Bible Commentaries

A Well-Wishing Glance Back at the Pilgrims' City

If by “the mountains” in Psalm 121:1 the mountains of the Holy Land are tobe understood, it is also clear for what reason the collector placed thisSong of degrees, which begins with the expression of joy at the pilgrimageto the house of Jahve, and therefore to the holy mountain, immediatelyafter the preceding song. By its peace-breathing (שׁלום) contents italso, however, touches closely upon Psalm 120:1-7. The poet utters aloud hishearty benedictory salutation to the holy city in remembrance of thedelightful time during which he sojourned there as a visitor at the feast, andenjoyed its inspiring aspect. If in respect of the לדוד the Psalmwere to be regarded as an old Davidic Psalm, it would belong to the seriesof those Psalms of the time of the persecution by Absalom, which cast ayearning look back towards home, the house of God (Psalm 23:1-6; Psalm 26:1-12, Psalm 55:15; Psalm 61:1-8, and more particularly Psalm 63:1-11). But the לדוד is wanting in the lxx, Codd. Alex. and Vat.; and the CodSinait., which has ÔÙ ÄÁÄputs this before Psalm 124:1-8, åé ìçïêõê. ô. ë.also, contrary to Codd. Alex. and Vat. Here it is occasioned by Psalm 122:5,but without any critical discernment. The measures adopted by JeroboamI show, moreover, that the pilgrimages to the feasts were customary evenin 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, wereintended to strengthen the political rupture, by breaking up the religiousunity of the people and weaning them from visiting Jerusalem. The poet ofthe Psalm before us, however, lived much later. He lived, as is to beinferred with Hupfeld from Psalm 122:3, in the time of the post-exilic Jerusalemwhich rose again out of its ruins. Thither he had been at one of the greatfeasts, and here, still quite full of the inspiring memory, he looks backtowards the holy city; for, in spite of Reuss, Hupfeld, and Hitzig, Psalm 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 Psalm 122:2 it is aretrospect; for היה with the participle has for the most part aretrospective signification, Genesis 39:22; Deuteronomy 9:22, Deuteronomy 9:24; Judges 1:7; Job 1:14. True, עמדות היוּ might also signify: they have beenstanding and still stand (as in Psalm 10:14; Isaiah 59:2; Isaiah 30:20); but then why wasit not more briefly expressed by עמדוּ (Psalm 26:12)? The lxxcorrectly renders: åõand åçThepoet, now again on the journey homewards, or having returned home, callsto mind the joy with which the cry for setting out, “Let us go up to thehouse of Jahve!” filled him. When he and the other visitors to the feast hadreached the goal of their pilgrimage, their feet came to a stand-still, as ifspell-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 upagain - true, בּנה in itself only signifies “to build,” but here,where, if there is nothing to the contrary, a closed sense is to be assumedfor the line of the verse, and in the midst of songs which reflect the joy andsorrow of the post-exilic restoration period, it obtains the same meaning asin Psalm 102:17; Psalm 147:2, and frequently (Gesenius: O Hierosolyma restituta). The parallel member, Psalm 122:3 , does not indeed require this sense, but is atleast favourable to it. Luther's earlier rendering, “as a city which iscompacted together,” was happier than his later rendering, “a city wherethey shall come together,” which requires a Niph. or Hithpa. instead of thepassive. חבּר signifies, as in Exodus 28:7, to be joined together, to be unitedinto a whole; and יחדּו strengthens the idea of that which isharmoniously, perfectly, and snugly closed up (cf. Psalm 133:1). The (Kaph) ofכּעיר is the so-called Kaph veritatis: Jerusalem has risen again outof its ruined and razed condition, the breaches and gaps are done awaywith (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 Psalm 122:3 of the parallelism of the heavenly and earthly Jerusalem.)

The imposing character of the impression was still greatly enhanced by theconsideration, that this is the city where at all times the twelve tribes ofGod's nation (which were still distinguished as its elements even after theExile, Romans 11:1; Luke 2:36; James 1:1) came together at the three greatfeasts. The use of the שׁ twice as equivalent to אשׁר is (as inCanticles) appropriate to the ornamental, happy, miniature-like manner ofthese Songs of degrees. In שׁשּׁם the שׁם is, as in Ecclesiastes 1:7, equivalent to שׁמּה, which on the other hand in Psalm 122:5 is nomore than an emphatic שׁם (cf. Psalm 76:4; Psalm 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 ordestination (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 Psalm 122:5 from the fact, thatJerusalem, the city of the one national sanctuary, was at the same time thecity of the Davidic kingship. The phrase ישׁב למשׁפּט is here transferred from the judicial persons (cf. Psalm 29:10 with Psalm 9:5; Psalm 28:6), who sit in judgment, to the seats (thrones) which are set down andstand there fro judgment (cf. Psalm 125:1, and èñïåRevelation 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 ofthe Israelitish men near the שׁער העליון, but למשׁפט points to the palace, 1 Kings 7:7. In the flourishing age of the Davidickingship this was also the highest court of judgment of the land; the kingwas 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, andof the greater glory which it had formerly, he spreads out his hands over itin the distance, blessing it in the kindling of his love, and calls upon all hisfellow-countrymen round about and in all places: apprecamini salutem HierosolymisSo Gesenius correctly (Thesaurus, p. 1347); for just asשׁאל לו לשׁלום signifies to inquire afterany one's well-being, and to greet him with the question: השׁלום לך (Jeremiah 15:5), so שׁאל שׁלום signifies tofind out any one's prosperity by asking, to gladly know and gladly seethat it is well with him, and therefore to be animated by the wish that hemay prosper; Syriac, שׁאל שׁלמא ד directly: to salute any one; for theinterrogatory השׁלום לך and the well-wishingשׁלום לך, åéóïé(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 comprehendedwith the beloved one, the children with the mother. שׁלה formsan alliteration with שׁלום; the emphatic form ישׁליוּ occurs even in other instances out of pause (e.g., Psalm 57:2). In Psalm 122:7 the alliteration of שׁלום and שׁלוה is again taken up,and both accord with the name of Jerusalem. Ad elegantiam facit, asVenema observes, perpetua vocum ad se invicem et omnium ad nomen Hierosolymae alliteratioBoth together mark the Song of degrees as such. Happiness, cries out the poet to the holy city from afar, be within thybulwarks, 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 Psalm 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 Psalm 87:3, Deuteronomy 6:7, lxx περὶ σοῦ ; cf. דּבּר שׁלום with אל and ל, to speak peace to, Psalm 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.