Bible Commentaries
Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 120
Psalms 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 Psalms 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, Psalms 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 God’s arrows and coals, kindled by the fire of his wrath, upon thyself.
Psalms 120:5. Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar — Mesech and Kedar are two sorts of people often mentioned in Scripture, and reckoned among the barbarous nations. But their names are here to be understood metaphorically, and so he explains himself in the next verse.
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