Psalm 120--Deliver Me, O LORD

Psalm 120
English Standard Version

Deliver Me, O LORD
A Song of Ascents.
120 In my distress I called to the LORD,
    and he answered me.
2 Deliver me, O LORD,
    from lying lips,
    from a deceitful tongue.

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

​5 Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech,
    that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 Too long have I had my dwelling
    among those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace,
    but when I speak, they are for war!

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This starts a portion of Psalms called the Psalms of Ascent.  These are psalms that the people would sing as they climbed Mount Zion to go to the Temple, specifically during their pilgrimages to celebrate the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.  Many of them focus on themes of salvation and so the people should have been in the right mindset when coming to these feasts that told portions of the gospel story, yet they became so commonplace that the people often missed the meaning of the words they were singing (much like how we can sing songs in church and never really think about what we're singing).

Why was the psalmist in distress?  This time it was not because of a physical enemy that was about to kill him, but it was because the psalmist had to live among people with dishonest, lying lips, or maybe because the psalmist himself struggled with deceitfulness and lying and needed to be personally delivered from that sin that so easily ensnared him.

I think it's the last option here as we see the psalmist speaking to the deceitful tongue as if it is his own tongue he is speaking to.  Not only is the tongue that is controlled by the flesh quick to lie, but also it is quick to injure others.  James tells us that if any man can control his tongue, he is a perfect man, and that the tongue is full of poison and is set on fire by hell itself.

The psalmist laments that he has made his dwelling place among the wicked and now he has started to become like them.  "Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good character."  The psalmist has made his dwelling among men who love violence and war and are quick to destroy other men with their words and with their weapons of war.  The psalmist wants to be for peace, but those around him want to wage war.

Ultimately, the Temple is a place where the people would come to make peace with God and each other.  It would be a place to confess these kinds of sins and the time of confession started as they took the journey up the mountain and could see Jerusalem and the Temple there.  They came with unclean hands and unclean hearts and did not deserve for the LORD to accept their sacrifices, yet year after year He did.  However, the LORD wanted His people to be different than the wicked nations around them that lied and made war with no thought of truth or peace.  They were to be the people of the LORD and they were therefore not only to be known by His name, but also live lives in line with His characteristics and attributes.  We see that the psalmist here realizes he is not walking in the path that was just described in Psalm 119.