We’ve been looking at Psalms 120 this week and I’d bet some of you can relate to different parts of it. Some of you might relate to the strife of ongoing opposition, some of you might relate to not being where you’d like to be. Once you dig down a bit into the possible meaning of this poem, I think it becomes clear that this is about the common hardships of life. Everyone can relate to this Psalms to some degree
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
What will he do to you,
and what more besides,
you deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom bush.
Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
I am for peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.
I’d like to submit a thought for your consideration. All seven verses of this Psalm could very well be sung by the Lord Jesus during his ministry. Jesus had cried out to God in his distress at Gethsemane. He had railed with great vitriol against the Pharisees, describing what awaits them. Jesus lived among those who hated peace; those are the ones who would go on to kill him on the cross.
Obviously, Jesus didn’t directly pen this Psalm, but I think Jesus may have sung this song along with everyone else traveling to Jerusalem. The Lord himself entered the lonely song of the human experience, and then made it better! He took on the angst of strife and the bitterness of loneliness and answered it as only he could. Through his work on the cross, we now have inextinguishable hope for the future and a companionship unmatched.
Jonathan Duncan