What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
Psalm 120:3 confronts the false tongue with judgment. The psalmist has already prayed, “Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue” (v.2). Now he turns from prayer to warning. The deceitful tongue that wounded others must itself answer to God. Verse 4 will give the fearful reply: “Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.”
“What shall be given unto thee?” The question is judicial. What reward belongs to the false tongue? What answer is fitting for the one who has used speech to deceive, accuse, flatter, injure, and mislead? Scripture often speaks this way of recompense: men receive according to their deeds. “The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward” (Proverbs 11:18).
The question also strips lying of its apparent advantage. A false tongue may gain something for a season: escape from blame, money, influence, sympathy, revenge, reputation, or power over another. But the psalmist asks what will finally be given to the liar. Temporary gain is a poor bargain when divine judgment follows.
This is how every temptation to lie should be tested. Not simply, What can this lie gain me now? but, What shall be given unto me for speaking it? A lie may protect a man from embarrassment today and expose him to judgment tomorrow. It may injure an enemy and wound the speaker more deeply. “A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape” (Proverbs 19:5).
“Or what shall be done unto thee.” The second question strengthens the first. The false tongue will not be answered with words only; God will bring judgment upon it. The next verse answers with sharp arrows and burning coals (v.4), and the rest of Scripture carries the warning to its final end. “All liars” shall have their part “in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). Again, outside the holy city are those who “loveth and maketh a lie” (Revelation 22:15). Lying is therefore no small fault of speech. A false tongue may prosper for a season, but if a man loves and practices lying without repentance, Scripture places his end among the damned.
The punishment fits the sin. The deceitful tongue shot words at others like weapons; now judgment returns upon it. Elsewhere the wicked “whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words” (Psalm 64:3). The mouth that made arrows of words will meet the arrows of judgment.
“Unto thee.” The judgment is personal. The psalmist addresses the false tongue as though it stood before the Judge. The lie cannot be separated from the liar who loved, formed, and spoke it. Men sometimes speak of falsehood as though words somehow escaped on their own, but God’s word holds the speaker accountable.
This personal address also destroys the excuse that everybody lies, exaggerates, flatters, or misrepresents. God does not judge mankind only in the mass. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). The deceitful tongue must answer for its own words.
“Thou false tongue.” The tongue is named by its character. It is not simply a tongue that once stumbled; it is false. The wording describes a tongue given to deceit, corresponding to the “deceitful tongue” of verse 2. Scripture often identifies men by the settled fruit of their speech: flattering lips, lying tongues, proud mouths, false witnesses, and deceitful tongues.
A false tongue says what is not true, but it may do so in many forms. It may invent a charge, repeat one carelessly, omit a fact needed for fairness, flatter for advantage, promise what it does not intend to perform, or arrange true details so the hearer reaches a false conclusion. Falsehood may wear careful words and still remain false before God.
The tongue is especially dangerous because it can strike at a distance. A sword reaches only those near enough to be cut; a lie may travel from house to house, church to church, city to city, or generation to generation. The victim may not even know what has been said until the damage is done. This helps explain why the psalm treats deceitful speech with such seriousness.
Yet the false tongue is not beyond God’s reach. It may speak secretly, whisper behind doors, hide behind anonymity, or deceive men successfully; Jehovah hears it all. “For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether” (Psalm 139:4). The liar may conceal the truth from men, but he cannot conceal the lie from God.
This verse therefore warns against judging speech only by its immediate effect. A lie may appear to work. The false witness may be believed. The flatterer may gain favour. The slanderer may turn others against an innocent man. But Psalm 120 asks the question the liar would rather avoid: What will God do with the false tongue?
Jesus gave the answer in principle: “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). If idle words are accounted for, deliberate falsehood certainly will be. Words matter because God hears them and because they reveal the heart from which they came.
There is also a warning here for those tempted to answer lies with lies. The psalmist did not become a false tongue because false tongues attacked him. He cried to the LORD for deliverance (v.2) and left judgment to God (vv.3-4). This is the safer path. The victim of deceit must not become deceitful in self-defense.
The verse also searches the saint personally. Before asking what God will do to someone else’s false tongue, ask whether your own speech is true. Have you repeated something you did not know? Have you strengthened a story beyond the facts? Have you left out what would have cleared another? Have you said privately what you would not defend openly? “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour” (Ephesians 4:25).
Jesus Christ is the perfect opposite of the false tongue. No guile was found in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22). False witnesses rose against Him, men twisted His words, and accusations were framed to condemn Him; yet He never answered deceit with deceit. Truth remained in His mouth while lies surrounded Him.
Psalm 120:3 therefore forces the false tongue to face its end. What shall be given to it? What shall be done to it? Verse 4 answers with sharp arrows and burning coals, and Revelation carries the sentence to the lake of fire. Let every liar tremble, every slanderer stop, every flatterer repent, and every saint love truth. False words may prosper briefly, but the God of truth hears them all, and unrepentant liars shall not escape His judgment.
