1 [[A Song H7892 of degrees H4609 of David.]] H1732 I was glad H8055 when they said H559 unto me, Let us go H3212 into the house H1004 of the LORD. H3068
And the inhabitants H3427 of one H259 city shall go H1980 to another, H259 saying, H559 Let us go H3212 speedily H1980 to pray H2470 before H6440 the LORD, H3068 and to seek H1245 the LORD H3068 of hosts: H6635 I will go H3212 also. Yea, many H7227 people H5971 and strong H6099 nations H1471 shall come H935 to seek H1245 the LORD H3068 of hosts H6635 in Jerusalem, H3389 and to pray H2470 before H6440 the LORD. H3068 Thus saith H559 the LORD H3068 of hosts; H6635 In those days H3117 it shall come to pass, that ten H6235 men H582 shall take hold H2388 out of all languages H3956 of the nations, H1471 even shall take hold H2388 of the skirt H3671 of him that is a Jew, H376 H3064 saying, H559 We will go H3212 with you: for we have heard H8085 that God H430 is with you.
In those days, H3117 and in that time, H6256 saith H5002 the LORD, H3068 the children H1121 of Israel H3478 shall come, H935 they and the children H1121 of Judah H3063 together, H3162 going H1980 and weeping: H1058 they shall go, H3212 and seek H1245 the LORD H3068 their God. H430 They shall ask H7592 the way H1870 to Zion H6726 with their faces H6440 thitherward, H2008 saying, Come, H935 and let us join H3867 ourselves to the LORD H3068 in a perpetual H5769 covenant H1285 that shall not be forgotten. H7911
[[To the chief Musician H5329 upon Gittith, H1665 A Psalm H4210 for the sons H1121 of Korah.]] H7141 How amiable H3039 are thy tabernacles, H4908 O LORD H3068 of hosts! H6635 My soul H5315 longeth, H3700 yea, even fainteth H3615 for the courts H2691 of the LORD: H3068 my heart H3820 and my flesh H1320 crieth out H7442 for the living H2416 God. H410
[[A Psalm H4210 of David, H1732 when he was in the wilderness H4057 of Judah.]] H3063 O God, H430 thou art my God; H410 early will I seek H7836 thee: my soul H5315 thirsteth H6770 for thee, my flesh H1320 longeth H3642 for thee in a dry H6723 and thirsty H5889 land, H776 where no H1097 water H4325 is; To see H7200 thy power H5797 and thy glory, H3519 so as I have seen H2372 thee in the sanctuary. H6944 Because thy lovingkindness H2617 is better H2896 than life, H2416 my lips H8193 shall praise H7623 thee.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 122
Commentary on Psalms 122 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
A Well-Wishing Glance Back at the Pilgrims' City
If by “the mountains” in Psalms 121:1 the mountains of the Holy Land are to be understood, it is also clear for what reason the collector placed this Song of degrees, which begins with the expression of joy at the pilgrimage to the house of Jahve, and therefore to the holy mountain, immediately after the preceding song. By its peace-breathing ( שׁלום ) contents it also, however, touches closely upon Psalms 120:1-7. The poet utters aloud his hearty benedictory salutation to the holy city in remembrance of the delightful time during which he sojourned there as a visitor at the feast, and enjoyed its inspiring aspect. If in respect of the לדוד the Psalm were to be regarded as an old Davidic Psalm, it would belong to the series of those Psalms of the time of the persecution by Absalom, which cast a yearning look back towards home, the house of God (Psalms 23:1-6; Psalms 26:1-12, Psalms 55:15; Psalms 61:1-8, and more particularly Psalms 63:1-11). But the לדוד is wanting in the lxx, Codd. Alex. and Vat .; and the Cod Sinait., which has ΤΩ ΔΑΔ , puts this before Psalms 124:1-8, ει ̓ μὴ ὅτι κύριος κ. τ. λ . , also, contrary to Codd. Alex. and Vat. Here it is occasioned by Psalms 122:5, but without any critical discernment. The measures adopted by Jeroboam I show, moreover, that the pilgrimages to the feasts were customary even in the time of David and Solomon. The images of calves in Dan and Bethel, and the changing of the Feast of Tabernacles to another month, were intended to strengthen the political rupture, by breaking up the religious unity of the people and weaning them from visiting Jerusalem. The poet of the Psalm before us, however, lived much later. He lived, as is to be inferred with Hupfeld from Psalms 122:3, in the time of the post-exilic Jerusalem which rose again out of its ruins. Thither he had been at one of the great feasts, and here, still quite full of the inspiring memory, he looks back towards the holy city; for, in spite of Reuss, Hupfeld, and Hitzig, Psalms 122:1., so far as the style is concerned, are manifestly a retrospect.
