Thoughts for the Day

Prayer for Wisdom and Forgiveness

To the leader: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

I said, ‘I will guard my ways
that I may not sin with my tongue;
I will keep a muzzle on my mouth
as long as the wicked are in my presence.’
I was silent and still.
I held my peace to no avail;
my distress grew worse,
my heart became hot within me.
While I mused, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Many of us will have felt like David, particularly when listening to what we feel is nonsense being spouted by someone, particularly on television. How many times have we been forced to interject something like "But that's rubbish!" Well David has a similar problem. In his prayer he asks God’s help in not speaking foolishly or sinfully when those who could turn his words into disloyalty to God are present. As the famous preacher, Spurgeon, once said "The firmest believers are exercised with unbelief, and it would be doing the devil’s work with a vengeance if they were to publish abroad all their questionings and suspicions.” But despite David's promise to "muzzle" his mouth and his tongue, his anger at what is being said boils within him and he has to speak out.

If that happens to us a number of things can occur. We can erupt, uncaring of what we say, using any words that come into our head to put the other person down. In the heat of the moment we can ridicule their arguments or belittle them. Indeed we can even use some choice swear words. But worse still we can 'piously' bring God into the argument, eg "God help us all if you get your way!" we spout righteously.

At other times we can fail to muzzle our mouth when we are shocked and dismayed. In video games youngster will constantly shout, "O God!", or worse still "Jesus" when suddenly faced with threats from horrendous looking monsters that appear for a boss fight. While in home makeover programmes, the opposite is true with participants shouting joyfully "Oh God! It's amazing!" at seeing the re-ordering of their house. All of us have occasion to guard our mouths and tongues (and possibly our thoughts), at times!

Almighty God,
may we so value You
that we never utter Your name in a trivial way,
but reserve it for times of prayer and worship.
May we never forget the power of a name,
and the responsibility of honouring your personal name,
of Yahweh*, as given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Amen.

* Meaning "I am who I am". (Exodus 3.14)