What does it mean that all men are liars (Psalm 116:11)?

"I believed, therefore I spoke." This is a proper order. Speaking ought to always come from faith. But it is added, "I am greatly afflicted," for considering the condition of things around us from the viewpoint of faith will surely cause the soul to be afflicted (v. 10). Connected with this too is verse 11, "I said in my alarm, All men are liars;" (a more accurate translation than "I said in my haste"). It was not haste at all, for faith was being exercised, and there is no doubt about the fact that all men are liars. Can anyone dare to say he has never lied? But such a consideration is alarming and certainly sufficient to alert us all to the need of being delivered from such guilt.

The fourth section; though only of two verses, is as important as it is emphatic. Experience has shown absolutely what the psalmist believes as a most certain truth, that all confidence in man is vain. "I said in my haste to escape" — not that it was, as we say, a mere hasty speech, for it is this in which he is so confident that he speaks it out — "all men are liars."

Note another thing in this psalm, the feeling of the failure of all men. It is not exactly "in my haste," but in my anxious pressure of alarm, such as would make man flee in haste. This gave the consciousness that man could not be relied on. It was not simple faith or sound judgment this, but there are moments when God makes us feel that we cannot rely on man but only on Him. Often we have comfort from men. "God, who comforteth them who are cast down, comforted me by the coming of Titus." But we must not rely on man. Hence there are moments when we have to say "all men are liars," and we are cast on the Lord. How truly the Lord was so, I need not say; yet in grace He could say to His disciples "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations." But there was an hour when He must say, "one of you shall betray me," and feel it; and "all ye shall be offended because of me this night, and shall leave me alone," That shewed His perfection. It teaches us to lean on the Lord only, not diminishing cordial confidence and openness of heart, but teaching to rely on God. Unhindered joy will come afterwards. But in all trouble the Lord thinks of us.

Moreover, confidence in the Lord opens his mouth to witness to the Lord; “I believed, therefore have I spoken” (2 Cor. 4:13). If his affliction drew out his confidence in the Lord, it also destroyed his confidence in man, as such. In his haste, or “agitation,” he had said “All men are liars.”

There are moments when God makes us feel that we cannot rely on man but only on Him. Often we have comfort from men. "God, that comforts those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus." But we must not rely on man. Hence there are moments when we have to say "all men are liars," and we are cast on the Lord.

The next verse in Psalm 116 is, "I was greatly afflicted; I said in my haste, All men are liars." Everybody was against him, and in the pressure of it he said, "All men are liars." It should be, "I said in my anguish or distress," in the sense of the pressure upon him; and then it may apply to the Lord; but, certainly, I should not apply it to Him if it were, "I said in my haste." In the Psalms, except in a very few, you must always first take the remnant in, but sometimes Christ will quote a passage which does not at all apply to Himself in its next clause. Thus, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit," is followed by, "Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth" (Psalm 31:5), but this would not do. It was necessary to bring Christ in if any blessing were to be given to the remnant. We find the remnant in Psalms 1 and 2 as an introduction. In Psalm 1 they come with judgment; in Psalm 2 with the King in Zion, and they are called upon to trust Him. In some of the Psalms we have direct prophecy of Christ, but in spirit He is connected with them all.

Psalm 116 celebrates this deliverance when they were at the very point of death. Jehovah had heard them, and they would walk before the Lord in the land of the living. In this view it is a continual recital of the gracious mercy of Jehovah: they were brought low and He helped them. It drew out their love to Him. Such was Jehovah's character. He preserves the simple. The soul so sorely tried could return to its rest. The death of His saints was precious in His sight; and now, before all His people, in the courts of Jehovah's house, in the midst of Jerusalem, he would pay the vows made in his distress when he called on Jehovah. He would offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. The quotation of the apostle shows how these psalms can be used as containing holy principles of life for every saint. In spite of suffering and trial, trust in Jehovah opened the mouth of the believer. The passage does not apply to Paul, nor did he say in his haste that all men were liars, though there be something like it in "all seek their own;" but the general and important principle the apostle can adopt. The word, translated "haste," is not haste in the sense of moral defect, hastiness, but in distress — rather sudden distress or alarm from the pressure of circumstances, and hence hasting away.

Here we see the loving-kindness of Jehovah (Who is therefore loved) in delivering the simple ones, the righteous remnant from under the shadow of death that oppressed them. But the truth of this habitually applies to the suffering Christian (2 Cor. 4), and not merely at a special time or Jacob's hour, when be is to be delivered out of it. The "haste" is not carnal precipitancy, but of such alarm as would make one hurry away at once. Comfort comes, but Jehovah is trusted in faith, which is better still. The end is praise of Jah.

Psalm 116 voices the sentiments of faith, just as God's fresh deliverance is being experienced. Still viewing the Psalms from the prophetic standpoint, we may see in verse 3 an allusion to the sorrows of the great tribulation, when the godly had been brought down to the very gates of death and "hell," or "Sheol." Looking back on that terrible hour, the confession has to be made, "I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, [i.e., alarm or agitation] All men are liars" (verses 10, 11). Now however, the speaker is delivered from death, from tears, from falling (verse 8).

Verses 10, 11 seem strikingly to express the deep emotions of the soul of Jesus when, from the midst of His "great affliction," He lifted up His heart in unabated trust to God, though disappointment and dismay were about His lonely path on every side (Matt. 11:16-26; Mark 6:6). The experience which He gathered for Himself (although He was no stranger, as the Maker of His creatures, to the true condition of His now corrupted work) of what was in the heart of man, pressed sorely and with weary weight upon a heart whose chief desire was to bless, but which could only bless with truth. But none were found to welcome love in truth. The hearts of those who would have worshipped for gain's sake (John 6:26; Jude 16), the visible power which wrought miraculously works of goodness in their sight, were hardened into stone against the voice of Jesus, when He spake the words of God (John 3:34; 6:26, 52, 60). All men were liars when, by contact with the only truth, the secrets of their hearts were brought to light.*