Psalms 120: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

A short psalm in which the speaker calls out to the LORD while in trouble and asks to be rescued from liars. He turns to address the lying tongue itself, naming the punishment it can expect. He then complains that he has lived far too long among people who hate peace, and that when he speaks for peace, they want war.

Claim by Claim

1. 120:1
   • This psalm is a song of ascents.
   • The speaker was in distress.
   • The speaker called to the LORD in his distress.
   • The LORD answered him.
2. 120:2
   • The speaker asks the LORD to rescue his soul from lying lips.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to rescue his soul from a deceitful tongue.
3. 120:3
   • The speaker asks what will be given to the deceitful tongue.
   • The speaker asks what more will be added to the deceitful tongue.
   • The one addressed is a deceitful tongue.
4. 120:4
   • The answer is a warrior's sharpened arrows.
   • The answer is also burning coals of the broom plant.
5. 120:5
   • The speaker cries woe over himself.
   • The speaker sojourns in Meshech.
   • The speaker dwells among the tents of Kedar.
6. 120:6
   • The speaker's soul has dwelt a long time with one who hates peace.
7. 120:7
   • The speaker is for peace.
   • When the speaker speaks, they are for war.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

120:1

"The LORD" in capital letters stands for God's own name, which Israel treated as too holy to say out loud. Where you see it, the Hebrew has that name.

120:2

"Deliver my soul" in the King James is a literal rendering of a Hebrew word (nephesh) that means the whole living person (a life, a self), not an immaterial part separate from the body. The request is "save my life," "rescue me."

120:3

The double question is a formula of threat, not curiosity. Hebrew oaths ran along the lines of "May God do so to you, and more also", so asking a liar "what will be given to you, and what more?" is a way of announcing a punishment while leaving its size open. The Hebrew does not say who does the giving; it may be God, and it may be the injured speaker.

120:4

"Coals of juniper" translates a word for the broom tree (Hebrew rothem), a desert shrub whose charcoal was proverbial for burning hotter and far longer than ordinary wood. Arrows and glowing coals are both things that fly or smolder, like malicious words, which travel at a distance and go on burning after they land.

120:5

Meshech was a people of the far north, around the Black Sea; Kedar was a nomadic Arab tribe of the northern Arabian desert. A person could not live in both, and the psalm is not reporting an address: they stand for the ends of the earth, hostile and foreign. "Sojourn" means to live somewhere as a resident foreigner, present, but without the protections a native had.

120:6

Sometimes a person hates peace not by shouting but by keeping a quarrel going. That is the kind of neighbor the writer means.

120:7

"They are for war" means they would rather fight than make peace.