Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Psalms 122:1 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Ps 122:1 |
King James |
A Song of degrees of David. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
This Psalm might well express the sacred joy of the pilgrims on entering the holy city, where praise, as the religious as well as civil metropolis, is celebrated, and for whose prosperity, as representing the Church, prayer is offered. (Psa 122:1-9)
Our feet shall stand--literally, "are standing." |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
I was glad - It was a subject; of joy to me. The return of the happy season when we were to go up to worship filled me with joy. The language is expressive of the, happiness which is felt by those who love God and his sanctuary, when the stated season of worship returns. The heart is drawn to the house of prayer; the soul is filled with peace at the prospect of being again permitted to worship God. Who the speaker here is, is not known. It may have been David himself; more probably, however, it was designed by him to be used by those who should go up to worship, as expressive of their individual joy.
When they said unto me - When it was said unto me. When the time arrived. When I was invited by others to go. The announcement was joyful; the invitation was welcome. It met the desires of my heart, and I embraced the invitation cheerfully and joyfully.
Let us go into the house of the Lord - Up to the place where God dwells; the house which he has made his abode. If the psalm was composed in the time of David, this would refer to the tabernacle as fixed by him on Mount Zion; if at a later period, to the temple. The language will admit of either interpretation. Compare the notes at Isa 2:3. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
The preterite שׂמחתי may signify: I rejoice (Sa1 2:1), just as much as: I rejoiced. Here in comparison with Psa 122:2 it is a retrospect; for היה with the participle has for the most part a retrospective signification, Gen 39:22; Deu 9:22, Deu 9:24; Jdg 1:7; Job 1:14. True, עמדות היוּ might also signify: they have been standing and still stand (as in Psa 10:14; Isa 59:2; Isa 30:20); but then why was it not more briefly expressed by עמדוּ (Psa 26:12)? The lxx correctly renders: εὐφράνθην and ἑστῶτες ἦσαν. The poet, now again on the journey homewards, or having returned home, calls to mind the joy with which the cry for setting out, "Let us go up to the house of Jahve!" filled him. When he and the other visitors to the feast had reached the goal of their pilgrimage, their feet came to a stand-still, as if spell-bound by the overpowering, glorious sight.
(Note: So also Veith in his, in many points, beautiful Lectures on twelve gradual Psalms (Vienna 1863), S. 72, "They arrested their steps, in order to give time to the amazement with which the sight of the Temple, the citadel of the king, and the magnificent city filled them.")
Reviving this memory, he exclaims: Jerusalem, O thou who art built up again - true, בּנה in itself only signifies "to build," but here, where, if there is nothing to the contrary, a closed sense is to be assumed for the line of the verse, and in the midst of songs which reflect the joy and sorrow of the post-exilic restoration period, it obtains the same meaning as in Psa 102:17; Psa 147:2, and frequently (Gesenius: O Hierosolyma restituta). The parallel member, Psa 122:3, does not indeed require this sense, but is at least favourable to it. Luther's earlier rendering, "as a city which is compacted together," was happier than his later rendering, "a city where they shall come together," which requires a Niph. or Hithpa. instead of the passive. חבּר signifies, as in Exo 28:7, to be joined together, to be united into a whole; and יחדּו strengthens the idea of that which is harmoniously, perfectly, and snugly closed up (cf. Psa 133:1). The Kaph of כּעיר is the so-called Kaph veritatis: Jerusalem has risen again out of its ruined and razed condition, the breaches and gaps are done away with (Isa 58:12), it stands there as a closely compacted city, in which house joins on to house. Thus has the poet seen it, and the recollection fills him with rapture.
(Note: In the synagogue and church it is become customary to interpret Psa 122:3 of the parallelism of the heavenly and earthly Jerusalem.) |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
I was glad when they said - When Cyrus published an edict for their return, the very first object of their thanksgiving was the kindness of God in permitting them to return to his ordinances. |
1 A Song of degrees of David. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:
4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.
5 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
7 Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
8 For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.
9 Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
1 A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
7 It shall have the two shoulderpieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together.
3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:
2 The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
12 My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD.
20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
7 And Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
24 Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
22 And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath.
22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
1 And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.