“Woe to me!

I am an alien in Meshech!

I must live among the tents of Kedar!

Too long have I had my dwelling

Among those who hate peace.

I am for peace.

When I speak,

They are for war!”

This short psalm ends with the psalmist lamenting that he was in some far off place where everyone is warring against him. He was a stranger or alien in Meshech and Kedar, either some place in Asia Minor or northern Arabia. These two places are kind of synonyms for some barbarous place where all people wanted to do was to make war. This psalmist, on the other hand, only wanted peace not war.