Psalms · psalm 120 of 150
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Psalm 120 is the first of the songs of ascents (Psalms 120-134) and is the cry of someone who lives among lying lips and a deceitful tongue. He remembers that he cried to the Lord and was answered, asks what will befall the deceitful tongue, which will be punished with a warrior's sharp arrows and glowing coals of the broom tree, and laments dwelling in Meshech and Kedar with people who hate peace: I am for peace, but they are for war.
The title says a song of ascents, the name of a group of fifteen psalms (120-134) that tradition associates with pilgrims going up to Jerusalem for the feasts. This psalm opens the collection in Book V of the Psalms, and it is a prayer from a distance: the pilgrim has not yet arrived, lives in a hostile place and longs for peace. It is brief, with seven verses.
The psalm opens with a memory: in my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. With that experience the psalmist pleads: deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. Lies and slander have been his suffering.
Verses 3 and 4 address the deceitful tongue directly with a question: what shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? The answer is harsh: sharp arrows of a warrior, with glowing coals of the broom tree. It is a picture of judgment: the lie, which wounds like an arrow and burns like fire, will receive a fitting punishment.
Verses 5-7 express the pilgrim's grief. Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! Meshech was a distant people to the north and Kedar a desert tribe of Arabia, two remote and rough places, which the poet uses as a picture of a hostile surrounding. Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The psalmist remembers that he cried to the Lord in his distress and that he answered him. Before asking again, he begins with what God has already done, and that gives a basis for his new prayer.
He asks to be delivered from lying lips and a deceitful tongue. The psalm takes the harm of false words seriously and brings the complaint to God instead of answering with another lie.
The pilgrim laments living in Meshech and among the tents of Kedar, distant and hostile places. It does not describe a literal geography but the feeling of living far from home in an environment that is not his own.
He says he has lived long among those who hate peace, and that he is for peace but they are for war. The believer's desire for peace is not always welcomed, but it remains his calling.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: That he cried to the Lord in his distress and the Lord answered him. — Psalm 120:1
Answer: From lying lips and a deceitful tongue. — Psalm 120:2
Answer: A warrior's sharp arrows with glowing coals of the broom tree. — Psalm 120:4
Answer: In Meshech and among the tents of Kedar. — Psalm 120:5
Answer: With those who hate peace. — Psalm 120:6
Answer: They are for war. — Psalm 120:7
Psalm 120 speaks to anyone who lives in an atmosphere of lies, gossip or conflict: a workplace, a family, a group. In a class or small group we can talk about how to pray and act when one is peaceful in a setting that is not, without answering lie with lie. The psalmist takes his complaint to God and keeps speaking of peace.
It also opens the road of the songs of ascents: the pilgrim sets out from an uncomfortable place and moves toward Jerusalem. For Christians it is a picture of life as a road toward the house of the Lord, which has its times of distance and exile. Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), and this psalm is the prayer of one who tries to be one.
Psalm 120 ends with the peaceful man surrounded by war. Psalm 121, the next song of ascents, lifts the eyes to the hills and answers with the certainty that help comes from the Lord, who does not slumber or sleep.
It is the title of Psalms 120-134, fifteen psalms that many associate with pilgrims going up to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. Other explanations link them to the steps of the temple or to the return from exile. The text does not say, but all of them speak of the journey and of trust.
Meshech is mentioned in Genesis 10:2 and Ezekiel 27:13 as a people of the north, toward Anatolia. Kedar was a nomadic tribe of Arabia, a son of Ishmael according to Genesis 25:13. They are far apart, so the psalmist uses them as symbols of remote and hostile places, not as his literal address.