Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 120:2
Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, [and] from a deceitful tongue.
2. Cp. Psa 52:1-4; Mic 6:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2 4. The earnestness of the prayer and the severity of the condemnation point to a person or a party, fomenting feud and strife in the community by calumny and false accusations, and resolutely refusing all attempts to promote harmony.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 120:2
Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips.
Lying lips
A watch that cannot be depended upon is of very little use. It may have a beautiful gold case, it may be sparkling with jewels, but yet it will be of no service to me as a watch unless I can depend on what it tells me about the time. And so one of the things by which we judge of the real value and worth of men or women, of boys or girls, is this–Are they truthful? Do they mean what they say? Are they really what they seem to be? If so, then they are like a watch that keeps good time. But one of the effects of sin on our hearts has been to take away from them the love of the truth, and to incline them to lying.
I. The disgrace which attends lying.
1. It should make little difference to us what wicked men consider to be disgraceful. But if anything will bring shame and disgrace to us, in the opinion of God and of good men, then we should be very careful not to do that thing, whatever it may be. But there is nothing that will do this sooner than lying (Pro 6:17; Pro 12:22).
2. It is always disgraceful to follow the example of a very wicked person. But we know that Satan is the most wicked person in this world, or in any other. He is the father of lies (Joh 8:44). When we tell lies, we prove ourselves to be the children of Satan. And there cannot be a greater disgrace in the world than to be closely related to such a person, and to have it proved that he is our father. But liars are not only the children of Satan; they are his servants also (Act 5:8). Lying is Satans work. And when we engage in lying, we let our hearts become Satans workshop.
3. In some parts of India, if any person is proved to be a liar, he receives the penalty of the law, which requires that his mouth be sewed up. The offender has his hands tied behind him. He is led out to a post in a public place, to which he is tied, and one of the officers of the government, appointed for that purpose, sews up his lips with a needle and thread. Then he is allowed to go. And every one who sees his closed lips, and the blood flowing from them, can say to himself, There goes a liar! What a disgrace that sewed-up mouth would be to a man! David tells us that the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped (Psa 63:11); Solomon tells us that a lying tongue is but for a moment (Pro 12:19); and in another place David says that lying lips shall be put to silence (Psa 31:18). We are not told how God will do this; but we may be very sure it will be in some way that will fasten shame and disgrace on those who have not prayed earnestly, as David did, in the language of our text, Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips.
II. The injury that it does.
1. The first sin ever committed in our world was a lie. It was in the Garden of Eden. Satan was tempting Eve to break Gods commandment. He did it by telling her a lie, and getting her to believe it. And now it is impossible for anybody to count up all the injury that has been done by that sin. That one sin was like poisoning a fountain, and then all the water that flows from it is poisoned too.
2. And when we tell a lie now, we never can tell where the injury that springs from it will stop. It is just like loosening a great rock at the top of a mountain, and letting it go rolling and plunging down the side of the mountain. Nobody can tell how far it will go, nor how much injury it will do before it stops rolling. Telling a lie is like letting a wild beast out of a cage. You can never tell how many people that animal will wound or kill before he is caught again. Telling a lie is like dropping sparks in powder. It is sure to make an explosion, and no one can tell beforehand how much harm that will do. Telling a lie is like going out from the plain beaten path into a tangled wood. You can never tell how long it will take you, or how much you must suffer, before you get back again.
III. The punishment that follows it (Pro 19:9; Rev 21:27-28). But it is not only after death that punishment follows lying. The Bible shows Us how God often punishes people for lying even in this life. There we see Gehazi telling a lie, and the very same day on which he told it brought the punishment. And then we read about Ananias and Sapphira. They agreed together to tell a deliberate, dreadful lie; and they were both struck dead with that lie upon their lips. (R. Newton, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From lying lips; from the unjust censures and malicious slanders of mine enemies, who traduce me as an egregious hypocrite, as a rebel and traitor.
