Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 125:5

Such as turn aside unto their crooked ways. This is the anxiety of the pastor in this pilgrim song. The shepherd would keep his sheep from straggling. His distress is that all in Israel are not true Israelites. Two sorts of people, described by the poet, have ever been in the church. The second class, instead of being at the trouble to "withstand in the evil day", will "put forth their hands unto iniquity". Rather than feel, they will follow the rod of the wicked. They will "turn aside unto their crooked ways", sooner than risk temporal and material interests. —Edward Jewitt Robinson, in "The Caravan and the Temple," 1878.