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 the Ascents. Unto Jehovah in my distress I have called, And He answereth me.

O Jehovah, deliver my soul from a lying lip, From a deceitful tongue!

What doth He give to thee? And what doth He add to thee? O deceitful tongue!

Sharp arrows of a mighty one, with broom-coals.

Wo to me, for I have inhabited Mesech, I have dwelt with tents of Kedar.

Too much hath my soul dwelt with him who is hating peace.

I `am' peace, and 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/ylt/matthew/chapter-5/9">Matthew 5:9</a>, before the ascent continues in <a href="/bible/ylt/psalms/chapter-121">Psalms 121</a>.