Psalms 125

People who trust the LORD are like Mount Zion. It cannot be moved. It stays put forever.

1They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

NoteMount Zion is the ridge Jerusalem was built on; by the time this psalm was written the name stood for the city itself and for the temple hill at its center. Its point here is physical: a rock outcrop, unlike a tent or a wall, does not shift. "LORD" printed in small capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants roughly YHWH, which readers of the Hebrew did not pronounce aloud; they said instead a word meaning "my Lord," and English Bibles keep that substitution in this typographic form.

2The mountains stand all around Jerusalem. In the same way, the LORD is all around his people, from now on and forever.

2As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.

NoteThis is a plain geographical observation, not a figure of speech. Jerusalem sits in a bowl with higher ground on nearly every side, so anyone standing in the city sees a ring of hills. The psalm turns that everyday view into its comparison.

3The rule of wicked people will not stay on the land given to those who do what is right. If it did, those who do right might reach out their own hands to do wrong.

3For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.

Note"Rod" here translates a word for a ruler's staff or scepter, the emblem of someone's authority, so the line is about wicked people holding power over territory, not about beating anyone. "The lot of the righteous" is the land allotted to them: when Israel divided up its territory, portions were assigned to families and tribes by casting lots, and a family's "lot" remained the standard word for its inherited ground. The second half gives the reason it matters: under prolonged unjust rule, people who mean to live rightly are worn down into taking crooked measures themselves.

4LORD, be good to those who are good, and to those whose hearts are honest.

4Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts.

5But those who turn off onto crooked paths, the LORD will lead away along with the people who do wrong. Let there be peace on Israel.

5As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.

Note"Lead them forth" renders a verb used for marching people away, the picture is of prisoners or exiles being taken off, not of guidance. "Peace" is Hebrew *shalom*, which covers safety, health and things being whole and in order, a wider idea than the absence of fighting. Ending a psalm with a blessing on the whole nation was a conventional closing formula.