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Psalm 120

This is the song of a nation that worships Jehovah.  It's a song that could conceivably have been sung for members  of the army who have returned home after being stationed for a time in one of the nearby nations.  The tale they have to tell is one of always being in the midst of people who don't know the Lord, who don't tell the truth, and who constantly clamor for war.  But this song would celebrate their deliverance from that place and would be a reminder to them of the Lord and His worship.

They're reminded of something they said in the land they'd been in.  One of them had said,  "In my distress I cried to the Lord, and He heard me!"  They're all just so thankful! It's wonderful to be back with God's people again, back in the midst of the morning worship, able once again to worship the God Who hears His people's prayer even when they're far away in distant lands.

It wasn't easy when they were among people who didn't care anything about Jehovah.  Oh how often they had had to pray, "Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue!"  Oh how angry it made them to listen to those people trying to convince them - and themselves as well - that they could easily defeat this or that enemy - without the Lord!  Their anger on that occasion is vividly reflected when they say, "What shall be given to you, or what shall be done to you, you false tongue?  Sharp arrows of the warrior, with coals of the broom tree!"  The broom tree was a very hot-burning tree whose twigs were used with flaming arrows, and these warriors wish that these "lying tongues" might be pierced by such missiles!

It was hard to dwell for a time in Meshech or in Kedar (or any place so far from Israel).  There was no morning worship there, there was no talk of the glories of Jehovah, there was no concern for the truth - only boasting about what they could do and what they had done.  It was such a temptation to join in with them and to fall to their level. 

But now they're home!  Now they can rejoice with God's people that God answered their prayer and delivered them!  Oh how good it is to be with the people of God! It's a privilege of which we today are too little aware.

The people of God need often to be with each other, to sympathize and pray together, to rejoice together, to praise the God who keeps them from falling.  Oh let us prize that fellowship!  Let us use it as a means of grace, a means of being built up, and as a time of praising the one true and living God!