1 In my distress, I cried to Yahweh. He answered me.
Free Grace note
He tells the outcome before the trouble: God answered. In my distress, I cried to Yahweh. He answered me. Before the psalmist describes a single problem, he announces the result: he cried, and God answered. That order is a quiet lesson in faith. The natural move is to analyze the trouble first and pray as a last resort. This psalm reverses it, taking the distress straight to the One who listens. This is the first of the Songs of Ascents, sung by pilgrims traveling up to Jerusalem, and it fittingly begins the journey with a cry that was heard. Someone burdened by slander or conflict may feel God is distant. Verse 1 answers that fear with a settled fact of experience: He answered me. The believer can carry every trouble to a God who hears, and can say so before the problem is even solved.
2 Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.
3 What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?
4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
5 Woe is me, that I live in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 My soul has had her dwelling too long with him who hates peace.
7 I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.
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