Day 63 with David: Your words can get you in big trouble.

“I said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me.” I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good; And my sorrow was stirred up. My heart was hot within me; While I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭39:1-3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Moses had been given a daunting task. As you probably know, he led the children of Israel out of Egypt, through the desert, on the way to the Promised Land. Now, if you’ve ever had to deal with large groups of people, you understand the difficulty in trying to please everybody, while keeping things running smoothly. It was no exception in the case with Moses. The people seemed to be long of “lip” and short of faith; Moses had had his fill of their foolishness.

This time, they were crying out for water. So, Moses sought the Lord as to what to do. The Lord told him to take his rod and speak to the rock and enough water would come out of the rock to meet everyone’s needs. But, this whole thing had gotten the better of Moses, and as he stood in front of the rock, he disobeyed God.

“And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.””

‭‭Numbers‬ ‭20:10-12‬ ‭NKJV‬

In Psalm 106 we see a sad commentary of this event:

“At Meribah, too, they angered the Lord, causing Moses serious trouble. They made Moses angry, and he spoke foolishly.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭106:32-33‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It may seem unfair that the Lord punished Moses, given the stress and strain of his circumstances. But God had given Moses great power; and with great power, comes great responsibility. He could not let Moses get by with using that power in a disrespectful, disobedient way.

As I have shared with you at another time: not long ago, I said something stupid in jest, that really, only I heard. But the Lord was also listening; He didn’t like it. He gave me this cautionary instruction: “Either I am going to honor the words of your mouth, or I am not.” Trust me (as the Lord helps me), He won’t have to say that to me again. Yes, He is very serious about the words He speaks and expects His representatives to be just as serious about the words they speak.

And then there’s poor old Job who was greatly tried at the hand of Satan. In the midst of his suffering, he had basically been very “sassy” with the Lord, an act that may have lengthened his suffering; but definitely, came back to cause him shame, as is indicated in his words to the Lord:

“You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.”

‭‭Job‬ ‭42:3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

My grandfather Aram, a great prophet of the Lord, on more than one occasion gave some interesting advice. He said that before saying something (in referencing something that might have major impact), think about it 10 times. You see, that puts time between your impulse to say something, and it actually coming out of your mouth. This gives the Holy Spirit an opportunity to temper your words.

In our portion from Psalms today we see David talking about how hard he had tried to keep his mouth closed and keep from saying something that would displease the Lord. On this particular occasion he had apparently given vent to words he now regretted.

As my sons were growing up, I often reminded them, “You can always say something; you can never un-say something.” Words are so easy to say, yet may cause more trouble than you had ever anticipated.

Allow the Holy Spirit to help you guard your tongue. Additionally, don’t allow your thoughts to reinforce your angst to the point that you say something you will live to regret.

For today let us know and understand that David knew:

Your words can get you in big trouble.

#100dayswithdavid