Psalm 120: The Pilgrimage Begins
Sunday's reading was Psalm 120, which could very well be known to some people as the short one that comes after the longest ever one, the infamous and repetitive meditation known as Psalm 119. Not that the 119th Psalm is a bad piece of literature, but it is better known for length and the repeated thesaurical exposition on the Word than it is for beauty or style.
Psalm 120 reads:
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.
What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.
I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
It was the first psalm I ever read in my military service, and it immediately raises the spectre of two ethical dilemmas: firstly, the dilemma of dealing with deceit (avoidance or confrontation); secondly, the problem of the warmonger mentality (coexistence or opposition).
The psalmist cries out for delivery from both. But it's to be noted that he sojourns in Mesech (or Meshech), the land associated with the sons of Nimrod, crafters of metal and machines of war. He dwells in the tents of Kedar, the tribe associated with stealthy hunting. And he has dwelt there a long time, a peacemaker in the midst of warmongers.
Sometimes, we too feel his pain. Attempting to be reasonable in a world of unreasonable people, attempting to solve problems rather than ignore their existence, attempting to be truthful in a world that denies the validity of the factual, we often feel beleaguered and beset by dark pressures and comic insanity.
The 120th Psalm has no explicit resolution for this. In the first verse, we are told that God hears, but not what He says in reply. This psalm therefore stands well as the opening statement in the Songs of Ascents, which I mentioned some time ago – meditations on pilgrimage through the spiritually barren landscape of the world.
Psalm 120 reads:
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.
What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.
I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
It was the first psalm I ever read in my military service, and it immediately raises the spectre of two ethical dilemmas: firstly, the dilemma of dealing with deceit (avoidance or confrontation); secondly, the problem of the warmonger mentality (coexistence or opposition).
The psalmist cries out for delivery from both. But it's to be noted that he sojourns in Mesech (or Meshech), the land associated with the sons of Nimrod, crafters of metal and machines of war. He dwells in the tents of Kedar, the tribe associated with stealthy hunting. And he has dwelt there a long time, a peacemaker in the midst of warmongers.
Sometimes, we too feel his pain. Attempting to be reasonable in a world of unreasonable people, attempting to solve problems rather than ignore their existence, attempting to be truthful in a world that denies the validity of the factual, we often feel beleaguered and beset by dark pressures and comic insanity.
The 120th Psalm has no explicit resolution for this. In the first verse, we are told that God hears, but not what He says in reply. This psalm therefore stands well as the opening statement in the Songs of Ascents, which I mentioned some time ago – meditations on pilgrimage through the spiritually barren landscape of the world.
etched with acid at 5:47:00 pm
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