preceding word, and thus carried itself forward, is not without example even outside the range of these fifteen songs in the Psalter itself (e.g., Psa 93:1-5, Psa 96:1-13), as also elsewhere (Isa 17:12., Psa 26:5., and more particularly in the song of Deborah, Jdg 5:3, Jdg 5:5-6, etc.), and that it is not always carried out in the same manner in the fifteen Psalms. It is quite sufficient that the parallelism retires into the background here as nowhere else in fifteen songs that are linked together (even in Psa 125:1-5, Psa 127:1-5, Psa 128:1-6, Ps 132); ); and the onward course is represented with decided preference as a gradation or advance step by step, that which follows being based upon what goes before, and from that point advancing and ascending still higher.
Psalm 120
Cry of Distress When Surrounded by Contentious Men
1 TO Jahve in my distress
Do I cry, and He answereth me.
2 O Jahve, deliver my soul from a lying lip,
From a crafty tongue !
3 What shall He give to thee, and what shall He further give
Thou crafty tongue ? [to thee,
4 Arrows of a mighty one, sharpened,
Together with coals of broom.
5 Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech,
That I dwell beside the tents of Kedar !
6 Long enough hath my soul dwelt
With those who hate peace.
7 I am peace ; yet when I speak,
They are for war.
This first song of degrees attaches itself to Psa 119:176. The writer of Ps 119, surrounded on all sides by apostasy and persecution, compares himself to a sheep that is easily lost,
