The most dangerous weapon in the world requires no license, is accessible to almost every person you know, is used wildly without discretion, is regulated by no government, and causes damage to uncounted millions on a daily basis. The Bible calls it a “restless evil” (James 3:8). It’s the human tongue.
Contrary to public opinion, the most dangerous thing in the world isn’t a nuclear bomb or a tiger’s maw or an assault rifle. As dangerous as those are, the most dangerous is your tongue and mine. Earning money and developing physical strength will never give us more power than when we learned to speak. Therefore, the Bible (which is itself a collection of words) expresses a deep concern about how we use our words.
The Scriptures suggest that when our words go bad, the whole world is affected and goes bad as well.
When Isaiah found himself in the throne room of God, he didn’t say, “Uh oh, I’m a lustful guy living in a lustful culture.” What we read instead is far more surprising and far more insightful: “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LordAlmighty” (Is. 6:5). The first thing he thought of was how badly he’d used his words and how badly everyone else around him used words.
As in the days of Isaiah and in the days of David-penned Psalm 12, we now live in a time when words have gone bad. That’s not what initially comes to mind, but that’s the deeper reality.
We look around and like Elijah before us (1 Kings 19:10) and complain that the landscape looks barren of goodness. It looks like the faithful and the loyal have vanished and what is vile is honored by the human race instead and we feel alone in following the ways of our Lord.
Help, LORD, for no one is faithful anymore;
those who are loyal have vanished from the human race (Ps. 12:1).
But things aren’t what they seem. The real problem isn’t school shootings, sexual chaos, evil politicians, racial discord, substance abuse, broken families, ecological destruction, war, and a long list of truly grievous symptoms. The real problem is how we use words.
Everyone lies to their neighbor;
they flatter with their lips
but harbor deception in their hearts (Ps. 12:2).
That last line above would be more accurately translated as “they have double-hearts.” That doesn’t mean they can love twice as much. The English words “heart” and “mind” are just one word in Hebrew: lev. Heart and mind are to be united. But the evil are double-hearted (not to be confused with “double-minded” in English, which means “uncertain”). According to scholar Peter C. Craigie, “They knew one thing, but said another; they would not speak the truth, though they knew it, when a lie would accomplish their goal” (Psalms 1-50, 138). They are double-hearted because their hearts are divided, broken in half by their ability to conceal the truth.
May the LORD silence all flattering lips
and every boastful tongue —
those who say,
“By our tongues we will prevail;
our own lips will defend us — who is lord over us?” (Ps. 12:3-4)
As is often the case in the Psalms, I’m surprised by what is highlighted and what isn’t. Elsewhere, slanderous words are highlighted, but here they’re not even mentioned. Rather, what God is called on to silence are flattering lips that falsely puff us up and boastful tongues that arrogantly puff themselves up.
Both flattery and boasting are empty words. They lack substance while feeding pride. They are tasty words, intoxicating words, feel-good words, but they are no-calorie, junk-food words.
The little speech by the evil (v. 4) proves their double hearts. They reject God’s kingly rule over them. Instead of “our own lips will defend us,” according to Craigie, they say, “Our lips are our own!” In other words, “We’ll say whatever we want. Our freedom of speech is ultimate and we’ll use it however we desire. No one can shut us up.”
There is no sense of propriety, no responsibility to the community for what they say. Therefore, because of them, the poor are plundered and the needy groan. How is this?
Those who live paycheck to paycheck, praying for their daily bread, are the most vulnerable to empty words, empty promises. Trusting the wrong person can be the difference between having a place to live and being homeless.
“Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan,
I will now arise,” says the LORD.
“I will protect them from those who malign them.”
And the words of the LORD are flawless,
like silver purified in a crucible,
like gold refined seven times.
You, LORD, will keep the needy safe
and will protect us forever from the wicked,
who freely strut about
when what is vile is honored by the human race (Ps. 12:5-8).
The little speech by the wicked (v. 4) is met with a little speech by God (v. 5).
God silences these hollow voices by speaking his flawless and pure words. His words are silver and gold, real value with real substance in contrast to the empty bank account words that rob the poor. God’s precious and refined words show the world’s words to be as vacant and valueless as they truly are.
Fools gold is exposed as fake by pure gold. The insubstantial, unreliable words of our of culture are exposed by the substantial, reliable Word of God.
Hearing and knowing the true words of God is what saves us from the empty words of the vile. The purity of his speech is what shows off the vileness of their empty speech by contrast.
We don’t match emptiness with emptiness; we fill the emptiness with the substance of God’s solid Word. We don’t return evil speech with evil speech; we listen to God’s good speech and our minds, our hearts, our tongues, our lives are reordered by what God says.
Complaining about what others say and do isn’t the answer. Listening to God’s golden words is.
Everything important about being human requires words. All our relationships are based on communication. Our faith is based on the Scriptures. Creation itself is formed by and held together by the words of God.
I officiated a wedding for a couple where many of the family and guests were deaf. As I spoke, they were rapt with attention. And during the reception, the sound of laughter filled the air. They were among the the most voracious communicators I’d ever encountered. Even to the deaf, speech is vital.
Because speech is so essential to our humanity, using it badly is the easiest and most lasting way to abuse others. Twenty-year-old words can cut just as much today as when they were spoken, whereas a twenty-year-old slap is more easily forgotten.
Years ago, before we had cell phones, someone I met told me a story that has stuck in my imagination.
Wayne had struggled with friendships throughout his teenage years as many of us did. But toward the end of his junior year of high school, he was befriended by one of the most popular guys in his school. The guy told Wayne he’d be spending the summer with relatives a couple hundred miles away in the country and that Wayne should fly out to visit sometime. So, Wayne bought a plane ticket. But when he arrived and called from the payphone, the guy said, “Wayne, I was just kidding. The whole thing, it’s just been a joke.” The whole “friendship” had been a mockery, built on empty, flattering words. So, Wayne sat in the airport until the next flight back home.
This is the world we live in, a place of empty words that arise from double hearts and abuse the kind. But it’s also true that we live in a world where our Lord speaks from a single heart words that are true and loving. We need to hear his words, letting them replace the others.
Words have multiplied in the three millennia since David wrote Psalm 12 and we are more vulnerable than ever. So, in a world of empty words, listen to fewer words. Listen to better words. Listen to solid, faithful words.
Reject candy words. Reject bitter alarmist words. Reject no-calorie fake news. Reject frothy trivia. But make a meal of wholesome words. Drink deeply of holy words. Feast on healthy words. Ingest the Scriptures that you might have a taste for the true and spit out the empty when you come across it.