The preterite שׂמחתי may signify: I rejoice ( 1 Samuel 2:1), just as much as: I rejoiced. Here in comparison with Psalms 122:2 it is a retrospect; for היה with the participle has for the most part a retrospective signification, Genesis 39:22; Deuteronomy 9:22, Deuteronomy 9:24; Judges 1:7; Job 1:14. True, עמדות היוּ might also signify: they have been standing and still stand (as in Psalms 10:14; Isaiah 59:2; Isaiah 30:20); but then why was it not more briefly expressed by עמדוּ (Psalms 26:12)? The lxx correctly renders: εὐφράνθην and ἑστῶτες ἦσαν . The poet, now again on the journey homewards, or having returned home, calls to mind the joy with which the cry for setting out, “Let us go up to the house of Jahve!” filled him. When he and the other visitors to the feast had reached the goal of their pilgrimage, their feet came to a stand-still, as if spell-bound by the overpowering, glorious sight.
(Note: So also Veith in his, in many points, beautiful Lectures on twelve gradual Psalms (Vienna 1863), S. 72, “They arrested their steps, in order to give time to the amazement with which the sight of the Temple, the citadel of the king, and the magnificent city filled them.”)
Reviving this memory, he exclaims: Jerusalem, O thou who art built up again - true, בּנה in itself only signifies “to build,” but here, where, if there is nothing to the contrary, a closed sense is to be assumed for the line of the verse, and in the midst of songs which reflect the joy and sorrow of the post-exilic restoration period, it obtains the same meaning as in Psalms 102:17; Psalms 147:2, and frequently (Gesenius: O Hierosolyma restituta ). The parallel member, Psalms 122:3 , does not indeed require this sense, but is at least favourable to it. Luther's earlier rendering, “as a city which is compacted together,” was happier than his later rendering, “a city where they shall come together,” which requires a Niph . or Hithpa . instead of the passive. חבּר signifies, as in Exodus 28:7, to be joined together, to be united into a whole; and יחדּו strengthens the idea of that which is harmoniously, perfectly, and snugly closed up (cf. Psalms 133:1). The Kaph of כּעיר is the so-called Kaph veritatis : Jerusalem has risen again out of its ruined and razed condition, the breaches and gaps are done away with (Isaiah 58:12), it stands there as a closely compacted city, in which house joins on to house. Thus has the poet seen it, and the recollection fills him with rapture.
(Note: In the synagogue and church it is become customary to interpret Psalms 122:3 of the parallelism of the heavenly and earthly Jerusalem.)
