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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
120:5-7 Woe to Me that I Dwell among the Warlike. The psalmist then reflects on the larger situation, i.e., that the people among whom he dwells are Gentiles, who do not have the advantage of the influence of God's word: this is why they hate peace. The ideal Israelite exile is for peace, seeking it for the city in which he is exiled (Hb. shalom; in Jer. 29:7 this is "welfare," see ESV footnote on Jer. 29:11). As a Song of Ascents, this psalm invites the people to suppose that Jerusalem's influence is the ultimate answer to this readiness for war (cf. Isa. 2:2-5).
120:5 sojourn. To live as a resident alien, not as a native-born citizen. Meshech was a people on the southeastern edge of the Black Sea (see note on Ezek. 27:13), while Kedar was a people dwelling in the Arabian desert (see note on Song 1:5). Since it is unlikely that one person would live in two places so far apart, some have suggested that the psalm's speaker, I, is a personification of Israel. This is possible, but it is probably simpler to see these two names as summarizing the Gentile world into which God's people have been dispersed.
