Psalms 120 – Deliver Me from Lying Lips

The first Song of degrees, crying out against deceit and craving a peace others reject.

Psalms 120 – A Cry for Deliverance from Lies

Coming after the long meditation of Psalms 119, this first of the Songs of degrees cries out against 'lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue' troubling the psalmist among hostile neighbors.


A song of degrees. I called vnto the Lord in my trouble, and hee heard me.

Deliuer my soule, O Lord, from lying lippes, and from a deceitfull tongue.

What doeth thy deceitfull tongue bring vnto thee? or what doeth it auaile thee?

It is as the sharpe arrowes of a mightie man, and as the coales of iuniper.

Woe is to me that I remaine in Meschech, and dwell in the tentes of Kedar.

My soule hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace.

I seeke peace, and when I speake thereof, they are bent to warre.

The closing complaint, 'I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war,' stands in contrast to the blessing on peacemakers in <a href="/bible/geneva1599/matthew/chapter-5/9">Matthew 5:9</a>, before the ascent continues in <a href="/bible/geneva1599/psalms/chapter-121">Psalms 121</a>.