READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS
PART LXXI
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Psalms 120 and 123
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Psalms 120 and 123 are similar to each other.
Psalms 120-134 are songs of ascents. As you, O reader, read these texts, imagine a caravan of devout Jews making a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. Then you will be in the correct frame of mind for getting the most out of the texts.
Psalms 120 and 123 concern the perils of the negative attitudes and words of others. These perils may be individual or collective. That words matter is a point I have made many times at this weblog and already in this series. So, I hereby repeat the headline (“WORDS MATTER”) and decline to unpack it again in this post.
Psalm 120 does require some explanation, though.
Woe to me, for I have sojourned in Meshach,
dwelled among the tents of Kedar.
–Psalm 120:5, Robert Alter
Poetry does not have to be literal. Meshach and Kedar are far-flung places far away from each other. Meshach (Genesis 10:2; Ezekiel 32:26; 38:2-3; 39:1-3) is in northwestern Asia Minor (now Turkey), between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Kedar (Genesis 25:13) is on the Arabian Peninsula. They symbolize barbaric, warlike peoples on the edge of the known world. Robert Alter explains the poetic imagery this way:
…it may be plausible to understand them as metaphors for living among people who behave like strangers, even if those people were within a stone’s throw of Jerusalem (as someone today might say, “I felt as though I were in Siberia or Timbuktu.”
—The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Vol. 3, The Writings (2019), 292
The germane note in The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014) concludes:
The psalmist feels as if he lives, metaphorically, among these far-away, militant people (v.6); he is alienated from his own society.
–1412
Imagine, O reader, a caravan of devout Jews from a village making their pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem, for one of the major festivals. Then ask yourself why they would sing that psalm.
Psalm 123 begins as an individual prayer (“To You I lift up my eyes”) and concludes as a collective lament. Notice the words “our” and “us,” in verses 2-4, O reader.
Grant us grace, LORD, grant us grace,
for we are sorely sated with scorn.
Surely has our being been sated
with the contempt of the smug,
the scorn of the haughty.
–Verses 3-4, Robert Alter
Psalm 123, unlike other psalms, which complain about slander and libel, reflects frustration with arrogant scorn and contempt. “We” take that complaint to God.
What was happening close to home, for members of a pious caravan to sing Psalm 123 en route to the Temple in Jerusalem?
One need not stretch one’s imagination to grasp additional meanings of these texts for Jews of the Diaspora.
A psalm carries different meanings at different times and in various places. A text composed in one period with one meaning or set of meanings in mind may, therefore, remain germane elsewhere and long after composition. A psalm is a living text.
So, I propose a new context for relating to Psalms 120 and 123. The global Western cultures are becoming increasingly secular, with a growing strain of antitheism. Do not misunderstand me, O reader; I favor the separation of church and state, mainly to prevent the church from become an arm of the state, thereby losing its prophetic, moral edge. Yet the increasingly secular societies, combined with the rise of fashionable atheism and antitheism, heap scorn upon piety and the pious. The devout may, against their will, find themselves alienated from their own society and even from religious establishments which endorse bigotry and Christian or Jewish nationalism. Taking this sense of alienation and spiritual fatigue to God makes sense.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
FEBRUARY 14, 2023 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT ABRAHAM OF CARRHAE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF CHRISTOPH CARL LUDWIG VON PFEIL, GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINTS CYRIL AND METHODIUS, APOSTLES TO THE SLAVS
THE FEAST OF FRANCIS HAROLD ROWLEY, NORTHERN BAPTIST MINISTER, HUMANITARIAN, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF JOHANN MICHAEL ALTENBURG, GERMAN LUTHERAN PASTOR, COMPOSER, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF VICTOR OLOF PETERSEN, SWEDISH-AMERICAN LUTHERAN HYMN TRANSLATOR
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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