John Calvin Commentary Psalms 120:2

"Deliver my soul, O Jehovah, from lying lips, [And] from a deceitful tongue." — Psalms 120:2 (ASV)

O Jehovah! deliver my soul from the lip of falsehood. David now points out the kind of his affliction, declaring that he was burdened with false accusations. In charging his enemies with lying and falsehood, he asserts his own innocence of the crimes which they slanderously imputed to him.

His complaint therefore amounts to this: that as he was conscious of having committed no fault, he was assaulted by the wicked contrary to all law, human and divine, and that they caused him to be hated without his having given them any occasion for such injurious treatment. Deceitful tongues assault good and simple people in two ways: they either circumvent them by wiles and snares, or wound their reputation by slanders.

It is of the second way that the Prophet here complains. Now if David, who was endowed with such eminent virtue, and free from every mark of disgrace, and far removed from every wicked action, was yet assailed with insults and contempt, is it to be wondered at if the children of God in the present day suffer under false accusations, and that when they have endeavored to conduct themselves uprightly, they are nevertheless spoken ill of?

As they have the devil for their enemy, it is indeed impossible for them to escape being burdened by his lies. Indeed, we see that slanderous tongues did not spare even the Son of God—a consideration which should induce us to bear our condition more patiently when the wicked slander us undeservedly, since it is certain that we have here described the common lot of the whole Church.