1Un cántico para los peregrinos que van a Jerusalén. Clamé al Señor en medio de todas mis tribulaciones, y Él me contestó.
2¡Señor, por favor sálvame de los mentirosos y de los engañadores!
3¿Qué hará el Señor con ustedes, mentirosos? ¿Cómo los castigará?
4Con la espada afilada de un guerrero y carbones encendidos de un enebro.
5¡Ay de mí! Que soy extranjero en Meséc, que he acampado entre las tiendas de Cedar.
6He vivido por mucho tiempo entre los pueblos que odian la paz.
7Quiero paz, pero cuando hablo de paz, ellos quieren guerra.
📖 Chapter study
Summary
The first of the 'Songs of Ascents' (pilgrimage psalms): a plea against lying lips and a deceitful tongue, lamenting life among people who hate peace and prefer war.
Explanation
This is the first of 15 psalms (120-134) called the 'Songs of Ascents' or 'Songs of Pilgrimage,' likely sung by Israelites as they went up the road to Jerusalem for the great annual festivals (the city sits on a height, hence 'going up' to Jerusalem). 'Meshech' and 'Kedar' (v.5) were distant regions associated with hostile peoples, used here poetically to describe the feeling of living surrounded by quarrelsome people. The application today is that actively pursuing peace, even surrounded by conflict and hostility, is a conscious choice of character.
Fun facts
- Psalms 120-134 form the collection of the 'Songs of Ascents' (or 'songs of going up'), traditionally sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for the annual festivals.
- 'Meshech' lay in the north of Asia Minor and 'Kedar' was an Arabian desert region — cited together here despite being geographically distant, as a poetic way of saying 'a strange and hostile land, wherever it may be.'