Day #111

Sermon - Audio
Pslam 121, 123-125, 128-130 - Audio
Pslam 121, 123-125, 128-130 - Reading

Daily Insights - Please Comment

Pslam 120–134 These 15 psalms have the heading “a song of ascents”; that is, “going up” to Zion for the festivals; hence they are also called “pilgrim psalms” or “psalms of Zion.” Older English versions thought of the “ascents” as graduated steps of the sanctuary, and called the psalm “a song of degrees.”

Psalm 121

Overview = I lift up my eyes to the hills: the traveler’s psalm [ Psalm 121 ]. To this day, Psalm 121 is the psalm of choice for people ready to set out on a journey. The poem is firmly rooted in the physical experiences of the pilgrims who traveled to Jerusalem: the pilgrim catches sight of the mountains, which represent the dangers of travel to him, leading him to assert to himself that God is the one who unceasingly protects the traveler on the perilous journey (vv. 1–2); catalog of God’s acts of protection for the traveler (vv. 3–6); summary of the preceding catalog, possibly branching out from the physical pilgrimage to the metaphoric journey of life (v. 7); prediction that God’s protection extends beyond the pilgrimage to a believer’s entire life and throughout all time (v. 8).

121:3–8 The Lord Will Keep You at All Times. These verses are dominated by the word “keep” (Hb. shamar, to keep, guard, watch over, attend to carefully): the Lord who keeps Israel (the corporate entity) also keeps you (the particular member). This means that he will not let your foot be moved (i.e., slip as you walk, cf. 38:16; 66:9), nor will he let you suffer from the dangers of day and night. When 121:7 speaks of all evil, and v. 8 of your going out and your coming in (cf. Deut. 28:6), it is probably taking the safe journey to Jerusalem as a parable for all of one’s life: the LORD is your keeper at all times; he will neither slumber nor sleep. Not only is God all-powerful (Ps. 121:2), he is ever-watchful (v. 4). This is the confidence the faithful are to enjoy.

Psalm 123

As the eyes of a maidservant [ Psalm 123 ]. With Psalm 123 we are still early in the series of fifteen psalms that bear the superscription “A song of Ascents.” In this poem the thoughts of the pilgrim turn to God, in the following order: invocation of the transcendent God (v. 1); twin similes by which the speaker expresses the bent of his being to look to God as the one from whom his blessings flow (v. 2); prayer to God for deliverance from the scorn of unbelievers (vv. 3–4).

*This was more of a community lament, and should be read as such.

Psalm 124

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side: a thanksgiving psalm [ Psalm 124 ]. The poet begins by imagining the calamity that would have engulfed his nation if God had not delivered it (vv. 1–5). Then he expresses thanks to God for the deliverance (vv. 6–7), with the lyric rounded out with a concluding assertion that God is the one in whom the nation trusts (v. 8). ESVLB

Overall - The beginning of this psalm, expressing the congregation’s confidence in God, contains repetition of lines, like many of the other Songs of Ascents.

v1-5 = Had the Lord Not Helped Us. The first section describes a situation in which people (apparently Gentiles) rose up against us (i.e., against Israel); these would have swallowed us up alive (v. 3) or swept us away like a flood (v. 4). and they would have succeeded if it had not been the LORD who was on our side to rescue us (cf. 94:17). ESVSB

Psalm 125

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion [ Psalm 125 ]. The template on which the poem is built is the contrast between the godly and the wicked. Within that rubric, the poem unfolds as follows: comparison of the godly to Mount Zion in their stability (v. 1) and to Jerusalem surrounded by mountains in their enclosure by God (v. 2); in a sudden shift of thought, an assertion that wicked rulers (foreigners?) need to be rooted out of the land or the godly might be corrupted (v. 3); prayer that God will bless the godly (v. 4); assertion that God will defeat evildoers (v. 5a); concluding prayer for peace on Israel (v. 5b). The physical location of the speaker is the outskirts of Jerusalem, and in keeping with the fact that Jerusalem was the capital city as well as the center of religious worship, there is a patriotic undercurrent to the poem. ESVLB

v1 - Trusting in the LORD is a significant biblical theme in many genres; it implies action and is not merely an abstract notion. On Mount Zion, see Ps. 48. The stability of Jerusalem, and by extension those who trust in the LORD, is expressed through the doubling of cannot be moved, enduring forever. JSB

v3 - Righteous Rule over Zion. The middle of the psalm stresses that the Lord intends to protect his city, not simply from enemies without (v. 2) but from enemies within: the scepter of wickedness is kingly power held by Israelites who do not serve God and his people (the righteous). The disastrous effects of such rule show up frequently in OT history, where the bulk of the people do in fact stretch out their hands to do wrong (in defiance of the very purpose for which God chose them). Therefore no one could suppose that in affirming that this godless regime shall not rest on the land, the psalmist was ignoring the obvious; rather, he was both instilling the ideal toward which the Israelites should always press, and indicating that God will not allow the unrighteous to rule over his people forever. Christians rejoice that God raised Jesus to the throne of David in keeping with this principle, and pray that leaders in their churches (and in their nations) would model themselves after Jesus. ESVSB

Psalm 128

The blessed man: an encomium [ Psalm 128 ]. This poem praising a general character type begins by introducing the subject: the blessedness of the person who reveres God (v. 1). The superior quality of such a person is first praised through a description of the domestic blessings and rewards that come to such a person (vv. 2–4). The further motif is a prayer for the blessing of the godly person being praised, with the conventional praise of distinguished ancestry taking the form of a prayer for posterity (vv. 5–6). References to Jerusalem and Zion tie the poem to the pilgrimage motif of the songs of ascent.

This Psalm connects with 127.

BlessedNess: "Consisted of a productive farm, faithful wife and children around the table together. Being blessed is to be viewed in the context of a community of God's people." ESVSB

Psalm 129

Greatly have they afflicted me [ Psalm 129 ]. It might surprise us to find lament psalms in the songs of the pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem, but we find them in Psalms 129–130, right in the middle of the songs of ascent. The lament motifs in Psalm 129 unfold as follows: description of the speaker’s distress—the problem that requires a solution, as in all lament psalms (vv. 1–3); statement of confidence in God (v. 4); petition for deliverance (vv. 5–8a); concluding statement of blessing (v. 8b).

*The verbiage of the world "hating" Israel from the beginning comes across in the words "afflicted, plowed, hate, etc. Even though the world is against Israel, they keep on prevailing by God's hand.

Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord [ Psalm 130 ]. In labeling this a penitential psalm (the sixth of seven), we should note that the penitential psalms are variations on the conventional lament psalm. The modification is that the enemy is not external but internal, taking the form of the speaker’s guilt before God. The variations on the central theme of a guilt that needs to be forgiven are as follows: opening cry to God to hear the speaker’s prayer for mercy (vv. 1–2); brief statement of the problem that requires a solution, namely, the plight of a guilty sinner before a holy God (v. 3); an extended statement of confidence in God (vv. 4–8). The poem is governed by the vocabulary and experience of sin, hope in God, forgiveness, and redemption. At the conclusion of the poem, the motif of forgiveness expands outward from the speaker to Israel.

*This Psalm is geared toward helping worshipers to see themselves as forgiven people, whose only right to enter God's presence lies in his mercy.