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. In my distress I cried to the LORD, and he heard me.

Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.

What shall be given to thee? or what shall be done to thee, thou false tongue?

Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.

Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!

My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.

I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.

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/wbt/matthew/chapter-5/9">Matthew 5:9</a>, before the ascent continues in <a href="/bible/wbt/psalms/chapter-121">Psalms 121</a>.