Psa 125:1 | KD | STEP | The favourite word Israel furnished the outward occasion for annexing this Psalm to the preceding. The situation is like that in and -8. The people are under foreign dominion. In this lies the seductive inducement to apostasy. The pious and the apostate ones are already separated. Those who have remained faithful shall not, however, always remain enslaved. Round about Jerusalem are mountains, but more important still: Jahve, of rocks the firmest, Jahve encompasses His people. That this Psalm is one of the latest, appears from the circumstantial expression “the upright in their hearts,” instead of the old one, “the upright of heart,” from פעלי האון instead of the former פעלי און, and also from למען לא (beside this passage occurring only in , ; ; ; Zec 12:7) instead of למען אשׁר לא or פּן.

‏ Psalms 125:1

Israel’s Bulwark against Temptation to Apostasy

The favourite word Israel furnished the outward occasion for annexing this Psalm to the preceding. The situation is like that in Psa 123:1-4 and Psa 124:1-8. The people are under foreign dominion. In this lies the seductive inducement to apostasy. The pious and the apostate ones are already separated. Those who have remained faithful shall not, however, always remain enslaved. Round about Jerusalem are mountains, but more important still: Jahve, of rocks the firmest, Jahve encompasses His people.

That this Psalm is one of the latest, appears from the circumstantial expression “the upright in their hearts,” instead of the old one, “the upright of heart,” from פעלי האון instead of the former פעלי און, and also from למען לא (beside this passage occurring only in Psa 119:11, Psa 119:80; Eze 19:9; Eze 26:20; Zec 12:7) instead of למען אשׁר לא or פּן.