Psalm 125 - the straight and the crooked

With Psalm 125 we enter the middle third of the psalms, and it's your classic goodies and baddies psalm. The closing stanza makes the contrast clear:

4 Do good—Yhwh–to the good ones,

and to the upright in their hearts.

5 But for the ones who turn to their crookedness,

Yhwh will cause the doers of evil to walk away.

The rest of the psalm similarly describes who the good are (v1-2), and what the problem with the wicked is (v3). Outside of these verse are two short refrains, first the heading "a song for going up", and finally, "Peace be upon Israel" (see the same conclusion to Ps 128). The structure of the psalm could then be described as follows:

שׁיר המעלות | A song for going up

A 1b-2 the good

B 3 the wicked

A' 4 the good

B' 6 the wicked

שׁלום על־ישׂראל | Peace be upon Israel

The ones who trust

Psalm 125 reuses a verb we are familiar with from Ps 121 - the verb מוט (to totter). It can be (depending on the declension) a homophone with a much more familiar verb מות (to die), but is spelled with a different (but much more infrequently used) "t"; it is spelled with a tet instead of a taw. In this psalm in particular that links well with a number of other lexemes which are also spelled with a tet, including v1 הבטחים (the ones who trust), and in v4 היטיבה ... לטובים (do good ... to the good ones). In the opening refrain then we have the ones who trust in Yhwh who will not totter, and then in the closing section they bid Yhwh to do good to the ones who are or do good. The final ט is in the first verb of v5, the verb נטה (to turn), for those who turn to do evil, in contrast with the ones whose heart is straight (v4b).

In v1 then, the ones who trust in Yhwh are like (כ, our favourite comparative) Mount Zion. We are told that "he" (presumably Mount Zion) will not totter, but will dwell forever. The unmoving mountains have the same stability as do those who trust in Yhwh. This is an interesting move, as my assumption when I began to translate the psalm was that it was Yhwh who was unmoving, who would not totter. But instead, it is by trusting in Yhwh that stability ensues. 

A further unexpected move follows in v2, which is the parallel the psalmist draws between the mountains around Zion and Yhwh. In v2a they make the move from Zion to the mountains which surround her and are "for her" (לָהּ), but then rather than saying (as I would expect) that the mountains are like the ones who trust in Yhwh and surround him, the illustration is flipped: Yhwh surrounds (for) his people (לעמו), from now and forever. 

Psalm 125:1-2 then explains that to trust Yhwh is for Yhwh to be for his people, to surround them, for them, from now and forever.

The problem with the wicked

The wicked are introduced in v3, not by what they do, but by what they have, or wield: a scepter. The closest we have to the phrase "the scepter of the wicked" is perhaps the line in Isaiah 14:5, 

שׁבר יהוה מטה רשׁעים שׁבט משׁלים

Yhwh broke the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers.

If the order is correct, then the psalmist has combined the two Isaianic phrases "rod of the wicked/scepter of the rulers" into one, "scepter of the wicked. And what is the problem with their scepter? It is that is is upon the allotment of the righteous - it affects and controls and limits their prosperity, their enjoyment of the goodness of God's creation. And of course the problem with that is what that may lead to: the righteous sending out their hands in malice (v3c-d). Where wickedness abounds, the righteous will be tempted towards responding with evil  This can be either in fighting against evil (a righteous uprising), or in participating in evil, having learned that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." 

Again, in another unexpected turn, the problem with the evil is not their evil deeds per se, but that by their continuing evil reign, they will corrupt or encourage to violence the righteous.

The straight and the crooked

The concluding stanza contrasts the two types of people described in the psalm with two new terms. v4b now calls the good (v4a) the upright/straight in heart, and they are contrasted with in v5a the ones who turn to their crookedness. The straight in heart are the ones who do good, who are good, and to whom Yhwh will do good. But the crooked in heart, the ones who incline towards, rather than resisting, their wickedness, will be forced to walk away (יוליכם) by Yhwh. 

It is only here that we have the acts of the wicked described in any way, as they are called "the doers of iniquity (את־פעלי האון). This, plus their scepter upon the allotment of the righteous (v3a-b), and then the final prayer for "peace [to] be upon Israel" perhaps give us an insight into the situation which Israel is in at the time of the psalm's composition. A time when wickedness reigns, and when others are being tempted to join in with their evil (v3c-d), sounds a lot like the time of many of the Israelite kings. No longer is Israel a place where righteousness reigns, where the people follow their king in trusting Yhwh. But instead, this psalm is needed to encourage Israel to once again trust in Yhwh of Zion, with the encouragement that he alone is trustworthy, and that the reign of the wicked will end. 

Only when the reign of the wicked is ended can Israel finally be at peace, be whole and complete, as they dwell together, surrounded by their trustworthy God, knowing that they will be safe and secure as they trust in him.