The Oriental traveler is delighted when he can find, jutting high above the illimitable blazing desert, a great crag under whose shade he may rest or on whose top he may find safety from beasts and other marauders (see Isa. 32:2). It is well to pray not so much for deliverance as for endurance and elevation. Troubles tend to decrease when they are surveyed from a height. See E. Johnson’s hymn, “O Sometimes the Shadows Are Deep,” No. 633 in The Church Hymnal, in which the refrain takes its inspiration from this verse.
The expression is evidently hyperbolic, and does not necessarily denote distance. The language possibly reflects the writer’s mental state. The poet describes vividly his feeling of separation from the sanctuary. He seems as far removed as if he were actually in the ends of the earth. To him Jerusalem is the center of the earth.