Bible Study - Psalm 120

As I mentioned last week, I had never paid much attention to Psalm 120. It is a very short psalm. The author is not identified, and it is not possible to tell just when it was written or an exact situation being spoken about. Many think it might have been written when many of God’s people were carried into captivity or exile and faced enemy people and ideas, or soon after that when some of them were starting to return to Israel, when they were finally able to do so, but also faced opposition in Israel.

This psalm caught my attention, when I was studying Psalm 121, in the last few weeks. Psalm 120 begins with the psalmist clearly “in distress” and very troubled, so that he needed to “call to the Lord” (Psalm 120:1). What was especially troubling him? “Lying lips” and “deceitful tongues,” some of which were attacking him so much that he cried out, “Deliver me, O Lord” (Psalm 120:2).

We have an old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That is not the way the Scriptures speak. Lying and deceiving can be very harmful. especially when aimed at others. Read Proverbs 25:18: “A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.” Listen to the words of David in Psalm 57:4: “My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts - the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.”

Are we living in a time similar to that of the psalmist? People are very divided from one another. What used to be called “civil discourse” has often become very uncivil. How many children are hurt by bullying and mean things said by others? How many teenagers are confused and led astray by lies and deceitful ideas they hear about on social media? Are our politicians known for being truthful or more for trying to attack and cancel others? What comes out of our own mouths? We know we are to try to speak the truth, but do we too often back down because we know we will be attacked by others for what we might say? Can we also speak the truth in love, as the Scriptures say?

The psalmist wants God to deliver him, but he does know how that will happen. He asks in Psalm 120. v.3:  “What shall be done to “deceitful tongues?” Verse 4 might be literally translated: By “Arrows of a Mighty One, sharpened, with burning coals of broom“ (from a broom tree, whose wood burns longest and hottest). There are many people who try to be high and mighty, but the only one who is truly mighty is God Himself.

Psalm 89:8 says, “O Lord of hosts, who is mighty as You are, O Lord, with Your faithfulness all around you?” Isaiah 42:13 says, “The Lord goes out like a mighty man… He shows himself mighty against His foes.” In other words, The Lord God is the ultimate Judge, and He will will bring judgment in His own way and time, as he knows best, in a just and fair and faithful way.

The Lord may bring judgments with “arrows” and “fire” and will do so on the last day. See Deuteronomy 32:22-23, where both fire and arrows are mentioned. See also Psalm 64:3-4, 7-8, where even now the wicked may “whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless… But God shoots His arrows at them; they are wounded suddenly. They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them.”

(If you paid any attention to the Alex Murdaugh murder trial in South Carolina in the US in recent weeks, you heard of his lying and deceiving to so many people for so long. But finally, it seems that his own tongue turned against him when he testified, and he was then quickly found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.)  he ultimate judgment for him or anyone is up to God, of course, not up to us.

What then are we to do when we face lies and deceits? The psalmist says in v.5: “Woe to me that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!” Meshech was a name for a people and area far to the North of Israel, maybe as far away as the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Kedar was an area far to the South and East of Israel, in the Arabian desert, where nomadic people lived and moved about. Both of these groups of people were considered to be uncivilized and barbarian, rough and quarrelsome people, as the commentator Franz Delitzsch said. These two groups were so far away from each other in location that the psalmist could not be living among both, but he was among people acting just like them. This was having a negative impact upon him and his own life and way of thinking.

“Woe is me,” he says, and then adds, “Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.” Isaiah 48:22 and 57:18 both say, “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” In Verse 7 of Psalm 120, the psalmist concludes, “I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.” He seems to be realizing that he has been spending too much time in the wrong situations with the wrong kind of people. He was being drawn away into very negative and critical speaking that only wanted to tear others down as they were doing to him and others. He still needed to speak the truth, but to try to do it in love and in ways that showed care for people.

Listen to what David wrote in Psalm 109:1-5: “Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me , but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.” David had no illusions about always being loved and respected for trying to do the right things. (He also knew his own sins and failings and the need to keep confessing his sins and receiving God’s forgiveness.)

And he knew he needed to take the time to pray and call upon his Lord and then try to show some love and good, even for those attacking him. As Jesus Himself taught us, in Matthew 5:43-45, “I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father Who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” (Thank the Lord that He does that for us all - for how right and just are our own words and mouths, at times?)

Let me mention one more thing suggested by words from Psalm 120 - the words about “burning coals” in verse 4. Proverbs 25:21-22 says, ”If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head…” People can be shamed and awakened by our doing good to them, in response to evil they have done to us. Paul quotes this passage in Romans 12:20. Read Romans 12:14-21 for all he says, that fits with what the psalmist was learning in Psalm 120, about overcoming evil with good.

None of this is easy for any of us. I have read a newspaper for most of my life, to keep informed. But recently, I decided to cancel the paper I had been reading because it had much in it that was misleading and untruthful and even challenging to the Christian faith. I did not need those lies and deceit. However, I soon found myself reading my I-phone and I-pad, doing what my wife calls “doomscrolling,” reading too much bad news that also was not helpful, day after day. I need to remember to read God’s Word more and more and keep asking the Lord to help me keep speaking the truth, both Law and Gospel, but in a loving and caring way, that truly helps people.

Above all, I need to and we all need to keep our eyes on Jesus our Savior and what He first did for us sinners to rescue us. Micah 5:2-5 is a prophecy of the coming of Jesus. “And He shall be our peace”and “shepherd us in the strength of our Lord.” The Lord’s continued blessings on your week.