1A song of ascents.
Those who trust in the LORD
are like Mount Zion never shaken,
settled forever.
2Jerusalem, mountains around it,
and the LORD is around His people
now and forevermore.
3For the rod of wickedness will not rest
on the portion of the righteous,
so that the righteous not set their hands
to wrongdoing.
4Do good, O LORD, to the good
and to the upright in their hearts.
5And those who bend to crookedness,
may the LORD take them off with the wrongdoers.
Peace upon Israel!
PSALM 125 NOTES
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1. like Mount Zion never shaken, / settled forever. This psalm, which, like the other songs of ascents, appears to have been composed in the exilic or immediately post-exilic period, expresses a national sense of trust in God despite the domination of an oppressive foreign power (“the rod of wickedness,” verse 3). The Israelite community as a whole is represented as “the righteous.” Jerusalem and the Temple may have been laid waste by the Babylonian invaders, but the solid persistence of the mountain on which the city was built is a token of the perdurability of the people that made its capital on this mountain. Most translations render “settled” here as “endure,” “stand,” or “abide.” Although, by a small stretch, the Hebrew verb y-sh-b could have that meaning, it is repeatedly used in the qal conjugation as here to mean “be settled” (see, among other examples, Joel 4:20, “and Judah will be settled [teshev, exactly as here] forever”). The point is that Mount Zion not only will stand solid forever but will continue to be a place of habitation, despite the exile of some of its population. The reference of this verb to those who trust in God is that they will dwell, be securely settled, forever.
2. Jerusalem, mountains around it. The encircling mountains convey a sense of protection as a kind of natural defensive perimeter.
3. the rod of wickedness. The Hebrew noun shevet equally means “scepter,” but the sense of punishing force may be the more relevant one here.
the portion of the righteous. The word for “portion,” goral, is repeatedly used in Joshua and occasionally in Numbers for the division of the land according to the tribes. The portion of the territory of Judah may have been usurped by invaders, but this is not a condition that will persist.
so that the righteous not set their hands / to wrongdoing. The evident idea of this some-what cryptic clause is that the righteous, deprived of the land that belongs to them, might be tempted to acts of lawlessness in their desperation, whether brigandism or some sort of imitation of the violent aliens who have oppressed them. It is notable that this psalm coopts the language of the Wisdom psalms (the opposition of the righteous and the wicked) for national purposes.