Psalm 39: Muzzle

Forgive me, it’s not my intention to offend anyone from the very beginning, but we talk too much, all of us. We believe we need to say what’s on our mind, that we have the right to share our heart and that we deserve to be heard. We listen enough to plan our response and we crave the last word. We talk too much. The Bible has a fair amount to say about our excessive talking. James tells us to be slow to speak and quick to listen. Ecclesiastes tells us to use few words when we come before God. Jesus said, in Matthew, not to pray with “vain repetitions” and here in Psalm 39 David chose to “guard his mouth with a muzzle”. None of these passages are telling us not to speak, but all of them are telling us to speak less, that there is something far more important than being heard, it’s learning to hear.

I’ve always been fascinated by something Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 16, when He was preparing the disciples for His departure and the Spirit’s infilling. He said, “when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak . . .”. When we speak of the Holy Spirit, we are speaking of God Himself. There is no difference between the Father, the Son and the Spirit, but there is deference; while they are equal in power and united in every possible way, there is submission to each other—not as three God’s who make up One, but One God who ever lives as three persons. The Godhead is a mystery, but in it we see great beauty not only of God Himself, but in how we have been made in His image. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit—God Himself—would lead us into all truth, “for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak”. The word “for” reveals where the Holy Spirit’s leadership comes from. He won’t lead us into all truth because He knows the truth or because He’s empowered to lead; He will lead us into all truth because He has chosen to listen. Notice this, Jesus puts the emphasis on the Holy Spirit’s ability to listen, not on His anointing to speak. Speaking without listening is something that the Holy Spirit does not do.

The Holy Spirit, who Jesus promised would be “another helper”, literally meaning “a helper identical to me”, is not only listening to Jesus, He’s following Jesus’ example. In John 12:49 Jesus said, “For I do not speak on My own, but the Father who sent Me commanded Me to say all that I have spoken.” Earlier in John 5, Jesus had said that He didn’t do what pleased Him, He didn’t follow His own desires or impulses, but He watched the Father and only did what He saw the Father doing. Here in John 12, Jesus was saying, that He held His peace, He bit His tongue, to use David’s words He “guarded His mouth with a muzzle”, choosing to listen rather than speak, to prioritize hearing the Father over being heard by those around Him. Speaking is important, but hearing is paramount. If the tongue has the power of life and death, as Proverbs 18:21 says, then we should say less and listen more, we should be sure of what we are hearing so that we can be correct in what we are saying. If we are going to be in step with the Spirit as He has followed Jesus’ example, we are going to have to say less and listen, much, much, more.

Psalm 39 addresses an issue that David took seriously that we sometimes overlook. David wrote that he would guard his ways to protect against saying something sinful, that he would guard his mouth with a muzzle “so long as the wicked are in my presence”. David was careful about what he said in the presence of sinners. He knew himself, knew his strengths and his weaknesses and so he took precautions to not allow his words to ever diminish God’s glory. Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth, but then He asked this question, “but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” The question should make us take pause, our influence can be lost, our effectiveness can be put into peril, our ability to be used by God can be undermined by our inability to guard our tongues. Jesus continued with a statement that should become the muzzle we put on our mouths, salt that loses it’s saltiness “is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot.” Are the words we are choosing to say revealing God’s glory? Are they reflecting the character of God? Are they following the example of Jesus?

If the One who “was the Word” chose to control His words, how much more should we? If the Spirit who literally inspired “the Word of God” chooses to listen and only speak what He hears, how much more should we? If David, recognizing his frailty and weakness, believed that speaking his mind or telling it like he saw it, in the presence of sinners, could take glory from God rather than shining it on Him, how much more careful must we be? The good news is this, there is a muzzle that can control our tongues and guard our hearts, it’s a simple prayer found in Psalm 19:14, a prayer that we can and probably should pray before and during every opportunity for conversation that we ever have, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” We will never have to fear saying the wrong thing, if we will reckon to say nothing until we have heard from the One who is right in all things.