Striving for peace
1) Why ‘songs of ascent’: What were those?*
- What is the theme of Ps 120?
- What does it say about God’s priorities for worship that the songs of ascent start with that topic? cf Ps 133
- Why would pilgrims attribute any of their distress to lies and deceit?
- A passage that likely borrows from Ps 120 suggests the lies in view here involve slander (Jer 9:4 and 9:8, see Q3). What causes people to resort to slander? cf Mt 15:19
- Why is it essential to contemplate slandering and its effects at the start of a pilgrimage, and not only after? cf Mt 5:23
2) vv1-2: How is the singing of these first two lines intended to affect relationships, also with difficult relatives present?
- What did v1 lay on their hearts how to tend relationships, including those soured by gossip?
- How does God answer such prayers?
- v2: How will such salvation look like? Will it spare you from being slandered?
- Read Jn 14:27. What did Jesus promise there, and why (i.e. in what context)? Why do we need his peace to cope with slander?
- Read 2 Cor 6:8. What can we learn from this example of how to cope with being slandered?
- How could Paul regard this as a badge of honor? cf 1Pet 4:14
3) vv3-4: What retribution do these lines promise to those with lying tongues?
- v3: Who will administer the retribution?
- v4: What might be such ‘sharp arrows’ from a ‘warrior’?
- Read Jer 9:1-9. What is compared to deadly arrows, vv3 & 8?
- How might God judge with lies those who love lies? 2Thess 2:9-12 (cf 2Chr 18:21)
- To what end may God supply special ‘coals’ like the ones used to forge arrowheads?
4) vv5-6: Meshech and Kedar were people in southeast Turkey and Arabia. Why would a pilgrim lament to have ‘lived there’ too long?
- Reading these lines, it seems a Middle East conflict has always existed: Where does Ps 120 locate the root problem?
- Why are these people charged of ‘hating peace’?
- The Bible claims nowhere that the people who gave us this book are better than others.** So whose ‘fallenness’ and hatred of peace does Ps 120 ultimately address? => Eph 2:1-3
- What else do Christians have in common with one who ‘dwelt among the tents of Kedar’? e.g. 2Cor 5:1-5; Phil 3:20; Jn 14:2; 15:19
5) v7: How can anyone be certain that s/he is a wo/man of peace?
- If conflict arises around someone, is that sufficient to charge this person of sowing strife? – Why not?
- Read Mt 10:34 => Why is the ultimate man of peace a cause for men to make war? cf Jn 7:7
- How can you discern whether your own sense of being a (wo)man of peace is a self-righteous illusion, or whether it is true? cf Heb 9:14
6) Personal and application
- What does the corporate singing in Christian worship mean to you?
- How is this experience influenced by the kind of relationships among the singers?
- Is there any counsel or conclusion from this psalm that you want to memorize?
- Can you think of ways how to help one another when relationships are strained, and when this is known and people are talking about it?
* lit. 15 songs of ‘steps’: During prescribed pilgrimages to the temple (Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, Deut 16:16), the travelers would sing these on their journey, perhaps each day starting with Ps 120]
** Interestingly, Jews regard a book as sacred that is unparalleled in self criticism, e.g. Ezk 5:7-8
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