Introduction
A Song of degrees.
The religious veneration of Zion and Jerusalem, as types of the true Church, (Psalms 125:1-2,) suits well the spirit of the true pilgrims, and especially the moment of their approach in sight of the holy mountains. Naturally does the heart turn from these mountain defences to the stronger refuge of the soul that trusts in Jehovah. These outward bulwarks are the pledges and the emblems of God’s protection of the righteous. The psalm was evidently written when the Hebrew people were in the Holy Land, when they were afflicted and persecuted by their heathen neighbors, (Psalms 125:3,) when a few were faithful and steadfast, (Psalms 125:4,) while others, yielding to the infelicities and temptations of the times, grew remiss, and fell away to selfish and prayerless lives, Psalms 125:5. The psalm is the reflection of the picture given of the nation by the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, and in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, soon after its return from exile. Psalms 125:3 is the language of strong faith under outward adversity and discouragement, and Psalms 125:5 is a solemn anathema upon internal defection and backsliding, which already weakened and discouraged the nation. The historic occasion of the psalm is probably found in the fourth and fifth chapters of Ezra.
Be the first to react on this!
