Psalms 120:5 Commentary: Exile among Hostile Peoples

Psalm 120 is the first of the fifteen Songs of Ascents, psalms likely sung by pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for festivals. This verse gives voice to someone who feels completely out of place, surrounded by people as uncivilized as the ancient tribes of Meshech and Kedar.

Meshech appears in Genesis 10:2 as a son of Japheth, and Josephus and Strabo associate his descendants with the Moschi, a people between the Black and Caspian Seas. To the Hebrew ear, their name evoked a distant, warlike people far from Israel. Kedar, from Genesis 25:13, is a son of Ishmael, and his tribe roamed the Arabian desert. The Song of Solomon 1:5 mentions “Kedar’s tents,” suggesting dark goat-hair shelters of a nomadic people. Together, these two names frame the psalmist’s experience: he feels stuck among a people as foreign and threatening as the Scythians or Bedouin.

The grammar deepens the ache. The Hebrew verb garti (I have sojourned) uses the perfect tense, but as the Cambridge Bible notes, the experience is ongoing, he has long dwelt and still must dwell there. Barnes points out that a temporary resident faces more hardship than a permanent one: no roots, no safety, constant friction. Historically, some readers, like Adam Clarke, connect this to Jewish captives taken to Assyrian provinces by Nebuchadnezzar. Others, including Matthew Henry, think David wrote it while hiding in the wilderness of Paran (1 Samuel 25:1), surrounded by people like Nabal. Either way, the psalmist names not a literal address but a spiritual condition: exile among enemies of peace.

The Hebrew text of this verse is stable, with no significant manuscript variants among the consulted sources. The main textual question involves interpretation, not transmission: the Septuagint and Vulgate read מֶשֶׁךְ (Meshekh) as deriving from the root מָשַׁךְ (“to draw out, prolong”), producing the reading “my sojourning is prolonged.” This is followed by Coverdale’s early English version. However, the Masoretic Text and nearly all modern translations treat it as the proper name Meshech, reinforced by the parallel with Kedar in the second half of the verse.

This verse has been read across Christian tradition as a cry of the faithful living as aliens in a hostile world. Early translations, like the Septuagint and Vulgate, took the first place name as a reference to the duration of exile, and that reading influenced Coverdale’s Great Bible and the Bishops’ Bible. The Geneva Bible kept the proper names, reflecting the Reformed emphasis on literal interpretation. In later hymnody, phrases like “tents of Kedar” became shorthand for the believer’s temporary home amidst a fallen world. The Anglican tradition’s Book of Common Prayer used the Septuagint-influenced rendering in the Psalter, giving it a permanent place in daily prayer. Modern scholarship, from Keil and Delitzsch to the Cambridge Bible, has firmly returned to reading Meshech and Kedar as symbolic names for barbarous peoples.

Three-point outline

1. The cry of alienation. “Woe is me” opens with raw lament. The psalmist does not soften his pain. He names it, bringing it before God. This models honest prayer.
2. The company of the hostile. Meshech and Kedar represent people governed by deceit and war (vv. 2, 3, 7). The psalmist feels trapped among them, a theme echoed in Jeremiah 9:2, 3.
3. The commitment to peace. Verse 7 declares “I am for peace.” Even when others are for war. The lament does not turn to bitterness; it returns to the prayer for deliverance that opened the psalm.

Five-point outline

1. Distress that drives us to God. The whole psalm begins with a cry that receives an answer (v. 1). The lament of v. 5 is not hopeless; it is spoken into a relationship with the Lord.
2. Recognizing when we live among “Meshech and Kedar.” Not literal tribes, but any environment that opposes truth and peace, a workplace, a family, a society. The psalmist names it so he does not pretend.
3. The length of the sojourn. The verb “dwell” can mean a prolonged stay. The Cambridge Bible notes the perfect tense expresses both past and present. Sometimes exile drags on.
4. The temptation to match hostility with hostility. The psalmist never retaliates. He prays. He holds to peace even when others choose war.
5. The hope of the ascents. This is a pilgrimage song. The journey toward God’s presence is the answer to the woe. The final destination comfort changes the journey.

Illustration hooks

• A teacher who is the only believer in a divisive staff room, feeling like she sojourns among barbarians every Monday.
• Someone stuck caring for a relative whose constant criticism and deceit are like “lying lips” (v. 2). They love the person but dread the conversation.
• A Christian in a workplace where backbiting is the norm. They keep speaking peace, but the culture is “for war.”

Questions your congregation is asking

• How do I survive spiritually when I cannot change my hostile environment?
• Is it wrong to express “woe is me” laments, or should I just trust God silently?
• Does the psalm promise deliverance in this life, or is the peace only in the journey toward God?

This verse captures the ache of feeling out of place among people who oppose peace. The psalmist does not deny the pain, he brings it to God, naming exactly where he feels trapped. Use these questions to explore what it means to live faithfully in hostile surroundings.

Discussion questions

1. Read the whole psalm (120:1, 7). What does the psalmist ask for in verse 2? How does that connect to the complaint in verse 5?
2. The Hebrew verb for “sojourn” suggests a temporary stay. Why does that make the complaint more painful rather than less?
3. Most commentators agree Meshech and Kedar are symbolic. Why do you think the psalmist chose those particular names? What do they convey that a general statement like “barbarians” would not?
4. Verse 7 says, “I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.” Have you ever experienced a relationship or situation like that? How did you respond?
5. The psalm begins with answered prayer (“He answered me”) but ends without a visible resolution. How does that shape your view of waiting on God in hard places?
6. If you were to describe your own “Meshech” or “Kedar” today, what would you name? How might naming it help you pray?
7. The Songs of Ascents were sung by pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem. How does the destination (God’s presence) change the perspective on the journey?