This Psalm duly suits an Israelite, still (though about to leave it) an unwilling captive in Babylon, or the abodes of wickedness. The tongue, as here, is often noticed as the special offender against God and His people. Doeg, Shimei, the false witnesses (Psa. 12; Psa. 52) thus offended. And so will the last enemy (Jude 15-16) according to his type, the little horn (Dan. 7:25). But coals of juniper and the arrows of the mighty one (Christ—Rev. 19) await him; and the captive, though still in captivity, encourages the thought of this judgment upon his enemies. The citizen of Jerusalem may well utter the language of Psalm 120:6-7, while he is still in Babylon; for the one is God’s city, “the city of peace;” the other, man’s city, “the city of confusion.”
NOTE—The Jews themselves understand this Psalm as of the present captivity, of which that in Babylon was the sample or forerunner, as we know.