The Great Tongue Tamer (Psalm 141:3-4)

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil. —Psalm 141:3-4

Words are a means to much sinning. James, the brother of Jesus, says, “How great a forest is set a blaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness… For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:5-8).

How can we suppress this plague of sinning with our lips? More importantly, how do we root it out? First we must understand that our lips are a doorway.

The doorway of the heart

Our minds and hearts are constantly busy with thoughts, judgments, intentions, delights, hopes, musings, meditations, dreams, and strategies. Our lips are a doorway for the expression of these internal movements. We learn this not only from David, in Psalm 141:3, but also from Jesus, in Luke 6:45: “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” The problem, as we have already seen, is that many of these internal movements are sinful and not God honoring. Our lips bear witness to the shameful reality of our sinful hearts. What's more, our words don’t only reveal our sin, they multiply our sin. Our lips add an evil expression to the already existing evil intention.

The first line of defense against a sinning tongue is to close the door of our lips. But the tongue is not easily tamed and the door of our lips is too heavy to shut on our own. We are desperate for God to shut the door for us. God must keep our words pure and supply us with the necessary self-control. This self-control is not self-generated, it is a gift from God. God is the great tongue tamer!

New inclinations

Praise God for the grace He gives in progressive sanctification. He shuts immoveable doors and tames untamable tongues. He fixes mouths so that the unkind or imprudent words are not given a voice! But even if the doorway is shut and the darker intentions of our heart are not revealed by our lips, we are still defiled by the evil inclination of our hearts. Though it is mute, it is not dead.

Here we come against our greatest problem. If the door of our lips is immoveable and if our tongue is untamable, then the inclination of our heart cannot be shackled by even the strongest legion. Inclinations are not simple actions that can be modified or corrected. Inclinations are the natural impulse of our desire—a reflex as natural as breathing.

How can a heart inclined towards evil ever be changed? It can't—apart from the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Through His work on the cross, God not only tames tongues but He guides hearts . He kills sinful desires and creates godly ones. He changes our natural impulse. He enlarges our hearts so that we can run in the way of His commandments (Psalm 119:32).

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