Psalm 120 begins the Songs of Ascents in a surprising place, not with arrival, but with distress. The soul’s climb toward God starts when it can no longer make peace with falsehood. It cries to be delivered from lying lips, groans in a long exile among those who hate peace, and learns that true ascent begins with a clean hatred of deceit. This is the first pilgrim Psalm because every real pilgrimage begins when the heart is wounded by untruth and starts to long for the peace of God.
Psalm 120 (LXX 119) - In My Distress I Cried to the Lord
Psalm Metadata
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| NKJV / Masoretic numbering | Psalm 120 |
| Septuagint / Coptic numbering | Psalm 119 |
| Accepted author | A Song of Ascents. |
| Period in author’s life | No personal life-setting is given. The Psalm belongs to the Songs of Ascents and was likely used in pilgrim worship and in the Church’s prayer of exile. |
| Christ prophecy status | Christological by theme rather than by a single predictive verse. The Psalm moves from falsehood to truth and from war to peace, fulfilled in Christ the Truth and Prince of Peace. |
| Coptic lectionary/service use | Verified local Coptic usage includes Agpeya Eleventh Hour, Midnight Prayer Second Watch, and Holy Tuesday First Hour of Pascha, where Psalm 120:2,6,7 accompanies John 11:12-24. |
| Numbering issue | This note embeds Brenton LXX Psalm 119. The Psalm continues the standard LXX/NKJV offset after the 114-116 split/combined section. |
Historical and Scriptural Context
Psalm 120 is the first of the fifteen Songs of Ascents, Psalms 120-134. These Psalms are associated with going up to Jerusalem, both literally and spiritually. That matters here, because the ascent does not begin with delight in Zion, but with disgust at life among lies. The soul does not rise by pretending the surrounding darkness is harmless. It rises by crying out against deceit and by longing for peace.
This first step is deeply biblical. Israel’s pilgrimage begins in bondage and groaning. The Church’s pilgrimage begins in a world where the devil is called a liar and the father of lies, and where the peacemakers are blessed because peace is contested. The Psalm therefore belongs to the whole movement of Scripture from exile to communion, from falsehood to truth, and from hostile speech to the city of peace.
Geographical Significance ⛰️
The Psalm’s geography is exile geography. Brenton’s LXX form stresses a prolonged sojourn among the tents of Kedar, a dark and distant desert setting that represents life far from the peace of Jerusalem. In the NKJV/Masoretic form, Meshech and Kedar widen that picture even more, remote places symbolizing alienation from covenant peace. The ascent to Jerusalem begins, therefore, from far away, morally, spiritually, and liturgically.
The Characters 👥
The Lord. The one who hears in affliction and alone can rescue the soul from deceit.
The praying pilgrim. A servant of God who is weary of falsehood and longs for peace.
The deceitful tongue. Not merely rude speech, but treacherous speech that disguises harm as counsel.
Those who hate peace. People who answer peaceful speech with hostility and war.
🕯️ Light from the Word
Psalm 119:1-2, distress teaches the soul to cry out
119:1 A Song of Degrees. In mine affliction I cried to the Lord, and he hearkened to me.
119:2 Deliver my soul, O Lord, from unjust lips, and from a deceitful tongue.
The Psalm opens with affliction, but not with despair. The sufferer already knows that the Lord hears. That gives the Psalm its spiritual sobriety. The speaker is not discovering pain for the first time, he is learning where pain must be carried. The first ascent is prayer.
Augustine goes straight to the wound: a deceitful tongue is “one that hath the semblance of counsel, and the bane of real mischief” (Exposition on Psalm CXX). That is perceptive. The worst lies are often dressed as realism, sophistication, or friendly advice. Theodoret likewise understands the danger as moral and communal, speech that corrupts peace and tears at the fabric of faithful life.
St Athanasius says the Psalms give the Church words for the soul’s own prayer, and St Gregory of Nyssa teaches that psalmody trains the soul toward virtue and that the end of the life according to virtue is blessedness. Psalm 120 (LXX 119) is the first pilgrim cry that teaches the soul to begin its ascent by fixing its gaze on the God who hears affliction and delivers from deceit.
Christologically, the Psalm opens onto Christ the Truth. He Himself stood before false witnesses, and the Church shares in His lot whenever she suffers from twisted words, slander, manipulation, or the half-truths that corrode unity. The ascent to God begins when the soul refuses to baptize deceit as wisdom.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “In mine affliction I cried to the Lord”; “Deliver my soul, O Lord, from unjust lips.”
- Emphasize: the ascent begins with honest prayer and with disgust toward deceit.
- Avoid: reducing the Psalm to ordinary frustration. The issue is moral falsehood that damages communion.
Psalm 119:3-4, deceitful speech meets righteous judgment
119:3 What should be given to thee, and what should be added to thee, for thy crafty tongue?
119:4 Sharpened weapons of the mighty, with coals of the desert.
The Psalm turns from lament to judgment. A crafty tongue is not treated as a small social flaw. It is deadly. So the answer is given in fitting images, sharpened arrows and burning coals. Words that pierce unjustly are answered by a judgment that pierces truly.
Theodoret reads the verse as an unveiling of divine justice. False speech is not weightless simply because it is verbal. The tongue can wound deeply, and so Scripture answers it with martial and fiery imagery. This also resonates with James 3, where the tongue can become a fire that sets a whole course of life ablaze.
