THE PSALM 34 CHALLENGE – Day 13
You can join on any day – and memorize the Psalm at your own pace.
Today we add verse 13.
Psalm 34:13, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.”
Lesson 3 (vs. 13) – If we fear the LORD, it will change the way we talk.
Consider this: Remember, David is still teaching us what it means to fear the LORD. A foul mouth and a deceitful tongue reveal what a person is like, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). The tongue – small and unruly – is a muscular organ that has the power to destroy nations and has the power to speak words of eternal life. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).
A common New Year’s resolution is to diet and exercise so that our body is disciplined and under control. A better resolution would be to exercise one’s tongue so that it is disciplined and under the control of the Holy Spirit. The discipline of memorizing and applying Psalm 34 will move all of us closer to the mastery of the tongue! “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16). Today, let’s hear what James has to say about the tongue.
James 1:19-20 (NKJV)
19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
James 3:2-12 (NKJV)
2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
3 Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.
4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
My prayer today: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).
Psalm 34:13, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.”