I am in favor of peace; but when I speak, they want war.
I am for peace. Properly, "I am peace"; desirous of peace, peaceful, forbearing, —in fact, peace itself. But when I speak, they are for war. My kindest words appear to provoke them, and they are at daggers drawn at once. Nothing pleases them; if I am silent they count me morose, and if I open my mouth they cavil and controvert.
The psalmist here complains of the bad neighbourhood into which he was driven; and some apply the two foregoing verses to this: "What shall the deceitful tongue give, what shall it do to those that lie open to it? What shall a man get by living among such malicious deceitful men? Nothing but sharp arrows and coals of juniper," all the mischiefs of a false and spiteful tongue, Psa 57:4.
Commenting on Psalm 120:5-7
I [am for] peace: but when I speak, they [are] for war. (g) He declares what he means by Meshech and Kedar, that is, the Israelites who had degenerated from their godly fathers, and hated and contended against the faithful.