PSALM 10:7–18 Words Can Kill
READ: PSALM 10:7–18 (JAMES 3:5–10) V. 7 “His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression.”
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Do you remember that old saying? It would be used on the school playground when children were teasing each other, pretending not to be hurt by the insults that came their way. But the truth is, we can be deeply wounded by the verbal abuse directed at us. And we have to admit that we’re not immune to throwing nasty words at others like stones in order to hurt them.
Tongues and mouths can be extremely harmful and hurtful weapons. Deceitful words, curses, and name-calling can be devastating. They can destroy friendships and marriages, dissolve joy, ruin a reputation, even destroy a life. As the Spirit says in James 3, the tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison (v. 8). People in church can also harm or kill each other with words. That’s the psalmist’s lament at the beginning of Psalm 10. How can God allow wicked Israelites to destroy the poor with their mouths like lions ambush their prey (v. 9)?
God’s Son in human flesh experienced the hateful and destructive tongues of the Jews when he was on earth. The leaders did their best to trap Jesus with their words with the intent to destroy: “So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor” (Luke 20:20). Christ was falsely accused of blasphemy by those leaders and was innocently condemned to death by Pilate.
The Lord endured it all in order to bring salvation for his people. Because he suffered all this abuse for our sin, we believers fight against the temptation to use our tongue to harm others, whether it be neighbours in the world, the church, or in our own families. But if we do sin with our mouths and truly repent, he will forgive us and enable us by his Spirit to use our tongues for good, not evil.
And when people close to us, fellow church members even, harm us by words, let us ask God for strength and ability to deal with that wisely—he will not disappoint (v. 17). Then we may also rest in the knowledge that the LORD sees everything and will call to account those who abuse his people (v. 15).
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