Psalms 120 Footnotes

Pss 120–134 These fifteen psalms have the heading “A song of ascents”; that is, “going up” to Zion for the festivals; hence they are also called “pilgrim psalms” or “psalms of Zion.” Older English versions thought of the “ascents” as graduated steps of the sanctuary, and called the psalm “a song of degrees.”

120:5 Meshech is in Asia Minor near the Black Sea; “Kedar” is a word for the desert area in which Arab tribesmen wander (Is 21:16-17; Ezk 27:21). How could the psalmist be in both places at the same time, even if they referred to widely scattered areas? The language is figurative; the psalmist lived among people who hated peace (v. 7), and they were like the hostile barbarians in these places.