“A PSALMIST’S DESIRE FOR PEACE” PSALM 120:1-7

Beginning with Psalm 120, we come to a cluster of psalms called songs of degrees (Psalms 120-134) because these psalms were sung during the time when the pilgrims were going up to Jerusalem to celebrate the three feasts of Israel: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacle.  The city of Jerusalem today is not a place of peace; however, in the future, Jerusalem will be a place of peace because the “Prince of Peace” will be reigning in Jerusalem during the Millennium.  Isaiah, that great prophet of Judah, wrote about the Lord’s coming reign: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths:  for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:2-4).  Jerusalem is now a war-zone city, but one day Jerusalem will be peaceful!

This psalm may be classified as a psalm of lament because the psalmist is praying that the Lord might rescue him from liars whose aim was to destroy him.  He expresses his situation as follows in verses 1 and 2: “In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.  Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.”    However, the psalmist was confident that the Lord was going to deliver him.  In addition, the psalmist affirmed that the Lord was going to judge his enemies (vv. 3-4).  His enemies with deceitful tongues will be sharply judged by the Lord.

In the midst of enemies who hated peace (vv. 5-6), the psalmist was a man of peace.

In verse 6 he states: “My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace”, but in verse 7, he makes known: “I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.”  And being a man of peace, the psalmist was assured that the Lord would defend his cause.

May God Bless!