“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies!”
Devotional - Luke Humphrey
The book of James makes it very clear that the human tongue is an incredibly dangerous organ.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3:5–8)
Each one of us carries around in our mouths the ability to destroy those we interact with on a daily basis. We speak words of fire and set ablaze those around us. We utter poisonous barbs and paralyze those closest to us.
And there is a reason why no one can tame the tongue: because no human being can tame the human heart. After all, as Jesus said, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matt. 12:34)
And this is the connection that David makes in Psalm 141 and this is how we can use this verse to help us in the fight of faith. David is praying to God. And he prays specifically that God would set a guard over his tongue and over his heart.
When we stop to meditate up on this text we can see the radical implications that it carries: David need’s God’s grace to guard his heart. David does not trust himself to love the right things or to have the right desires. He knows that his heart could be inclined to evil and that he is powerless to change it on his own. So he prays. He asks that God would work a miraculous work of grace and keep his heart from being inclined to evil; that God would be the one who protects his tongue from uttering destructive words.
No human being can tame the tongue and no human being can tame the heart. But God can. There is no aspect of our lives that are “off limits” to him. And this is good news because it means that he can help us when we feel most powerless over our own desires.
So, if you find yourself consistently struggling with sinful desires or speaking sinful words, join David in praying that God would work in grace to protect and preserve you at a heart level. He has the power and the grace to do it.
“Can anyone keep the law of God perfectly?
Since the fall, no mere human has been able to keep the law of God perfectly, but consistently breaks it in thought, word, and deed.”
Fighter Verses
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New City Catechism
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