What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
Psalm 120:3 confronts the false tongue with judgment. The psalmist has already prayed, “Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue” (v.2). Now he turns from prayer to warning. The deceitful tongue that wounded others must itself answer to God. Verse 4 will give the fearful reply: “Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.”
“What shall be given unto thee?” The question is judicial. What reward belongs to the false tongue? What answer is fitting for the one who has used speech to deceive, accuse, flatter, injure, and mislead? Scripture often speaks this way of recompense: men receive according to their deeds. “The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward” (Proverbs 11:18).
The question also strips lying of its apparent advantage. A false tongue may gain something for a season: escape from blame, money, influence, sympathy, revenge, reputation, or power over another. But the psalmist asks what will finally be given to the liar. Temporary gain is a poor bargain when divine judgment follows.
This is how every temptation to lie should be tested. Not simply, What can this lie gain me now? but, What shall be given unto me for speaking it? A lie may protect a man from embarrassment today and expose him to judgment tomorrow. It may injure an enemy and wound the speaker more deeply. “A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape” (Proverbs 19:5).
“Or what shall be done unto thee.” The second question strengthens the first. The false tongue will not be answered with words only; God will bring judgment upon it. The next verse answers with sharp arrows and burning coals (v.4), and the rest of Scripture carries the warning to its final end. “All liars” shall have their part “in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). Again, outside the holy city are those who “loveth and maketh a lie” (Revelation 22:15). Lying is therefore no small fault of speech. A false tongue may prosper for a season, but if a man loves and practices lying without repentance, Scripture places his end among the damned.
The punishment fits the sin. The deceitful tongue shot words at others like weapons; now judgment returns upon it. Elsewhere the wicked “whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words” (Psalm 64:3). The mouth that made arrows of words will meet the arrows of judgment.
“Unto thee.” The judgment is personal. The psalmist addresses the false tongue as though it stood before the Judge. The lie cannot be separated from the liar who loved, formed, and spoke it. Men sometimes speak of falsehood as though words somehow escaped on their own, but God’s word holds the speaker accountable.
This personal address also destroys the excuse that everybody lies, exaggerates, flatters, or misrepresents. God does not judge mankind only in the mass. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). The deceitful tongue must answer for its own words.
“Thou false tongue.” The tongue is named by its character. It is not simply a tongue that once stumbled; it is false. The wording describes a tongue given to deceit, corresponding to the “deceitful tongue” of verse 2. Scripture often identifies men by the settled fruit of their speech: flattering lips, lying tongues, proud mouths, false witnesses, and deceitful tongues.
A false tongue says what is not true, but it may do so in many forms. It may invent a charge, repeat one carelessly, omit a fact needed for fairness, flatter for advantage, promise what it does not intend to perform, or arrange true details so the hearer reaches a false conclusion. Falsehood may wear careful words and still remain false before God.
The tongue is especially dangerous because it can strike at a distance. A sword reaches only those near enough to be cut; a lie may travel from house to house, church to church, city to city, or generation to generation. The victim may not even know what has been said until the damage is done. This helps explain why the psalm treats deceitful speech with such seriousness.
Yet the false tongue is not beyond God’s reach. It may speak secretly, whisper behind doors, hide behind anonymity, or deceive men successfully; Jehovah hears it all. “For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether” (Psalm 139:4). The liar may conceal the truth from men, but he cannot conceal the lie from God.
This verse therefore warns against judging speech only by its immediate effect. A lie may appear to work. The false witness may be believed. The flatterer may gain favour. The slanderer may turn others against an innocent man. But Psalm 120 asks the question the liar would rather avoid: What will God do with the false tongue?
Jesus gave the answer in principle: “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). If idle words are accounted for, deliberate falsehood certainly will be. Words matter because God hears them and because they reveal the heart from which they came.
There is also a warning here for those tempted to answer lies with lies. The psalmist did not become a false tongue because false tongues attacked him. He cried to the LORD for deliverance (v.2) and left judgment to God (vv.3-4). This is the safer path. The victim of deceit must not become deceitful in self-defense.
The verse also searches the saint personally. Before asking what God will do to someone else’s false tongue, ask whether your own speech is true. Have you repeated something you did not know? Have you strengthened a story beyond the facts? Have you left out what would have cleared another? Have you said privately what you would not defend openly? “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour” (Ephesians 4:25).
Jesus Christ is the perfect opposite of the false tongue. No guile was found in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22). False witnesses rose against Him, men twisted His words, and accusations were framed to condemn Him; yet He never answered deceit with deceit. Truth remained in His mouth while lies surrounded Him.
Psalm 120:3 therefore forces the false tongue to face its end. What shall be given to it? What shall be done to it? Verse 4 answers with sharp arrows and burning coals, and Revelation carries the sentence to the lake of fire. Let every liar tremble, every slanderer stop, every flatterer repent, and every saint love truth. False words may prosper briefly, but the God of truth hears them all, and unrepentant liars shall not escape His judgment.