Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo
Read

Psalm 140:3

They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper’s poison is under their lips. Selah.

1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Deliver me, LORD, from evil men. Preserve me from violent men:
2those who devise mischief in their hearts. They continually gather themselves together for war.
3They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper’s poison is under their lips. Selah.
4LORD, keep me from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent men who have determined to trip my feet.
5The proud have hidden a snare for me, they have spread the cords of a net by the path. They have set traps for me. Selah.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →
← Psalm 140:2Psalm 140:4 →
Notice

Sharpened tongues and viper’s poison portray speech as a means of harm, within David’s plea for God to protect him from violent people.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What kinds of speech would you describe as poison, and what makes that image fit?

Write on this

How does the surrounding plea for protection shape your reading of these sharpened tongues?

Write on this

What would you want to name before God about the harm words can cause?

Write on this
Connect

Where else Scripture says this

10 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
James 3:8but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.Both texts describe the tongue through poison, naming the grave harm human speech can carry.
Romans 3:13“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.”Romans repeats the psalm’s picture of viper poison under human lips as it describes deceitful speech.
Psalm 31:20In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.Both passages treat human speech as a threat; Psalm 140 seeks protection, while Psalm 31 describes shelter in God’s presence.
James 3:6And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is …Psalm 140 uses poison and James uses fire to portray the tongue’s capacity to cause harm.
Psalm 58:4Their poison is like the poison of a snake, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear,Both psalms compare the danger posed by hostile people to the poison of a snake.
2 Corinthians 11:3But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.Both passages use a serpent to picture danger: poisoned speech in the psalm, deception threatening devotion to Christ in Corinthians.
Proverbs 23:32In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.Both passages use snakes and vipers to describe harm through the concrete images of biting or poison.
Psalm 10:7His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.Both locate danger in the mouth, describing poison under the lips or mischief under the tongue.
Jeremiah 9:5Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves committing iniquity.Sharpened tongues in Psalm 140 and tongues taught to lie in Jeremiah portray deliberate preparation for harmful speech.
Psalm 57:4My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.Both psalms describe threatening people through sharp tongues, using a serpent in Psalm 140 and a sword in Psalm 57.
Where this verse fits

Work conflict. injustice and anger. broken friendship.

What the Bible says about anger →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 140:3–4 aloud, asking God for protection

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

David names the poison in his enemies’ words as he asks God for protection. There is room in prayer for an honest account of harm.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 140:3. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 140 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).