This short psalm begins in distress with a cry for deliverance from lying lips and a deceitful tongue. From there it names both the judgment that falls on such speech and the misery of living among people whose bent is toward hostility, so that the chapter ends with a sharp contrast: the speaker is for peace, but the world around him is ready for war.
As the Songs of Ascents begin, Psalm 120 opens not with arrival but with alienation. It fits Book V by showing that the pilgrim life starts in a place of tension, falsehood, and social unrest, where the first movement toward God is a cry to be rescued from the speech and conflict that poison ordinary life.
A continuous BSB reading flow. Turn on the guide when you want authored orientation; leave it off when you simply want the text.
A1 song of ascents. 2Deliver my soul, O LORD, 3What will He do to you, 4Sharp arrows will come from the warrior, 5Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, 6Too long have I dwelt 7I am in favor of peace;
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