"Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: keep the door of my lips." (KJV)
"Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips." (NIV) I have never really paid much attention to this statement in Psalm 14l in previous readings. This time around it really grabbed my attention. You will never know how many times in my seventy three years that I have needed this scripture. Many times I have said to myself, "shut my mouth." Now, don't you start feeling self-righteous about me, because I imagine that, if you are honest, you will confess the same thing. If you feel no need to confess that, God bless you. But haven't you said at some time or other, "I don't believe I said that"? While I'm confessing, let me tell you that I have said that to myself in the pulpit. This was particularly true in my younger years. Sometimes we say things off of the top of our heads that we wish we hadn't said. Wouldn't it be nice if we could reel words back to our mouths like the fisherman reels his lure back to the boat? That will never happen. Once a word is said it is in play and we can't take it out of play. I am glad that I have learned over the years to watch what I say and really and truly "shut my mouth." Oh! that more people would do that! James wrote in James 3:8b: "(The tongue) is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." And we must remember that our words can be just as poisonous as anyone else's. That's why we need to say with the psalmist, "Lord, shut my mouth." (Another Beauchamp translation....) You see, the Lord wants to control our tongues. He wants to tame our words so that the words we say will help people instead of hurting them. As Christians, we should pray that the words that come out of our mouths be said in love and that our words should be helpful. Even negative words can be spoken in love and can be helpful. One of the most helpful things that was ever said to me were spoken by a man named Bert Phillips from Climax, Georgia and a member of the Pine Forest Baptist Church. This was when I was a very young preacher. He saw me in Climax one day and he and I struck up a conversation. In the course of the conversation he said, "My wife and I think that you will be a good preacher. We like to hear you preach. The only thing that we see wrong is that when you read the Bible from the pulpit, you read it too fast and it is hard to follow you." (not verbatim but close) Did you notice how he handled this young preacher? He bragged on me first and then told me something that I needed to correct. His words did not hurt, because they were seasoned with love. Yes, I slowed down in my public Bible reading because of what he said. This has been a help to me for over fifty years of public Bible reading. This was all because a fine Christian man helped a young preacher and did not have to say "shut my mouth." He could have said, "Beauchamp, one thing I see wrong with you is that you read the Bible too fast. Why don't you slow it down?" Being the young "whipper- snapper" that I was in those days, I probably would have taken it in the wrong spirit. I think of this conversation when I want to say something ugly, and I say, "Lord, shut my mouth." I hope that you are adept at saying this too. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
James
7/29/2012 12:46:56 am
AMEN!!!
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