Psalms 120
What Happens in This Chapter
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.
When I was in trouble, I called out to the LORD, and he answered me.
1In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.
2Rescue me, LORD, from lips that lie and from a tongue that tricks people.
2Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.
"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."
3You lying tongue, what will be given to you? What more will be done to you?
3What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
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.
4This: the sharp arrows of a warrior, along with burning coals from the broom tree.
4Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
"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.
5How miserable I am, living as a stranger in Meshech, staying among the tents of Kedar!
5Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
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.
6I have lived far too long among people who hate peace.
6My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.
7I want peace. But when I speak, they want war.
7I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
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