Psalm 125: As the Mountains Are Round About Jerusalem

"They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever."

"For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As 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."

Jerusalem's ring of hills

Jerusalem stands on hills surrounded by higher ones: the Mount of Olives to the east (pictured), Mount Scopus to the north-east, and ridges to the south and west. A traveller arriving from any direction sees the city ringed by mountains. The psalm makes the landscape a picture of protection.

"The rod of the wicked"

Shevet ha-resha', "the sceptre of wickedness," suggests foreign or unjust rule over "the lot (allotted land) of the righteous." The worry is that prolonged oppression will tempt the righteous to compromise. Many date the psalm to the Persian period, when Judah was governed by foreign officials; this is a proposal from the content, not from evidence in the text itself. Psalms 120–134 each carry the heading "A Song of degrees" (shir ha-ma'alot, "song of the ascents"; Vulgate "Canticum graduum"). Proposals for the meaning: songs for pilgrims going up to Jerusalem; songs sung on the fifteen steps between the temple courts (the Mishnah, Middot 2:5 and Sukkah 5:4, mentions fifteen steps on which the Levites sang); songs of the return from Babylon (Ezra 7:9 calls it "the going up"); or a poetic style in which a word is picked up and repeated, step by step. The first is most widely held; none is certain.