Psalms 126

Ver. 2. As the mountains &c.] As Jerusalem is encompassed by high hills, which render it inaccessible by enemies, so is the good providence of God a never-failing barrier and protection to his people. Bp. Patrick, Travell.

Psalms 126:3

3. For the rod &c.] This implies, that the Almighty, with a view to the maintenance of pure religion, will preserve his people from subjection to the power of the wicked.

— the rod] The power. Merrick.

The clearest and most unquestionable proof that we put our trust in the Lord, is our steadiness and constancy in his precepts; that no allurements and invitations of pleasure and profit, no apprehensions of terror and misery and calamity, can persuade us in the least degree to swerve from them, in order to compass the one, or to avoid the other; and the surest evidence that He doth accept this our trust in Him, is, when He blesses our constancy, and makes us, as it were, as unmoveable as Himself; and as He cannot fail, or be shaken in his resolutions towards us, so we cannot be shaken in our confidence in Him, or misled by that confidence. Lord Clarendon.

Psalm CXXVI. There is little doubt that this Psalm was expressly composed on the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, which the Psalmist prays may be fully completed by the entire restoration of the faithful. Travell. This is one of the proper Psalms for the thanksgiving on the twenty-ninth of May.