Psalms 120 KJV
A Prayer for Deliverance
About This Psalm
The first 'Song of Ascents' - sung while traveling to Jerusalem. Living among hostile people who love lies. Longing for peace.
1n my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.
2 Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.
3 What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.
7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
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Did You Know?
Psalm 120 opens the Songs of Ascents by locating the speaker in Meshech and Kedar, two remote, non-Israelite regions whose pairing functions less as literal geography than as a symbolic map of cultural and spiritual alienation from Zion.
The imprecation invokes 'coals of juniper,' whose resinous wood was prized in the ancient Near East for producing an especially hot, slow-burning fire, thereby intensifying the request that deceitful speech receive an unquenchable punishment.
Unlike most ascent psalms that presuppose arrival in Jerusalem, this one is framed entirely from the perspective of departure and distress, establishing the collection's movement from exile-like conditions toward cultic presence.
The psalm's complaint centers exclusively on verbal treachery ('lying lips' and 'deceitful tongue'), a motif that echoes ancient Near Eastern treaty curses and legal proceedings in which false testimony could sever communal bonds.
Its terse structure deliberately omits any vow of praise or thanksgiving, leaving the resolution of the crisis suspended and thereby linking it thematically to the subsequent ascent psalms that gradually supply the missing liturgical response.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain Slander and deceit charged on his foes implies his innocence. tongue โ as in Ps 52:2,
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Psalms 120 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: This is the first of fifteen psalms (psalms 120-134) entitled "a song of degrees" (ps 121:1 --literally, "a song for the degrees"), or ascents. It seems most probable they were designed for the use of the people when going up (compare 1ki 12:27, 28) to Jerusalem on the festival occasions (de 16:16), three times a year. David appears as the author of four, solomon of one (ps 127:1), and the other ten are anonymous, probably composed after the captivity. In this psalm the writer acknowledges God's mercy, prays for relief from a malicious foe, whose punishment he anticipates, and then repeats his complaint.
- 2,3
- Slander and deceit charged on his foes implies his innocence. tongue โ as in Ps 52:2,
- 4
- 4. Sharp arrows of the mighty โ destructive inflictions. coals of juniper โ which retain heat long. This verse may be read as a description of the wicked, but better as their punishment, in reply to the question of Ps 120:3.
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