Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
Psalm 7:14 exposes the inward birth of wicked speech. David has trusted Jehovah with his cause under persecution and accusation (v.1). The title itself connects the psalm with “the words of Cush the Benjamite,” so speech is already part of the trouble. Now David traces evil backward from what finally appears: falsehood is brought forth because mischief was first conceived in a heart labouring with iniquity. The lie is the child of an evil purpose.
“Behold.” The word demands attention. God wants the reader to look carefully at how wickedness develops. Falsehood does not appear from nowhere. Before the mouth speaks, something has already happened within. Jesus later taught the same order: “those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart” (Matthew 15:18).
“He travaileth.” David uses the figure of childbirth. Travail is labour bringing something to birth. The wicked man is not passive toward his evil. He carries it, works upon it, develops it, and finally produces it. Sin grows within before it appears without.
The figure makes wickedness look as laborious as it really is. Men plan accusations, rehearse excuses, arrange facts, choose wording, conceal contrary evidence, and determine how a story should sound. Truth is often simple; deceit may require continual labour to maintain it. “He travaileth with iniquity.”
“With iniquity.” Iniquity is unrighteousness, man turning from God’s way to his own: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). In fallen man it is present from conception, for David confessed, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). Here that inward iniquity is active and productive, for it proceeds out of the heart (Mark 7:21-23).
This is important because the final lie is not the whole problem. The mouth is revealing something deeper. Falsehood comes naturally from a heart already turned away from truth. Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, the cure for lying cannot stop with polished speech; the heart itself must be governed by God.
“And hath conceived mischief.” The figure advances. Iniquity conceives a particular evil purpose. “Mischief” is harm intended or devised against another. The man does not only possess inward corruption; he turns that corruption toward injury.
Scripture often joins mischief to thought and planning. “An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations” is among the things the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:18). Micah pronounces woe upon those “that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds” (Micah 2:1). Before the hand acts or the tongue speaks, the heart has already been busy.
This clause also shows why motive matters. Two men may say similar words, yet one speaks to help and the other to injure. God sees the conceived mischief behind the sentence. Men hear the statement; Jehovah knows the design.
“And brought forth.” What was inward now becomes outward. Conception leads to birth. The wicked thought has matured enough to appear in action and speech. Sin cherished secretly does not remain safely contained. James gives the same progression: “when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:15).
This should warn against entertaining evil thoughts because they seem private. The heart is a nursery for words and deeds. Resentment rehearsed inwardly may become slander. Envy may become accusation. Fear may become a lie. Pride may become boasting. Mischief tolerated in conception may soon be brought forth before men.
“Falsehood.” This is the offspring. In the setting of Psalm 7, the word is especially forceful because David is answering hostile accusation. The wicked man’s inward iniquity and conceived mischief finally produce false speech.
Falsehood is more than an accidental mistake. It is that which is contrary to truth and presented so as to deceive. It may be an outright lie, a distorted report, a false accusation, a partial account arranged to leave an untrue impression, or an invented motive assigned to another. The form changes; the child remains falsehood.
This is exactly why slander is so serious. A malicious false report may begin in an evil heart, be shaped by a desire to harm, and then be delivered through the mouth as though it were truth. Proverbs says, “A false witness that speaketh lies” is among the things Jehovah hates (Proverbs 6:19). Psalm 7:14 shows the process that may stand behind such speech.
The verse therefore teaches us not to judge evil speech only by its surface. Ask what produced it. Was truth sought carefully, or was mischief conceived first and words afterward shaped to serve it? Did the speaker investigate honestly, or decide whom he wished to hurt and then build the accusation? Wicked purpose often chooses its facts after choosing its victim.
The next verses show the end of this process. “He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made” (v.15). Then, “His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate” (v.16). Falsehood may wound another for a season, but God can turn the whole device back upon the deceiver.
This agrees with a repeated rule of Scripture: “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein” (Proverbs 26:27). Haman prepared a gallows for Mordecai and was hanged upon it himself (Esther 7:9-10). Men may devise mischief cleverly, but they cannot keep God from judging the device.
David’s response is therefore important. He does not answer conceived mischief by conceiving his own. He began the psalm with trust: “O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust” (v.1). He places the cause before the righteous Judge instead of borrowing the enemy’s methods. False accusation must not teach the righteous to lie in return.
The Lord Jesus Christ suffered the fullest measure of such falsehood. His enemies sought false witness against Him, and many bare false witness, though their testimony did not agree together (Mark 14:55-59). Their mischief had been conceived before the accusations were formed: they wanted Him put to death and sought words that would serve that end. Yet “neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). Their falsehood exposed them; His truth remained pure.
Psalm 7:14 therefore gives the anatomy of malicious falsehood. Iniquity labours, mischief is conceived, and falsehood is brought forth. Let the saint stop sin early, in the heart, before it reaches the mouth. Refuse the evil purpose, reject the imagined injury, and speak truth. And when others bring forth falsehood against you, do what David did: trust Jehovah, keep your own mouth clean, and leave the pit and its maker to the righteous Judge.
Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
Psalm 7:14 exposes the inward birth of wicked speech. David has trusted Jehovah with his cause under persecution and accusation (v.1). The title itself connects the psalm with “the words of Cush the Benjamite,” so speech is already part of the trouble. Now David traces evil backward from what finally appears: falsehood is brought forth because mischief was first conceived in a heart labouring with iniquity. The lie is the child of an evil purpose.
“Behold.” The word demands attention. God wants the reader to look carefully at how wickedness develops. Falsehood does not appear from nowhere. Before the mouth speaks, something has already happened within. Jesus later taught the same order: “those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart” (Matthew 15:18).
“He travaileth.” David uses the figure of childbirth. Travail is labour bringing something to birth. The wicked man is not passive toward his evil. He carries it, works upon it, develops it, and finally produces it. Sin grows within before it appears without.
The figure makes wickedness look as laborious as it really is. Men plan accusations, rehearse excuses, arrange facts, choose wording, conceal contrary evidence, and determine how a story should sound. Truth is often simple; deceit may require continual labour to maintain it. “He travaileth with iniquity.”
“With iniquity.” Iniquity is unrighteousness, man turning from God’s way to his own: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). In fallen man it is present from conception, for David confessed, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). Here that inward iniquity is active and productive, for it proceeds out of the heart (Mark 7:21-23).
This is important because the final lie is not the whole problem. The mouth is revealing something deeper. Falsehood comes naturally from a heart already turned away from truth. Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, the cure for lying cannot stop with polished speech; the heart itself must be governed by God.
“And hath conceived mischief.” The figure advances. Iniquity conceives a particular evil purpose. “Mischief” is harm intended or devised against another. The man does not only possess inward corruption; he turns that corruption toward injury.
Scripture often joins mischief to thought and planning. “An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations” is among the things the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:18). Micah pronounces woe upon those “that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds” (Micah 2:1). Before the hand acts or the tongue speaks, the heart has already been busy.
This clause also shows why motive matters. Two men may say similar words, yet one speaks to help and the other to injure. God sees the conceived mischief behind the sentence. Men hear the statement; Jehovah knows the design.
“And brought forth.” What was inward now becomes outward. Conception leads to birth. The wicked thought has matured enough to appear in action and speech. Sin cherished secretly does not remain safely contained. James gives the same progression: “when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:15).
This should warn against entertaining evil thoughts because they seem private. The heart is a nursery for words and deeds. Resentment rehearsed inwardly may become slander. Envy may become accusation. Fear may become a lie. Pride may become boasting. Mischief tolerated in conception may soon be brought forth before men.
“Falsehood.” This is the offspring. In the setting of Psalm 7, the word is especially forceful because David is answering hostile accusation. The wicked man’s inward iniquity and conceived mischief finally produce false speech.
Falsehood is more than an accidental mistake. It is that which is contrary to truth and presented so as to deceive. It may be an outright lie, a distorted report, a false accusation, a partial account arranged to leave an untrue impression, or an invented motive assigned to another. The form changes; the child remains falsehood.
This is exactly why slander is so serious. A malicious false report may begin in an evil heart, be shaped by a desire to harm, and then be delivered through the mouth as though it were truth. Proverbs says, “A false witness that speaketh lies” is among the things Jehovah hates (Proverbs 6:19). Psalm 7:14 shows the process that may stand behind such speech.
The verse therefore teaches us not to judge evil speech only by its surface. Ask what produced it. Was truth sought carefully, or was mischief conceived first and words afterward shaped to serve it? Did the speaker investigate honestly, or decide whom he wished to hurt and then build the accusation? Wicked purpose often chooses its facts after choosing its victim.
The next verses show the end of this process. “He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made” (v.15). Then, “His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate” (v.16). Falsehood may wound another for a season, but God can turn the whole device back upon the deceiver.
This agrees with a repeated rule of Scripture: “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein” (Proverbs 26:27). Haman prepared a gallows for Mordecai and was hanged upon it himself (Esther 7:9-10). Men may devise mischief cleverly, but they cannot keep God from judging the device.
David’s response is therefore important. He does not answer conceived mischief by conceiving his own. He began the psalm with trust: “O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust” (v.1). He places the cause before the righteous Judge instead of borrowing the enemy’s methods. False accusation must not teach the righteous to lie in return.
The Lord Jesus Christ suffered the fullest measure of such falsehood. His enemies sought false witness against Him, and many bare false witness, though their testimony did not agree together (Mark 14:55-59). Their mischief had been conceived before the accusations were formed: they wanted Him put to death and sought words that would serve that end. Yet “neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). Their falsehood exposed them; His truth remained pure.
Psalm 7:14 therefore gives the anatomy of malicious falsehood. Iniquity labours, mischief is conceived, and falsehood is brought forth. Let the saint stop sin early, in the heart, before it reaches the mouth. Refuse the evil purpose, reject the imagined injury, and speak truth. And when others bring forth falsehood against you, do what David did: trust Jehovah, keep your own mouth clean, and leave the pit and its maker to the righteous Judge.