The Pulpit Commentary on Psalms 120:7

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The misery of the war-spirit to peace-lovers.

"I am for peace," is literally, "I am peace." This is my very nature; so I instinctively revolt from all this slander and quarrelling and contention. Associating the passage with the restored exiles, it may be noticed that the one thing absolutely essential to their well-being was a state of quietness and peace. They had plenty to do. Jerusalem, its houses, walls, anti temple, to rebuild. Civil and ecclesiastical order to re-establish, and a national character to gain. External peace, as well as internal peace, were absolutely essential to the complete reoccupation of their land. So we too often think that peace is the one condition on which our spiritual culture depends, and God shows us, as he showed the restored exiles, that, spite of the misery it may bring us, it is better for us to be in the midst of contentions, conflicts, and perils. But, like the psalmist, we may freely speak to God about this our trouble, and we need not change our spirit of peace-loving and peace-seeking under any external pressure. Distinguish between war and the war-spirit. It is the latter which the peace-loving man finds so trying. He can deal with actual war upon its merits, and he may be able to recognize its necessity and its beneficent mission; but the litigious, contentious, quarrelsome spirit, that is always inventing or manufacturing some occasion of difficulty, always disturbing the peace, is a painful distress to all peace-lovers.

I. MISERY COMES FROM EFFORTS TO KEEP THE PEACE BEING MISAPPREHENDED. The Prayer-book Version has, "I labor for peace, but when I speak unto them thereof, they make ready to battle." Thinking he meant to start a fight.

II. MISERY COMES FROM EFFORTS TO KEEP THE PEACE BEING DEFEATED. We never like to fail in things we set our hearts upon.

III. MISERY COMES FROM THE MORAL ATMOSPHERE WHICH THE WAR-SPIRIT ENGENDERS. Nothing morally beautiful can flourish in that atmosphere.

IV. MISERY COMES FROM THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF DOING THE THINGS WHICH REQUIRE PEACEFUL SURROUNDINGS. This is illustrated in the ease of the restored exiles, who wanted to get on with their national reconstruction work.—R.T.

Psalms 119

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Psalms 121

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