Psalm 120:3

Psalm 120:3, in plain English

The psalmist turns and addresses the deceitful tongue itself, asking a sharp rhetorical question: what kind of consequences come to someone who lies like this?

Why it's here

This is the psalmist moving from plea to confrontation. By addressing the tongue directly, they're not just complaining—they're calling out the absurdity and injustice of living among liars. There's an underlying confidence here that God doesn't let such things go unanswered.

Who's speaking

The same psalmist, now speaking more boldly, even confrontationally, to those who have deceived him.

Where it sits in the story

You see throughout the wisdom literature and prophets that God takes the misuse of words seriously—there's a real moral order where lies eventually catch up with liars. The psalmist is appealing to that divine justice.

The scholarly reading

The psalmist poses a rhetorical question, demanding that God's judgment fall upon the deceitful tongue and its owner.

Language and setting

This verse pivots from petitionary to imprecatory, employing the Hebrew interrogative מַה־יַּעֲשֶׂה־לְךָ ('what shall He do to you') as a formula of curse or judgment. The rhetorical question form — not seeking information but demanding divine retribution — appears in curses throughout the Old Testament (2 Samuel 16:9-10) and presupposes that God's judicial office includes punishing those who pervert language. The repetition of the curse formula in the second colon (וּמַה־יּוֹסִף־לְךָ) intensifies the demand, layering curse upon curse.

Voice

A psalmist asserting God's role as divine judge and calling upon that judicial authority to vindicate the innocent and punish the guilty speaker.

Significance

The imprecatory dimension of the Psalms — prayers calling down judgment on enemies — troubled many medieval and Reformation commentators. Scholars like Cassiodorus and later Calvin wrestled with how to reconcile such sentiments with Christian charity, ultimately arguing that such curses represent the psalmist's legitimate appeal to divine justice rather than personal vengeance, a distinction Paul develops in Romans 12:19.

1In my distress I cried to the LORD, and He answered me.

2Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.

3What will He do to you, and what will be added to you, O deceitful tongue?

4Sharp arrows will come from the warrior, with burning coals of the broom tree!

5Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar!

Read all of Psalm 120 — The first of fifteen pilgrimage songs. The journey to Jerusalem begins with a cry from a place of conflict. Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.