24 January 2008 Devotion for Today “Muzzle Mouth” Psalm 39:1-4

24 January 2008 Devotion for Today “Muzzle Mouth” Psalm 39:1-4

I believe it was author Mark Twain who once said “It is better to be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” There is certainly truth to be found in those words, and its biblical basis can be found in my devotional text today in Psalm 39:1-4

“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: ‘Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.”

Indeed the Psalmist says that we are all frail creatures- especially with regard to our tongues. There are times when we will open up our mouths, turn them on, and then just walk off and leave them. David says at times such as this, he wishes for a muzzle to be placed over his mouth. A muzzle is a strap or a bridle that is designed to keep an animal- like a dog’s- mouth closed so that he will not bark or bite. Our words may sound like barking to others, and they often will bite as well. But even when they do not, there are times when we are uncomfortable with the silence and feel the need to fill that void. Yet David, the Psalmist, wisely withheld the need to blurt something out at these moments, realizing that the wicked were before him. The wicked were the people who were looking for a moment to hear David say something out of the overflow of his emotions. These words are thoughts that we think aloud- most of the time we speak them without thinking them all the way through, and certainly without praying about them. The wicked, says David, use opportunities like this to turn our words around on us, bending them to fit their perceptions, and adding meanings that we did not mean when we said them. Before we know it, we have committed ourselves to something that we later wished we had not-all because we want to be seen saying something that will underscore our sense of self-importance.

One thing we know and that is if we are not made to account for what we say now, we will be made to account for it later. Jesus said in Matthew 12:36-37 “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Perhaps, after hearing this, buying a muzzle may not be such a bad idea!

Have a blessed day

Rev. Jeffery Russell
Devotion for Today
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC