On the ground of the strong faith in Psalm 125:1. and of the confident hope in Psalm 125:3, the petition now arises that Jahve would speedily bestow the earnestly desired blessing of freedom upon the faithful ones, and on the other hand remove the cowardly lit. those afraid to confess God and those who have fellowship with apostasy, together with the declared wicked ones, out of the way. For such is the meaning of Psalm 125:4. טובים (in Proverbs alternating with the "righteous," Proverbs 2:20, the opposite being the "wicked," רשׁעים, Proverbs 14:19) are here those who truly believe and rightly act in accordance with the good will of God,

(Note: The Midrash here calls to mind a Talmudic riddle: There came a good one (Moses, Exodus 2:2) and received a good thing (the Tra, Proverbs 4:2) from the good One (God, Psalm 145:9) for the good ones (Israel, Psalm 125:4).)

or, as the parallel member of the verse explains (where לישׁרים did not require the article on account of the addition), those who in the bottom of their heart are uprightly disposed, as God desires to have it. The poet supplicates good for them, viz., preservation against denying God and deliverance out of slavery; for those, on the contrary, who bend (הטּה) their crooked paths, i.e., turn aside their paths in a crooked direction from the right way (עקלקלּותם, cf. Judges 5:6, no less than in Amos 2:7; Proverbs 17:23, an accusative of the object, which is more natural than that it is the accusative of the direction, after Numbers 22:23 extrem., cf. Job 23:11; Isaiah 30:11) - for these he wishes that Jahve would clear them away (הוליך like Arab. ahlk, perire facere equals perdere) together with the workers of evil, i.e., the open, manifest sinners, to whom these lukewarm and sly, false and equivocal ones are in no way inferior as a source of danger to the church. lxx correctly: τοὺς δὲ ἐκκλίνοντας εἰς τάς στραγγαλιὰς (Aquila διαπλοκάς, Symmachus σκολιότητας, Theodotion διεστραμμένα) ἀπάξει κύριος μετὰ κ. τ. λ.. Finally, the poet, stretching out his hand over Israel as if pronouncing the benediction of the priest, gathers up all his hopes, prayers, and wishes into the one prayer: "Peace be upon Israel." He means "the Israel of God," Galatians 6:16. Upon this Israel he calls down peace from above. Peace is the end of tyranny, hostility, dismemberment, unrest, and terror; peace is freedom and harmony and unity and security and blessedness.

Psalm 126:6 Parallel Commentaries

that goeth

Psalm 30:5 For his anger endures but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

Job 11:13-17 If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward him...

Isaiah 61:3 To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning...

Jeremiah 50:4,5 In those days, and in that time, said the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together...

Galatians 6:7,8 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap...

precious seed. or, seed basket
shall doubtless

Isaiah 9:2,3 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death...

Luke 15:18-24 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you...

Acts 16:29-34 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas...

Revelation 7:15-17 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple...