Psalms 120:2
in Psalms 120Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Deliver my soul, O Jehovah, from lying lips, And from a deceitful tongue.
KJV
Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.
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This verse in Psalms 120
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Athanasius of Alexandria296–373
Discourses Against the Arians 3.25.13 · Written before 373.
Therefore it was none other than God whom David too implored for his deliverance: "When I was in trouble, I called on the Lord, and he heard me; deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue." To him also giving thanks he spoke the words of the song in the seventeenth psalm [LXX], in the day in which the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, saying, "I will love you, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my strong rock and my defense and deliverer."
This site's exposition
In my distress I cried to the LORD
on Psalms 120:1-2
The psalm opens on a cry already answered: he called in distress and the LORD answered him. What he asks to be delivered from is speech, lying lips and a deceitful tongue. The danger here is what other men say.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue. He says this about all heresies: he says it about the Jews, he says it about the Arians, he says it about the Manichees, he says it about the rest of the heresies. When the Arian says: The Father is greater, the Son lesser; what do we say? O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue.
"Deliver my soul, O Lord, from unrighteous lips, and from a deceitful tongue" [Psalm 120:2]. What is a deceitful tongue? A treacherous tongue, one that has the semblance of counsel, and the bane of real mischief. Such are those who say, And will you do this, that nobody does? Will you be the only Christian?...Some deter by dissuasion, others discourage yet more by their praise. For since such is the life that has for some time been diffused over the world, so great is the authority of Christ, that not even a pagan ventures to blame Christ. He who cannot be censured is read. They cannot contradict Christ, they cannot contradict the Gospel, Christ cannot be censured; the deceitful tongue turns itself to praise as an hindrance. If you praise, exhort. Why do you discourage with your praise?...You turn yourself to another mode of dissuasion, that by false praise you may turn me away from true praise; nay, that by praising Christ you may keep me away from Christ, saying, What is this? Behold these men have done this: thou, perhaps, will not be able: you begin to ascend, you fall. It seems to warn you: it is the serpent, it is the deceitful tongue, it has poison. Pray against it, if you wish to ascend.
The Reformation1 voice
Now if David, who was endued with such eminent virtue, and free from every mark of disgrace, and far removed from every wicked action, was yet assailed with contumely, is it to be wondered at if the children of God in the present day labor under false accusations, and that when they have endeavored to conduct themselves uprightly they are yet in reported of?
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. Not from such lips, and such a tongue of his own, which David abhorred; though every good man desires to be kept from speaking lies and deceit; nor from the company of those who have such lips and tongues, which he was determined should not dwell with him; but from the malignity of them, from being hurt in his character and reputation by them; God can restrain them, and prevent the ill influence of them when he pleases, Psa 31:
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips. It will need divine power to save a man from these deadly instruments. Lips are soft: but when they are lying lips they suck away the life of character and are as murderous as razors. Lips should never be red with the blood of honest men's reputes, nor salved with malicious falsehoods. David says, "Deliver my soul": the soul, the life of the man, is endangered by lying lips; cobras are not more venomous, nor devils themselves more pitiless.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips. It will need divine power to save a man from these deadly instruments. Lips are soft: but when they are lying lips they suck away the life of character and are as murderous as razors. Lips should never be red with the blood of honest men's reputes, nor salved with malicious falsehoods. David says, "Deliver my soul": the soul, the life of the man, is endangered by lying lips; cobras are not more venomous, nor devils themselves more pitiless. Some seem to lie for lying sake, it is their sport and spirit: their lips deserve to be kissed with a hot iron; but it is not for the friends of Jesus to render to men according to their deserts. Oh for a dumb generation rather than a lying one! The faculty of speech becomes a curse when it is degraded into a mean weapon for smiting men behind their backs. We need to be delivered from slander by the Lord's restraint upon wicked tongues, or else to be delivered out of it by having our good name cleared from the liar's calumny. And from a deceitful tongue This is rather worse than downright falsehood. Those who fawn and flatter, and all the while have enmity in their hearts, are horrible beings; they are the seed of the devil, and he worketh in them after his own deceptive nature. Better to meet wild beasts and serpents than deceivers: these are a kind of monster whose birth is from beneath, and whose end lies far below. It should be a warning to liars and deceivers when they see that all good men pray against them, and that even bad men are afraid of them. Here is to the believer good cause for prayer. "Deliver us from evil", may be used with emphasis concerning this business. From gossips, talebearers, writers of anonymous letters, forgers of newspaper paragraphs, and all sorts of liars, good Lord deliver us!
Lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue - From a people without faith, without truth, without religion; who sought by lies and calumnies to destroy them.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Deliver my soul, O Lord - My soul is harassed and distressed. Perhaps the meaning also may be, My life is in danger. Or, if it refers to the soul as such, then it means that everything pertaining to his soul was deeply affected by the course which was pursued. He was maligned, slandered, misrepresented, deceived, and he had no comfort or peace. From lying lips - False, deceitful, slanderous. Compare the notes at Psa 31:18. And from a deceitful tongue - From a tongue whose statements cannot be relied on; whose words are deceptive; whose promises are false. David was often called to experience troubles of this sort; and this is a kind of trial which may come upon anyone in a form which he can no more anticipate or prevent than he can the coming of a “mist from the ocean.” No man can certainly guard against the influence of falsehood; no man can be sure that all that will be said to him is true; no man can be certain that all the promises made to him - save those made to him by God - will be performed.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
from false lips The arm of those who hunt people with their mouth with wicked accusations.
3 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
A song of ascents which the Levites will recite on the fifteen steps that go down from the Israelites’ court to the Women’s court, and there are fifteen psalms entitled “A song of ascents” (Suc.:4, Mid:5).
What can He give you [What can] the Holy One, blessed be He [give you]?
The song that is said on the ascents from the abyss. Before Adonai, when I was distressed, I prayed, and He received my prayer.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יְֽהוָ֗ה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| הַצִּ֣ילָה | hatzilah | deliver ! | H5337 → | 212 times |
| נַ֭פְשִׁי | nafshi | self my | H5315 → | 754 times |
| מִשְּׂפַת־ | misefat- | from a lip of | H8193 → | 176 times |
| שֶׁ֑קֶר | sheker | falsehood | H8267 → | 113 times |
| מִלָּשׁ֥וֹן | milashon | from a tongue | H3956 → | 117 times |
| רְמִיָּֽה׃ | remiyah | deceit | H7423 → | 15 times |
יְֽהוָ֗הO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
הַצִּ֣ילָהdeliver !
hatzilahH5337 →212 times
נַ֭פְשִׁיself my
nafshiH5315 →754 times
מִשְּׂפַת־from a lip of
misefat-H8193 →176 times
שֶׁ֑קֶרfalsehood
shekerH8267 →113 times
מִלָּשׁ֥וֹןfrom a tongue
milashonH3956 →117 times
רְמִיָּֽה׃deceit
remiyahH7423 →15 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 12:22Lying lips are detestable to the LORD, but those who deal faithfully are His delight.
it leads to
- Psalms 5:6
You destroy those who tell lies; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
- Proverbs 11:20
The perverse in heart are an abomination to the LORD, but the blameless in their walk are His delight.
- Proverbs 6:16–17
There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:
- Revelation 22:15
But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
- Jeremiah 9:24
But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,”…
- Psalms 5:6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourses Against the Arians 3.25.13; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 120; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 6; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jerome, Homily 41, on Psalm 119; John Calvin, Commentaries and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).