From a deceitful tongue; which covereth mischievous designs with pretences of kindness.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2, 3. Slander and deceit chargedon his foes implies his innocence.
tongueas in Psa 52:2;Psa 52:4.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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, Ps 31:20. Such were the lips and tongues of Doeg the Edomite, Ps 52:2, and of Saul’s courtiers, who insinuated to him that David sought his hurt, 1Sa 24:9; and of the Scribes and Pharisees, that flattered Christ to his face, and reproached him to the people; and of Judas, that betrayed him with “Hail, master”, Mt 26:49; and of the false witnesses suborned against him; and of false teachers, deceitful workers, that lie in wait to deceive, and, by their good words and fair speeches, do deceive the hearts of the simple; and of antichrist and his followers, who, as they are given up to believe a lie, speak lies in hypocrisy; and of Satan the father of lies, and who is the old serpent, the devil, that deceives the whole world: and to be delivered from the bad effects of such lips and tongues is very desirable.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2. O Jehovah! deliver my soul from the lip of falsehood. David now points out the kind of his affliction, declaring that he was loaded with false accusations. In charging his enemies with lying and falsehood, he asserts his own innocence of the crimes which they slanderously imputed to him. His complaint therefore amounts to this, that as he was conscious of having committed no fault, he was assaulted by the wicked contrary to all law, human and divine, and that they brought him into hatred without his having given them any occasion for such injurious treatment. Deceitful tongues assault good and simple people in two ways’ they either circumvent them by wiles and snares, or wound their reputation by calumnies. It is of the second way that the Prophet here complains. 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? As they have the devil for their enemy, it is indeed impossible for them to escape being loaded with his lies. Yea, we see that slanderous tongues did not spare even the Son of God — a consideration which should induce us to bear the more patiently our condition, when the wicked traduce us undeservedly; since it is certain that we have here described the common lot of the whole Church.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) Deliver . . .This is the cry for help of which mention has just been made. The thought is one we have met frequently. Of all the elements of bitterness which made up the lot of Israel under foreign dominion, taunts and calumnies seem to have made the deepest wound, and left the most lasting scar. This was the torture prolonged from age to age, under which we hear psalmist after psalmist raising his cry for deliverance.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Lying lips deceitful tongue The source of his present trouble, and more terrible than weapons of war.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
If we read another Psalm to this effect, and which hath been always considered as referring to Jesus, we shall find how the holy sufferer complains of false witnesses rising up against him. Psa 35:11-18 . And the awful event which terminated the life of the traitor Judas, may well be compared to what is here said of sharp arrows from God and coals of juniper, Meaning no doubt eternal misery. Act 1:19 ; Mar 9:42-48 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 120:2 Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, [and] from a deceitful tongue.
Ver. 2. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips ] This was David’s distress, and it lay heavy upon his spirit; so it did upon Job’s, and Jeremiah’s, Jer 20:10 ; the scourge of tongues he felt as sharp as scorpions. Of the mischief of an evil tongue see Jam 3:1-9 Psa 52:2-4 Psa 12:3 . See Trapp on “ Psa 12:3 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deliver = Pluck me. Hebrew. nazal. Same word as in Psa 119:170. The reference is to 2Ki 18:30, 2Ki 18:32.
my soul = me. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
lips. Hebrew = lip: i.e. Rab-shakeh’s. The reference is to 2Ki 18:19-35; 2Ki 19:8-13. 2Ch 32:10-19. Isa 36:4-20; Isa 37:8-13. See App-67.
tongue. Figure of speech Epistrophe (App-6), with “tongue”, Psa 120:3.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
from lying lips: Psa 35:11, Psa 52:2-4, Psa 109:1, Psa 109:2, Psa 140:1-3, Mat 26:59-62
Reciprocal: Gen 39:17 – General Neh 6:10 – Let us meet Job 15:5 – thou choosest Psa 6:4 – deliver Psa 52:5 – God Pro 6:17 – lying Jer 9:3 – they bend Jer 9:6 – habitation Mat 12:34 – how Mar 12:14 – Master
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 120:2-4. Deliver my soul from lying lips From the unjust censures and malicious slanders of mine enemies; and from a deceitful tongue Which covers mischievous designs under pretences of kindness. What shall be given unto thee By the righteous Judge of heaven and earth; thou false tongue O thou false accuser, or slanderer, or whosoever thou art, that art guilty of any such like practices? Sharp arrows of the mighty
The wrath and vengeance of the almighty God, which in Scripture, and particularly in this book, is often compared to arrows, as Psa 7:13-14, &c., and here to arrows of the mighty, that is, arrows shot by the hands of a strong man; and to coals, Psa 140:10, and here to coals of juniper, which burn very fiercely, and retain their heat for a long time. And the psalmist may possibly express himself in these words, to show the suitableness of the punishment to the sin. As if he had said, As thy tongue shoots arrows, (as calumnies are often called,) and kindles coals, so thou shalt bring Gods arrows and coals, kindled by the fire of his wrath, upon thyself.