Our tongues
Psalm 141:3 “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”
The prayer here, is for the Lord to guard our words…..to keep us from speaking before we think,…or speaking to flatter,…or injure.
To keep us mindful that our tongues can be as sharp as arrows….or that a word in due season for the Lord, is blessed.
Our words are our most readily available means for witness for the Lord. So what and how we say things, matter.
I have gone to see people and been talking, and a moments levity….can quench the Spirit of God….and an opportunity for real witness is gone.
I have also gone to see people and known the blessedness of having my words used by God to really open their hearts to Him.
Our words….and how we say them, matter.
James 3:2,5 “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!”
Sadly, we might say some careless word that will cause another to stumble…or in the least hinder their progress in Christ. How we wish we could take back some things we have said….and even if the person forgives us….praise the Lord….still it mars our witness, for a while.
“Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth….and keep the door of my lips.”
James 3:8-10 “But the tongue can no man tame; it is a n unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.”
In ourselves we can not tame our tongues.
But in the power of the Holy Spirit…by His grace, we can “watch”….and become so humbled to the Lord, that we learn to speak under the unction of the Spirit….all the time.
It is so easy to “slip” in tongue….and even when we are “right”….we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to manifest the right attitude in our speech:
Paul, arrested after the riot in Jerusalem…(after his speech where he acknowledges that God has sent the gospel to the Gentiles as well as the Jews.)
The Roman centurion needed to understand the accusation that the people made….so he let Paul be brought before the council.
Acts 23:1-3 “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth.
Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?”
Paul was right…he should not have been slapped…..yet, when shown that he too was wrong….he immediately apologizes.
Acts 23:4-5 “And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God’s high priest?
Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.”
Paul, then, relying on the Holy Spirit, “perceived” a division in the council….and “he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee,…of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.” (Acts 23:6)
That ended that trial…..
…..but Paul, through many “trials”…relied on the Lord to speak through him……before Felix, before Festus, before king Agrippa and queen Bernice, and before Caesar. (Philippians 4:22 saving some in Caesar’s household.)
2 Timothy 4:16-17 “At my first answer no man stood with me….
Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known….”
Paul’s ministry was his life and words……and so he asked that “utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make know the mystery of the gospel….that I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak”. (Eph.6:19-20)
Paul asked the Colossians to pray for them….(Col. 4:3-4,6) ”that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
Our words matter….what we say, and how we say them.
Paul learned to speak “not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
(1 Cor. 2:1-2, 4-5)
Paul learned “to set a watch before his mouth”….
So can we,….for the Spirit of God will help us….that we can “perceive” what to say….whatever trial comes up.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 