1 To Jehovah in my straits I cried,
And He answered me.
2 Jehovah, deliver my soul from the lying lip,
From the deceitful tongue.
3 What shall He give to thee, and what more shall He give thee,
Deceitful tongue?
4 Arrows of the Mighty, sharpened ones,
With coals of broom.
5 Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech,
[That] I dwell beside the tents of Kedar!
6 Long has my soul had her dwelling
With him who hates peace.
7 I am--peace; but when I speak,
They are for war.
The collection of pilgrim songs is appropriately introduced by one
expressive of the unrest arising from compulsory association with
uncongenial and hostile neighbours. The psalmist laments that his
sensitive "soul" has been so long obliged to be a "sojourner" where
he has heard nothing but lying and strife. Weary of these, his soul
stretches her wings towards a land of rest. His feeling ill at ease
amidst present surroundings stings him to take the pilgrim's staff.
"In" this singer's "heart are the ways."
The simplicity of this little song scarcely admits of separation
into parts; but one may note that an introductory verse is followed
by two groups of three verses each,--the former of which is prayer
for deliverance from the "deceitful tongue," and prediction that
retribution will fall on it (vv. 2-4); while the latter bemoans the
psalmist's uncongenial abode among enemies (vv. 5-7).
The verbs in ver. 1 are most naturally referred to former
experiences of the power of prayer, which encourage renewed petition.
Devout hearts argue that what Jehovah has done once He will do again.
Since His mercy endureth for ever, He will not weary of bestowing,
nor will former gifts exhaust His stores. Men say, "I have given so
often that I can give no more"; God says, "I have given, therefore
I will give." The psalmist was not in need of defence against armed
foes, but against false tongues. But it is not plain whether these
were slanderous, flattering, or untrustworthy in their promises of
friendship. The allusions are too general to admit of certainty. At
all events, he was surrounded by a choking atmosphere of falsehood,
from which he longed to escape into purer air. Some commentators
would refer the allusions to the circumstances of the exiles in
Babylon; others to the slanders of the Samaritans and others who
tried to hinder the rebuilding of the Temple; others think that his
own hostile fellow-countrymen are the psalmist's foes. May we not
rather hear in his plaint the voice of the devout heart, which ever
painfully feels the dissonance between its deep yearnings and the
Babel of vain words which fills every place with jangling and deceit?
To one who holds converse with God, there is nothing more appalling
or more abhorrent than the flood of empty talk which drowns the
world. If there was any specific foe in the psalmist's mind, he has
not described him so as to enable us to identify him.
Ver. 3 may be taken in several ways, according as "deceitful tongue"
is taken as a vocative or as the nominative of the verb "give," and as
that verb is taken in a good or a bad sense, and as "thee" is taken
to refer to the tongue or to some unnamed person. It is unnecessary
to enter here on a discussion of the widely divergent explanations
given. They fall principally into two classes. One takes the words
"deceitful tongue" as vocative, and regards the question as meaning,
"What retribution shall God give to thee, O deceitful tongue?" while
the other takes it as asking what the tongue shall give unto an unnamed
person designated by "thee." That person is by some considered to
be the owner of the tongue, who is asked what profit his falsehood
will be to him; while others suppose the "thee" to mean Jehovah,
and the question to be like that of Job (x. 3). Baethgen takes this
view, and paraphrases, "What increase of Thy riches canst Thou expect
therefrom, that Thou dost permit the godless to oppress the righteous?"
Grammatically either class of explanation is warranted; and the
reader's feeling of which is most appropriate must decide. The present
writer inclines to the common interpretation, which takes ver. 3 as
addressed to the deceitful tongue, in the sense, "What punishment shall
God inflict upon thee?" Ver. 4 is the answer, describing the penal
consequences of falsehood, as resembling the crimes which they avenge.
Such a tongue is likened to sharp arrows and swords in Psalms lvii. 4,
lxiv. 3, etc. The punishment shall be like the crime. For the sentiment
compare Psalm cxl. 9, 10. It is not necessary to suppose that the
"Mighty" is God, though such a reference gives force to the words. "The
tongue which shot piercing arrows is pierced by the sharpened arrows of
an irresistibly strong One; it, which set its neighbour in a fever of
anguish, must endure a lasting heat of broom-coals, which consumes it
surely" (Delitzsch).
In the group of vv. 5-7, the psalmist bemoans his compulsory
association with hostile companions, and longs to "flee away and be
at rest." Meshech was the name of barbarous tribes who, in the times
of Sargon and Sennacherib, inhabited the highlands to the east of
Cilicia, and in later days retreated northwards to the neighbourhood
of the Black Sea (Sayce, "Higher Criticism and Monuments," p. 130).
Kedar was one of the Bedawin tribes of the Arabian desert. The
long distance between the localities occupied by these two tribes
requires an allegorical explanation of their names. They stand as
types of barbarous and truculent foes--as we might say, Samoyeds
and Patagonians. The psalmist's plaint struck on Cromwell's heart,
and is echoed, with another explanation of its meaning which he
had, no doubt, learned from some Puritan minister: "I live, you
know where, in Meshech, which they say signifies prolonging; in
Kedar, which signifies blackness; yet the Lord forsaketh me not"
(Carlyle, "Letters and Speeches," i. 127: London, 1846). The
peace-loving psalmist describes himself as stunned by the noise and
quarrelsomeness of those around him. "I am--peace" (compare Psalm
cix. 4). But his gentlest word is like a spark on tinder. If he but
speaks, they fly to their weapons, and are ready without provocation
to answer with blows.
So the psalm ends as with a long-drawn sigh. It inverts the
usual order of similar psalms, in which the description of need
is wont to precede the prayer for deliverance. It thus sets forth
most pathetically the sense of discordance between a man and his
environment, which urges the soul that feels it to seek a better
home. So this is a true pilgrim psalm.