Psalm 120 A Song of Ascents.

 ¹In my distress I cried to the Lord,

And He heard me.

²Deliver my soul,

O Lord, from lying lips

And from a deceitful tongue.

³What shall be given to you,

Or what shall be done to you,

You false tongue?

⁴Sharp arrows of the warrior,

With coals of the broom tree!

⁵Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech,

That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

⁶My soul has dwelt too long

With one who hates peace.

⁷I am for peace;

But when I speak, they are for war.

Commentary

Vs. 1 “In my distress I cried to the Lord,

And He heard me.”

God’s faithfulness is first expressed so that we too may have hope in our distress as well.

Vs. 2 “Deliver my soul,

O Lord, from lying lips

And from a deceitful tongue.”

Once again, the faithful saint has been the victim of malicious lies and slander. Thus their (our) prayer to the Lord is that He would deliver us from the deceitful tongue, from lying lips that so love to set others on fire against us.

Vs. 3-4 ³What shall be given to you,

Or what shall be done to you,

You false tongue?

⁴Sharp arrows of the warrior,

With coals of the broom tree!

Having made our prayer and supplication to our Lord, the Scripture now declares His judgment upon their false accusers. The Lord Himself will bring them down with His sharp arrows like a warrior. Indeed, He will fill their lying mouths and tongues with the hot coals of the broom tree, which was renowned for making hot coals from its roots.

Vs. 5-7 “Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech,

That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

⁶My soul has dwelt too long

With one who hates peace.

⁷I am for peace;

But when I speak, they are for war.

The Psalmist now grieves his lot, for his neighbors were not peaceful people, they would not live peaceably with Him, nor allow him to live peaceably amongst them (consider Prov. 21:10). And so here we have a saint describing their own plight on the one hand, which also describes the plight of the whole nation of Israel on the other. For truly all the sons and daughters of peace, no matter what nationality we are, whether Jews or Gentiles will have this worlds wrath directed against us. And so, it is we are for peace, for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, and thus so are all His people, but when we speak, they are for war. Now the people of Meshach were descendants of Noah’s son Jephthah, but they were not like their grandfather. For as later generations arose, they became known as a barbaric and uncivilized people, generally they are thought to have been the peoples of Northern Europe and Asia (some notable Biblical references are found in Ezekiel 32:26; 38:2-3; 39:1 etc.). While Kedar was the second son of Ismael (Gen.25:13) his descendants also were known as being cruel and merciless. Interestingly Believers Bible Commentary notes that, “According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “it is through Kedar that Muslim genealogists trace the descent of Mohammed from Ishmael.”[1]

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.

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^[1] MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; p. 748). Thomas Nelson.