Rescue Me
They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Psalm 140:3 · Berean Standard Bible
David compares their words to snake venom—what comes out of their mouths is poisonous and deadly, not just insulting.
In the ancient Near East, snakes represented sudden, hidden danger. David is saying that these men's words are just as deadly and unpredictable as a viper's strike. They use language as a weapon, spreading lies and curses that damage him.
David, now focusing on how these enemies attack—through their words and curses.
The Bible takes words seriously as real forces for good or evil. Proverbs constantly warns about destructive speech, and Jesus teaches that what comes out of our mouths reveals what's in our hearts. David experienced how words could poison relationships and reputations.
Through vivid animal imagery, the psalmist depicts his enemies' speech as inherently venomous and lethal, equating their words with snake toxins that cause death.
The viper (Hebrew: pethen) appears throughout Scripture as a symbol of malicious deception; Jesus himself employs this image in Matthew 23:33 when addressing the Pharisees. The sharpening of tongues (leshonoth shafu) suggests deliberate cultivation of rhetorical weaponry—not careless slander but calculated calumny designed to destroy the psalmist's reputation and safety.
The psalmist, drawing upon common ancient Israelite wisdom conventions that equate destructive speech with lethal poison.
This connects to Proverbs' extensive meditation on the tongue's power (Proverbs 12:18, 21:6) and anticipates James 3's New Testament development of how speech reveals the heart's corruption—establishing an unbroken scriptural concern that words are not mere sounds but moral forces with ultimate consequences.
1Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men. Protect me from men of violence,
2who devise evil in their hearts and stir up war all day long.
3They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips.
4Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked. Keep me safe from men of violence who scheme to make me stumble.
5The proud hide a snare for me; the cords of their net are spread along the path, and lures are set out for me.
Read all of Psalm 140 — Violent men plot evil. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent's. David prays for deliverance — and trusts that God maintains the cause of the afflicted.
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