Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 120:5

5 Wo is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar .

Mesech and Kedar are two sorts of people oft mentioned in Scripture, and reckoned amongst the heathen and barbarous Nations. But their names are not here to be understood properly, (for we do not read that either David, or the Israelites in the Babylonish Captivity dwelt in their lands) but onely Metaphorically, as the ungodly Israelites are called Sodom and Gomorrha, Isa. 1. 10. and Amorites and Hittites, Ezek. 16. 3. 45. and as in common speech among us, men of an evil character are called Turks or Iews. And so he explains himself in the next verse by this description of them, him or them that hated peace, although David sought peace with them, v. 7. And so he speaks either, 1. of the Philistins, among whom he sojourned for a time. But he did not seek peace with them, but sought their ruine, as the event shewed; not did they wage war against him, whilst he lived peaceably among them. Or rather, 2. the Courtiers and Souldiers of Saul, and the generality of the Israelites, who to curry favour with Saul, sought Davids ruine, and that many times by treachery and pretences of friendship; of which he oft complains in this Book; whom as he elsewhere calls Heathen, as Psal. 9. 5▪ & 59. 5. it is not strange if he compare them here to the savage Arabians. And amongst such persons David was oft forced to sojourn in Sauls time; and with them he sought peace by all ways possible, but they hated peace, and the more he pursued peace, the more eagerly did they prosecute the war, as it here follows.