Psalm 120:2 NKJV

Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips
And from a deceitful tongue.

Seeking Deliverance from Deceitful Words

A historical figure stands in a crowded street, surrounded by individuals pointing and gesturing, conveying a sense of tension and conflict.

My Notes

“Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue.“ — Psalm 120:2 (NKJV)

David’s cry in Psalm 120:2 is the cry of a soul under assault—not by swords or spears, but by words. Few wounds cut deeper than slander, deceit, and betrayal. Words, meant to bless and build, can be twisted into weapons that destroy reputations, relationships, and peace.

David knew this pain well. Doeg the Edomite slandered him (Psalm 52:2), Saul’s courtiers whispered lies (1 Samuel 24:9), and Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss (Matthew 26:49). Lies often come clothed in flattery, promises, or false friendship. They sting because they strike unseen, and they linger because they attack trust.

The Psalmist understood that verbal malice is not a trivial offense. It can be as venomous as a cobra and as pitiless as a destroyer. Lying lips are not always openly hostile; sometimes, they are the most dangerous enemies who “flatter… with professions and protestations of friendships,” smiling while aiming to “smite under the fifth rib.” This kind of betrayal is the hardest to guard against, which is why the cry is directed to the only One who can truly restrain it: O Lord, deliver my soul.

Yet David does not take vengeance into his own hands. He turns to the Lord: “Deliver my soul.” This is more than a plea for protection—it is a prayer for cleansing, for peace, for truth to triumph over deception. The soul is harassed when lies are spoken about us, but also when lies are spoken to us: lies about God’s goodness, about our worth, about our identity, about what truly satisfies.

This prayer is two-fold. We seek deliverance from the lies spoken about us, which malign our character and seek our ruin. But we also desperately need deliverance from the lies spoken to us—the subtle deceptions about God, man, life, identity, purpose, and happiness. In a world saturated with half-truths and empty promises, we must ask the Lord to clear the fog of deception so we can stand firmly on His unshakeable truth.

The soul of the believer is endangered by two things: slander (lies spoken about us) and deception (lies spoken to us). Our deliverance rests entirely in God’s hands, who is the source of all truth.

Questions for Meditation

Recall a time when words—lies, gossip, or deceit—wounded you deeply. How did you respond?
What lies about yourself, your identity, or your future do you need God to silence today?
Consider the subtle lies of culture (about success, happiness, or worth). Which ones tempt your heart?
How can you guard your own tongue so that it becomes an instrument of blessing rather than harm?

Prayer

Abba, You are the God of Truth, and Your Word is life. My soul is often harassed and distressed by the words of others and by the subtle deceptions of the enemy. I echo the cry of the Psalmist: Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. Restrain the words of those who seek to harm or betray. Guard my reputation by your grace, and help me to respond to malice not with bitterness, but with quiet trust in You. More importantly, Holy Spirit, shine the light of truth into the dark places of my heart. Deliver me from believing lies about who You are, who I am in Christ, and what life is truly about. I ask for these things in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Application

When slander arises, resist the urge to retaliate. Instead, entrust your reputation to God (1 Peter 2:23).
Combat lies with Scripture. Memorize verses that affirm God’s truth about your identity in Christ.
Practice speaking life-giving words daily—encouragement, blessing, and truth.

Cross References for Study (NKJV)

God is the Deliverer from Malice:
- Psalm 31:20 (NKJV): “You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence From the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion From the strife of tongues.
- Proverbs 12:22 (NKJV): “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.”
The Danger of the Lying Tongue (Warnings):
- Psalm 52:2 (NKJV): “Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.”
- Revelation 21:8 (NKJV): “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
The Believer’s Commitment to Truth:
- Psalm 119:29 (NKJV): “Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously.”
- Ephesians 4:25 (NKJV): “Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another.”

Proverb for Today

To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3 NKJV

NOTE: There are fifteen psalms Ps. 120–134 to each of which is prefixed the title “A Song of Degrees.” Four of these psalms are recognized as written by David, one of them to Solomon, and the rest are by unknown authors.

………Bill

A young man with a serious expression stands in a park, wearing a dark shirt and a shoulder bag, with a group of people engaged in conversation in the background.

Summary of Commentaries:

Psalm 120:2 reveals the psalmist’s cry for deliverance from slander and deceit. Spurgeon warns that lying lips wound character like razors, degrading speech into a weapon of destruction. Enduring Word notes that lies not only malign us but mislead us about God, identity, and purpose. Barnes emphasizes the distress of being misrepresented, while Gill highlights biblical examples of deceit—from Doeg to Judas—showing its malignity. Henry describes betrayal disguised as friendship, the hardest enemy to guard against. Together, these voices affirm that deceitful tongues are venomous, born of Satan, and only God’s truth can rescue the soul from their harm.

Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips.” It will need divine power to save a man from these deadly instruments. Lips are soft, but when they are lying lips, they suck away the life of character and are as murderous as razors. Lips should never be red with the blood of honest men’s reputes, nor salved with malicious falsehoods. David says, “Deliver my soul:” the soul, the life of the man, is endangered by lying lips; cobras are not more venomous, nor devils themselves more pitiless. Some seem to lie for lying sake, it is their sport and spirit: their lips deserve to be kissed with a hot iron; but it is not for the friends of Jesus to render to men according to their deserts. Oh, for a dumb generation rather than a lying one! The faculty of speech becomes a curse when it is degraded into a mean weapon for smiting men behind their backs. We need to be delivered from slander by the Lord’s restraint upon wicked tongues, or else to be delivered out of it by having our good name cleared from the liar’s calumny.

“And from a deceitful tongue.” This is rather worse than downright falsehood. Those who fawn and flatter, and all the while have enmity in their hearts, are horrible beings; they are the seed of the devil, and he worketh in them after his own deceptive nature. Better to meet wild beasts and serpents than deceivers: these are a kind of monster whose birth is from beneath, and whose end lies far below. It should be a warning to liars and deceivers when they see that all good men pray against them, and that even bad men are afraid of them. Here is to the believer good cause for prayer. “Deliver us from evil” may be used with emphasis concerning this business. From gossips, talebearers, writers of anonymous letters, forgers of newspaper paragraphs, and all sorts of liars, good Lord deliver us!

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Enduring Word

Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips: The psalmist described the nature of his distress – evil words spoken against him from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.

i. There was some comfort in this cry, knowing that the evil that was spoken against the singer was not true. It was spoken with lying lips and with a deceitful tongue.

ii. The lies our soul needs deliverance from are not only the lies said about us, but also the lies said to us – lies about God, lies about man, lies about ourself, lies about life, identity, purpose, and happiness. From these lies, deliver my soul, O LORD. (David Guzik)

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Albert Barnes

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, and deceived, and he had no comfort or peace.

From lying lips – False, deceitful, slanderous. Compare the notes at Psalms 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.

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John Gill

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, Psalm 31:20. Such were the lips and tongues of Doeg the Edomite, Psalm 52:2, and of Saul’s courtiers, who insinuated to him that David sought his hurt, 1 Samuel 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,” Matthew 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.

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Matthew Henry

He was brought into distress, into great distress, by lying lips and a deceitful tongue. There were those that sought his ruin and had almost effected it, by lying.

They flattered him with professions and protestations of friendship and promises of kindness and service to him, that they might the more securely and without suspicion carry on their designs against him, and might have an opportunity, by betraying his counsels, to do him a mischief. They smiled in his face and kissed him, even when they were aiming to smite him under the fifth rib. The most dangerous enemies, and those which it is most hard to guard against, are such as carry on their malicious designs under the color of friendship. The Lord deliver every good man from such lying lips.

His prayer was, “Deliver my soul, O Lord! from lying lips, that my enemies may not by these cursed methods work my ruin.” He that had prayed so earnestly to be kept from lying (Ps. 119:29) and hated it so heartily in himself (v. 163) might with the more confidence pray to be kept from being belied by others, and from the ill consequences of it.

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Miscellaneous Comments

“Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips,” etc. In the drop of venom which distills from the sting of the smallest insect, or the spike of the nettle leaf, there is concentrated the quintessence of a poison so subtle that the microscope cannot distinguish it, and yet so virulent that it can inflame the blood, irritate the whole constitution, and convert day and night into restless misery; so it is sometimes with the words of the slanderer.

—Frederick William Robertson.

“Lying lips” bore false witness against him, or with a “deceitful tongue” tried to ensnare him, and to draw something from him, on which they might ground an accusation.

—George Horne.

"Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue." - Psalm 120:2

Psalm 31:20 (NKJV): “You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence From the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion From the strife of tongues.

Proverbs 12:22 (NKJV): “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.”

Psalm 52:2 (NKJV): “Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.”

Revelation 21:8 (NKJV): “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Psalm 119:29 (NKJV): “Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously.”

Ephesians 4:25 (NKJV): “Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another.”