“Sons and daughters, come and listen and let me teach you the importance of trusting and fearing the Lord. Do you want to live a long, good life? Then watch your tongue! Keep your lips from lying. Turn from all known sin and spend you time in doing good. Try to live in peace with everyone; work hard at it.” (Psalm 34:11-14 TLB).
Great advice for the start of a new work-week. It’s simple. It’s direct. It works.
All of us know the damage the tongue can do to others. It amazes me how cruel we can be even in our humor! We castigate people, put them down, make cruel remarks, the Bible is right, “The tongue has the power of life and death . . . . ” (Proverbs 18:21 NIV).
That same tongue that can be so deadly to others really cuts both ways. When we destroy others with our tongues we also destroy ourselves. The Contemporary English Version renders verses 12 and 13 of our text, “Do you want to live and enjoy life? Then don’t say cruel things and don’t tell lies.” It’s sad but true, as simple as this advice is, few fail to follow it. The nature of sin is that we recognize so easily others who are guilty of negative talk, but we excuse it in ourselves!
“Living the good life” involves living in peace with people. Living in peace with people takes work–sometimes hard work. Living at peace begins with controlling our tongues.
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