Spiritually, this section teaches fear of God over fear of gossip. Many souls are more frightened of what deceptive people may say than of what God may judge. Psalm 120 reverses that order. The lying tongue does not have the last word. Truth does.
Christologically, the Cross exposes and judges deceit. The innocent Christ is condemned by false speech, yet through His Passion the judgment of lies begins. The one who endures slander without surrendering truth has already begun to share in the victory of the Lord.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “thy crafty tongue”; “sharpened weapons of the mighty.”
- Emphasize: deceit is spiritually serious, and God judges what wounds by speech.
- Avoid: treating divine judgment as vindictive rage. The point is moral truth, not personal revenge.
Psalm 119:5-7, exile among Kedar and the peacemaker’s sorrow
119:5 Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged; I have tabernacled among the tents of Kedar.
119:6 My soul has long been a sojourner;
119:7 I was peaceable among them that hated peace; when I spoke to them, they warred against me without a cause.
The Psalm reaches its most human note here. The servant is tired. The sojourn is prolonged. Peaceful speech is answered by war. This is the grief of the faithful soul living among people who do not want peace on God’s terms.
Augustine interprets Kedar as darkness and reads the verse as the Church groaning in a foreign land until she returns to the heavenly Jerusalem. He then presses the moral demand sharply: “With them that hated peace, I was peaceful” and adds, “Begin to act, and see what we speak” (Exposition on Psalm CXX). In other words, the Psalm is proved not by explanation, but by the actual practice of peacemaking among the hostile.
This reaches the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the peacemakers” is not a sentimental slogan. It describes people who continue to speak peace where peace is not welcomed. Christ the Prince of Peace came to His own, and many answered Him with violence. The Church continues that witness, refusing both naive appeasement and bitter imitation.
The ascent therefore begins with exile, but not with despair. The pilgrim is not yet in Jerusalem, but he has already chosen its spirit. He speaks peace before he sees peace. That is already a form of ascent.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “the tents of Kedar”; “I was peaceable among them that hated peace.”
- Emphasize: exile, endurance, and the costly vocation of peacemaking.
- Avoid: confusing peace with surrender to manipulation or falsehood.
The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖
Verified local Coptic usage includes the Agpeya Eleventh Hour and Midnight Prayer Second Watch, which already makes sense spiritually because the Psalm teaches the soul to carry the wounds of speech and exile into prayer at the close of day and in the night’s watch. The local Pascha data also place Psalm 120:2,6,7 at Holy Tuesday First Hour with John 11:12-24. That pairing is weight-bearing: the Church prays deliverance from deceitful lips and prolonged sojourning while moving deeper into the days when Christ is surrounded by hostile speech and advances freely toward death and resurrection. So this Psalm is not only thematically suitable, it is concretely embedded in local Coptic prayer and Holy Week usage.
Iconography Connection 🖼️
Psalm 120 pairs naturally with icons of Christ before false accusers, the pilgrim road to the holy city, and the saints as sojourners in a hostile age. Its visual world is dark tents behind and Jerusalem ahead, the soul still far away, but already turned in the right direction.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
- Notice what kind of speech shapes your soul. Lies do not only misinform, they deform.
- Bring slander to prayer before you answer it. The first ascent is not self-defense, but crying to the Lord.
- Practice peace among the hostile. Speak truthfully, gently, and without surrendering to manipulation.
- Accept that holy longing often begins in discomfort. Distress is not the end of ascent. It is often the beginning.
- Examine whether you have made peace with darkness. The pilgrim rises when he can no longer call Kedar home.
Teacher's Notes
- Timing: 12 minutes for the cry against deceit, 12 minutes for judgment on the crafty tongue, 15 minutes for Kedar and peacemaking, 10 minutes for application.
- Where to linger: Augustine on the deceitful tongue and on peacefulness among those who hate peace.
- Key phrase to say slowly: “I was peaceable among them that hated peace.”
- Pastoral warning: do not use this Psalm to sanctify self-pity. The issue is truthful peacemaking, not grievance culture.
Glossary
- Song of Ascents: One of the pilgrim Psalms, associated with going up to Jerusalem and with spiritual ascent.
- Kedar: In Scripture, a desert people/location associated here with dark exile and life far from Zion.
- Deceitful tongue: Speech that appears helpful or persuasive while doing real spiritual harm.
- Peacemaker: One who seeks God’s peace truthfully, not merely the absence of conflict.
Translation and Source Notes
Embedded Scripture is Brenton’s English Septuagint, Psalm 119. In Psalm 120:5 the NKJV/Masoretic tradition names both Meshech and Kedar, while the Brenton/LXX form stresses the prolonged sojourn among the tents of Kedar. The spiritual point remains exile among those alien to God’s peace.
Sources
Primary sources: Brenton Septuagint, Psalm 119; Matthew 5:9; John 8:44; James 3; 1 Peter 2:11-23.
Patristic sources: St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm CXX in NPNF1, volume 8; Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms; St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus; St Gregory of Nyssa on psalmody, virtue, and blessedness.
Coptic Orthodox / liturgical sources: Coptic Orthodox lectionary references including Agpeya rows for printed Psalm 120, plus Pascha day-hour data placing Psalm 120:2,6,7 at Holy Tuesday First Hour with John 11:12-24.