Psalms 120:5-7

Psalms 120:5-7

[5] Woe  is me, that I sojourn  in Mesech,  that I dwell  in the tents  of Kedar!  [6] My soul  hath long  dwelt  with him that hateth  peace.  [7] I am for peace:  but when I speak,  they are for war. 

What does Psalms 120:5-7 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

The poet bewailed the fact that he had to continue living with people such as liars who continually stir up strife ( Psalm 120:5-6). Meshech was a barbarous nation far to the north of Israel by the Black Sea in Asia Minor (cf. Genesis 10:2; Ezekiel 38:2; Ezekiel 39:1-2). Kedar in northern Arabia was the home of the nomadic Ishmaelites who periodically harassed the Israelites ( Genesis 25:13; Isaiah 21:16-17; Jeremiah 2:10; Ezekiel 27:21). These people represented the kinds of individuals that surrounded the writer, namely, heathen liars and hostile barbarians. They seemed to be after war all the time, but he wanted to live in peace.
"If the "I" of the psalm is Israel personified, these two names will summarize the Gentile world, far and near, in which Israel is dispersed. Otherwise, unless the text is emended, they must be taken as the psalmist"s figurative names for the alien company he is in: as foreign as the remotest peoples, and as implacable as his Arab kinsmen (cf. Genesis 16:12; Genesis 25:13)." [1]
The continual antagonism of people who stir up trouble by telling lies, and in other ways, leads the godly to pray for God to deal with them. God"s will is for people to live peacefully with one another ( Matthew 5:9; 2 Corinthians 13:11, et al.).