Psalms 56, 120, 140-142

Taming the tongue is a task no man can accomplish apart from God. The apostle James discusses this in part describing the tongue a "restless evil, full of deadly poison" because we stumble in many ways and unable in our own self-strength or ambition to keep our tongue or body from fault. Being filled with the Holy Spirit and choosing to walk each day in surrender and sanctification before the LORD the fruit of this is a quiet lifestyle and one marked by humility. This is echoed by David in Psalm 141 when he cries out to the LORD saying, 

Psalm 141:3-4 (NKJV) "Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicket works with men who work iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies."

This is a verbatim prayer worth reciting, because scripture is inspired by God and His words faithfully preserved by men, then there is no better way to pray in accordance with the will of God than to use the prayers found within the Bible. The interesting thing about asking God to keep watch over the door of one's lips is that the Hebrew word door only appears here in the entire Tanakh, what's most important about the symbolism of ones lips being a door is that it is a one-way door. The words we say we can truthfully never take them back, this becomes critical in agreements and covenants, for example the judge Jephthah and his vow to offer a burnt sacrifice of whatever comes to meet him when returning from battle - his only daughter met him. 

Jesus also rebuked the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Mark 7 by outlining and reinforcing David's psalm in that "it is what comes out of a person that defiles them... for it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come" out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. O LORD today I pray that you set a guard over the door of my mouth, may I speak the words that you give me to speak and do the things that you command me to do, to live as Jesus did: surrendered and fully obedient to your will and ways in spirit and in truth.

John 12:49 (NIV) "For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken."


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