Psalms 120 – 121
These are two very short Psalms which I did not pull a whole bunch of insight or even generated many questions, so excuse if this is a quick “Thought” today. Verse 120:2 asks God for deliverance:
Deliver me, O LORD,
from lying lips,
from a deceitful tongue.
I read this and wonder how many times people have prayed this. Unfortunately, unless we stay confined in our own little world this will never happen. Once you enter into the world you will find the “lying lips” are everywhere. You need not go any further than a used car lot. I remember our last Civic which was “perfect” and although not a used car lot, he was a dealer. It has been through some accidents, and needed a new head, catalytic converter and sensors.
Sure one would say I should have checked it out better, but it appears they pulled this one off the lot so not to sour the lots reputation. Oh well, maybe I should pray this prayer more often to protect me from people like that.
Verse 121:7 falls in a similar vein of thought:
The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
I don’t know anybody who this has happened to. No one is immune from evil in this world, even Jesus was tempted by Satan in his life on earth. We can ask to be delivered from evil, but realistically we will not be kept from it. This is a nice line to dwell on and hope for, but it’s something we need to realize is not a doctrinal truth.
One trap people get into reading the Psalms is they look at them as doctrinal truths. So you read a line like this and pray it, expecting to have all evil kept from your life. But in reality, life keeps moving and evil persists. This often causes one to backslide and feel the Bible is wrong.
Well you cannot do that! The Psalms are “examples” of prayers people have prayed, not doctrine to live by. Much like the Lord’s Prayer is a model; it is how we should pray and not necessarily truth. The Lord’s Prayer, which was given to us by God, is more realistic that many of the Psalms. We get hung up on the Bible being 100% true and should realize that “lying lips” and “evil” is all around us. We should pray for discernment more than isolation since that is more realistic.