Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things, Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” Psalm 12: 1-4, NKJV.
Dear God, please teach us how to speak in a way that will bring honor to You. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.
I am sure that some of you may have heard the term “charlatan” being used to describe someone who talks a lot. In the Republic of Panama, where I am from, this term is used to describe someone who boasts a lot – but has nothing to back his or her claims. Within this group they are also those who talk a lot – but say little. These people attract others by their smooth words. They are known for telling people what they want to hear – not necessarily the truth.
In our Scripture for today, the psalmist pleads with God for help against such people. As he looks around he notices that there is a need for honest men and women. They are a species in extinction. All that seems to be left are those, who through the dishonesty of their hearts, “speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.”
A distinctive characteristic of these people is that they take pride in the power of their words. Their “gift of speech” makes them feel invincible. Nothing or no one can stop them, “the tongue that speaks proud things, Who have said, ‘ “With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” ‘ ”
The attitude of this group of people bring this scene to my mind: “Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
So the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD” (Exodus 4: 10, 11)? (Emphasis provided).
How often we forget “in whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 28). How often we forget that without [Him] we can do nothing” (John 15: 5). How often we forget, even in doing His work, that it is ” ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4: 6), that the truth will triumph.
Not much has changed since the time the psalmist penned these words and the days in which we are living. I believe you will agree with me that one of the greatest needs in our world today, and even in our pulpits, is for men and women who will speak the truth under all circumstances, cost it what it may. Individuals who will not depend on their eloquence, but on God’s enabling, to speak His Word “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4: 2), for His glory.
May you and I be willing to be that man or woman!
Note: Title of devotional has been corrected, also some minor editing has been done.