a word for a breathing creature, its life, its soul and its very self. When the psalmist says “my soul hath long dwelt”, he means that he himself, his whole life, has been spent this way. The burden is personal, and it has gone deep.
“Long” translates rab, an adjective meaning much, many or great. He has had a great deal of this life, and the length of it is part of the grief. “Dwelt” is shâkan again, the same verb as “dwell” in verse 5, so the settled stay among Kedar is now measured in years.
“Hateth” is sânêʼ, to hate, to be an enemy of. The people around him hate peace itself. The psalm speaks of them as one man, “him that hateth peace”, a single figure standing for all of them, and the lying lips of verse 2 belong to him. Living beside someone whose whole bent is against peace wears a person down, and the psalmist says so honestly before God. Scripture gives us room to lament this kind of weariness in prayer, and God hears it.
I am for peace
The word for peace, shâlôwm, names a state of completeness, soundness, welfare, peace and safety. It comes from the root shâlam, to be complete or sound. When the psalmist declares himself for peace, he wants that whole condition of welfare for himself and for the people around him, and the people who hate it are setting themselves against the good order God gives.
The Hebrew of “I am for peace” is only two words, literally “I peace”, and the KJV supplies “am for” to make the sense plain in English. The psalmist identifies himself with peace. It is his settled character and his deepest desire, and he holds to it even after years among people who answer him with hostility.
When I speak, they are for war
“Speak” is dâbar, to speak, to mention, to tell. When the psalmist opens his mouth, perhaps to offer terms of peace or simply to say what he wants, his neighbours answer with war. Their word is milchâmâh, battle and war, from lâcham, to fight. “They” are the peace-haters of verse 6, and the single “I” against the many “they” shows how alone he stands.
Two things may be happening. His neighbours may take his peaceful words as a provocation, or they may simply choose to fight whatever he says. Either way, peace needs two willing sides, and he has only his own. Faithful prophets knew this well. Jeremiah complained to God that the message he faithfully spoke brought him reproach (Jeremiah 20:8), and the hope of a world at peace belongs to the day God brings, when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares” (Isaiah 2:4).
What does a peacemaker do when peace is refused?
The psalmist keeps saying “I am for peace” after years of being answered with war, and Scripture asks the same faithfulness of us. A psalm tells us to “seek peace, and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14), Jesus calls the peacemakers blessed (Matthew 5:9), and James says that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace (James 3:18). Paul sets the limit of our part: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18). We are answerable for offering peace and speaking words of peace, and the response belongs to the other side. Our hope for lasting peace rests in God, who keeps in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on him (Isaiah 26:3).
Who hates peace today?
The same disposition is easy to recognise among us. It shows in people who thrive on gossip and spread falsehood, who live by constant criticism, who sow strife in families, churches and workplaces, and who turn away every offer of reconciliation. Anyone who has lived or worked for years beside such people knows the toll the psalmist describes, and his prayer is given to us for exactly that place.
Christ, the Prince of Peace among those who hate peace
The Lord Jesus lived out these verses more fully than the psalmist could. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), and at his birth the angels announced peace on earth (Luke 2:14). Yet “he was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:10–11). He was opposed by lying lips like those of Psalm 120:2, and those who were for war against him had him crucified. He told his disciples that the world which hated him would hate them too (John 15:18–20).
Where the psalmist could only long for peace, Christ made it. He made peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20), and he is our peace, who has broken down the wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:14). He gives his own a peace the world cannot give (John 14:27), and he has overcome the world (John 16:33). The new creation he will bring is a place with no more tears or pain (Revelation 21:4).
Strangers on the road to Zion
These verses give God’s people honest words for a hard place. The psalmist does not pretend that life among hostile people is easy. He names it, measures how long it has lasted, and brings it to the LORD, and that is a prayer God receives. Jesus prayed for his disciples as people who are in the world while they belong to him (John 17:14–16), and Peter calls us strangers and pilgrims (1 Peter 2:11). Paul says our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), and the faithful of old confessed that they were strangers on the earth, seeking a better country, which God has prepared for them (Hebrews 11:13–16).
Psalm 120 is the first step of a pilgrimage. The one who cries “Woe is me” in Kedar is on his way up to the house of the LORD, and the God he cries to is the God of peace, who will bring his people home.
Psalm 120:5
“Woe is me,”
A cry of grief, ʼôwyâh, which opens the verse with the psalmist’s distress before he explains its cause.
“that I sojourn in Mesech,”
He lives as a foreigner among a people of the far north, known to Israel as warlike and outside the covenant.
“that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!”
The second clause repeats the first in other words. Kedar’s black tents belonged to a desert tribe descended from Ishmael, and “dwell” tells us his stay has settled into his life.
Psalm 120:6
“My soul hath long dwelt”
His whole self has lived this way for a great while. The verb is the one used for dwelling in Kedar in verse 5.
“with him that hateth peace.”
One figure stands for all his neighbours, the same people whose lying lips he prays against in verse 2.
Psalm 120:7 This verse
“I am for peace:”
Literally “I peace”. The psalmist’s character and desire are wholly given to peace.
“but when I speak,”
His words are the point where trouble begins, perhaps because he offers peace or simply says what he wants.
“they are for war.”
The many answer the one with hostility, and the psalm ends there, with the need that sends the pilgrim up toward Zion in the psalms that follow.
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