Are you weary of the sin and evil in the world around you? You hope to live in peace, yet all you see and hear is lies, deceit, and conflict. The psalmist in Psalm 120 feels the same way.
He compares the people around him to the hostile barbarians of Meshech, and the belligerent tribe in Kedar (120:5). He laments that he is surrounded by people that love conflict and hate peace (120:6-7). They use falsehoods and lies to achieve their goals at the expense of the God’s people (120:2). The psalmist is deeply troubled by the evil around him. He has nothing in common with the wicked of this world (120:7).
It is no wonder that he cries out to the Lord for help. He pleas with God to rescue him out of harm’s way (120:1-2). He has confidence that God has heard him knows that God will judge the wicked with their own words (120:3-4).
Too long has he lived among the wicked of this world (120:6). He is like righteous Lot, whose soul was tormented day by day by the wickedness around him (2 Peter 2:7-8). Yet by using the world dwell, meaning “temporary stay,” he knows that he is a pilgrim on this earth (120:6).
Brethren, this psalm is the beginning of the group of psalms called the Psalms of Ascents. These are the psalms that the Israelites would recite on their way to Jerusalem for the three yearly feasts. The psalmist is telling his readers that he is weary of the wicked world and longs for the comforting reassurance of worshipping God alongside His fellow pilgrims. Like all believers in Christ, he knows that this world is not his home and that he is sojourner (1 Peter 1:1).