Deceitful Tongues – Psalm 120

A song of ascents is one sung by pilgrims on their way up (ascending, literally) to Jerusalem for one of the festivals of Yahweh, whether Passover, Weeks or Tabernacles.  But why this one about the problem of liars who have caused them distress?  Some of these pilgrims are coming from places where worship of Yahweh is not popular and they are in the minority and subject to mistreatment.

A Song of Ascents.   

In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me.  Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.

What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?  A warrior’s sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!

Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!  Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.  I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!  (Psalm 120 ESV)

The answer to our distress is always Yahweh.  He has delivered us in the past and will be our deliverance now.  In this song of ascent the pilgrims bemoan the problem of deceitful enemies whose end is the judgment of God (sharp arrows and glowing coals).  They have caused distress.  They find help by understanding the end of such liars.  They are helped also by seeing that though the distant Gentile lands of Meschech and Kedar are boiling plates of aggression and war, the one who yearns for peace may dwell in Jerusalem for a time, the place of God’s peace.  We are only sojourners in the tents of the world.  Our real home is in the Lord Himself.  There it is we find peace.