The imposing character of the impression was still greatly enhanced by the consideration, that this is the city where at all times the twelve tribes of God's nation (which were still distinguished as its elements even after the Exile, Romans 11:1; Luke 2:36; James 1:1) came together at the three great feasts. The use of the שׁ twice as equivalent to אשׁר is (as in Canticles) appropriate to the ornamental, happy, miniature-like manner of these Songs of degrees. In שׁשּׁם the שׁם is, as in Ecclesiastes 1:7, equivalent to שׁמּה , which on the other hand in Psalms 122:5 is no more than an emphatic שׁם (cf. Psalms 76:4; Psalms 68:7). עלוּ affirms a habit (cf. Job 1:4) of the past, which extends into the present. עדוּת לישׂראל is not an accusative of the definition or destination (Ew. §300, c), but an apposition to the previous clause, as e.g., in Leviticus 23:14, Leviticus 23:21, Leviticus 23:31 (Hitzig), referring to the appointing in Exodus 23:17; Exodus 34:23; Deuteronomy 16:16. The custom, which arose thus, is confirmed in Psalms 122:5 from the fact, that Jerusalem, the city of the one national sanctuary, was at the same time the city of the Davidic kingship. The phrase ישׁב למשׁפּט is here transferred from the judicial persons (cf. Psalms 29:10 with Psalms 9:5; Psalms 28:6), who sit in judgment, to the seats (thrones) which are set down and stand there fro judgment (cf. Psalms 125:1, and θρόνος ἔκειτο , Revelation 4:2). The Targum is thinking of seats in the Temple, viz., the raised (in the second Temple resting upon pillars) seat of the king in the court of the Israelitish men near the שׁער העליון , but למשׁפט points to the palace, 1 Kings 7:7. In the flourishing age of the Davidic kingship this was also the highest court of judgment of the land; the king was the chief judge (2 Samuel 15:2; 1 Kings 3:16), and the sons, brothers, or kinsmen of the king were his assessors and advisers. In the time of the poet it is different; but the attractiveness of Jerusalem, not only as the city of Jahve, but also as the city of David, remains the same for all times.
When the poet thus calls up the picture of his country's “city of peace” before his mind, the picture of the glory which it still ever possesses, and of the greater glory which it had formerly, he spreads out his hands over it in the distance, blessing it in the kindling of his love, and calls upon all his fellow-countrymen round about and in all places: apprecamini salutem Hierosolymis . So Gesenius correctly ( Thesaurus , p. 1347); for just as שׁאל לו לשׁלום signifies to inquire after any one's well-being, and to greet him with the question: השׁלום לך (Jeremiah 15:5), so שׁאל שׁלום signifies to find out any one's prosperity by asking, to gladly know and gladly see that it is well with him, and therefore to be animated by the wish that he may prosper; Syriac, שׁאל שׁלמא ד directly: to salute any one; for the interrogatory השׁלום לך and the well-wishing שׁלום לך , εἰρήνη σοί (Luke 10:5; John 20:19.), have both of them the same source and meaning. The reading אהליך , commended by Ewald, is a recollection of Job 12:6 that is violently brought in here. The loving ones are comprehended with the beloved one, the children with the mother. שׁלה forms an alliteration with שׁלום ; the emphatic form ישׁליוּ occurs even in other instances out of pause (e.g., Psalms 57:2). In Psalms 122:7 the alliteration of שׁלום and שׁלוה is again taken up, and both accord with the name of Jerusalem. Ad elegantiam fac it , as Venema observes, perpetua vocum ad se invicem et omnium ad nomen Hierosolymae alliteratio . Both together mark the Song of degrees as such. Happiness, cries out the poet to the holy city from afar, be within thy bulwarks, prosperity within thy palaces, i.e., without and within. חיל , ramparts, circumvallation (from חוּל , to surround, Arabic hawl , round about, equally correct whether written חיל or חל ), and ארמנות as the parallel word, as in Psalms 48:14. The twofold motive of such an earnest wish for peace is love for the brethren and love for the house of God. For the sake of the brethren is he cheerfully resolved to speak peace ( τὰ πρὸς ἐιρήνην αὐτῆς , Luke 19:42) concerning ( דּבּר בּ , as in Psalms 87:3, Deuteronomy 6:7, lxx περὶ σοῦ ; cf. דּבּר שׁלום with אל and ל , to speak peace to, Psalms 85:9; Esther 10:3) Jerusalem, for the sake of the house of Jahve will he strive after good (i.e., that which tends to her well-being) to her (like בּקּשׁ טובה ל in Nehemiah 2:10, cf. דּרשׁ שׁלום , Deuteronomy 23:6, Jeremiah 29:7). For although he is now again far from Jerusalem after the visit that is over, he still remains united in love to the holy city as being the goal of his longing, and to those who dwell there as being his brethren and friends. Jerusalem is and will remain the heart of all Israel as surely as Jahve who has His house there, is the God of all Israel.