Psalm 120:1-7 NKJV
120 In my distress I cried to the Lord,
And He heard me.
2 Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips
And from a deceitful tongue.
3 What shall be given to you,
Or what shall be done to you,
You false tongue?
4 Sharp arrows of the warrior,
With coals of the broom tree!
5 Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech,
That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 My soul has dwelt too long
With one who hates peace.
7 I am for peace;
But when I speak, they are for war.
In my distress I cried to the Lord, and He heard me.
Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips
And from a deceitful tongue…
My soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace.
I am for peace; But when I speak, they are for war.
The psalmist cries out from a place of deep distress, surrounded not by swords and spears, but by lies and hostility. The pain of living among those who twist words and stir conflict is no less real than the pain of physical danger. Yet the first line reveals the anchor of the believer: “In my distress I cried to the Lord, and He heard me.”
The world has always had its Meshechs and Kedars—distant lands, foreign in their ways, where peace is not valued and truth is cheap. For the child of God, life in such places is not merely uncomfortable. It is sorrowful. It is like a long exile. The psalmist’s words could be ours as we navigate a culture that despises what is good and true, and scorns those who seek to live quietly in faithfulness.
Even in such places, prayer remains. God does not shut His ears to His children. The psalmist does not begin by fighting lies with louder lies or meeting hatred with greater hate. He cries out to the Lord. He entrusts his pain to the One who sees, hears, and judges with perfect justice.
There is no romanticism here—only the sober confession that peace is elusive in a world at war with the truth. “I am for peace,” he says, “but when I speak, they are for war.” The longing for peace is not a longing for silence or compromise, but for the kind of peace that comes with truth, righteousness, and the fear of God.
We live now in the tents of this world, often misunderstood and misrepresented. But the Lord who hears us in distress is the same Lord who gives peace that the world cannot give. Let us pray: Lord, deliver us from falsehood and hostility, and grant us courage to speak truth with love. Hear us in our distress, and keep our eyes fixed on You. Amen.