Proverbs 18:4

The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters.

The importance of language

Language is one of the principal tests and standards of civilisation. The study of language is one of the most naturally interesting and naturally elevating studies with which the human mind can occupy itself.

I. It is of great intellectual importance. Only through the instrumentality of language can the thoughts of the mind be revealed and displayed. Nothing bewrays more obviously the rustiness and disorganisation of the intellect than inaccuracy and dulness of language.

II. The moral importance of language is still greater. As a rule the relations between intellect and conscience are harmonious. When the intellect is illuminated it brightens the conscience; when the conscience is quickened it animates the intellect. Language is often a standard of morals. Exactitude of utterance is seldom compatible with great frequency of utterance. Modern writing and modern speech are impotent because they are slipshod. Language is also a great moral force in the world by reason of its variety. A world of one language would not be a very interesting world.

III. The great religious importance of language. The utmost solemnity is attached in the Bible to the use of language. What man can think that words are light and little things when he remembers that it is through the instrumentality of words inspired that God has made known His greatest revelations to mankind? (Canon Diggle.)

The words of inspired wisdom

There are some who regard the two clauses of this verse as antithetic. The former indicating hidden depths of evil in the wicked man. “The words of his mouth are as deep waters.” That is, he is so full of guile and deceit that you cannot reach his meaning. The latter indicating the transparent communications of the wise and the good. “The wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.” The communications of the one are guileful--the words conceal rather than reveal. The words of the other are honest and lucid. There are others who regard the two clauses as a parallelism. The character of the former clause is to be taken from the latter. The words of a man’s mouth--that is, according to the second clause, of a wise man’s mouth--are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook. We shall use the words thus as a parallelism to illustrate the words of inspired wisdom which are “wise” in the highest sense.

I. They are full. They are as “deep waters.” The world abounds with shallow words, mere empty sounds. The words in the general conversation of society and in the popular literature of the day are empty, shells without a kernel, mere husks without grain. But the words of inspired men are full, brimful, full of light and full of power.

1. The greatest thinkers have failed to exhaust their meaning.

2. Every modern thinker discovers new significance. Every paragraph has a continent of thought.

“There lie vast treasures unexplored,

And wonders yet untold.”

II. They are flowing. “A flowing brook.” The words of eternal truth are always in motion. They pulsate in thousands of souls every hour, and onward is their tendency.

1. They flow from the eternal wellspring of truth.

2. They flow through human channels. Divine wisdom speaks through man as well as through other organs. “Holy men spake as they were moved,” etc. The highest teacher was a man, Christ, the Logos. The words of His mouth were indeed as deep waters. Since Heaven has thus made man the organ of wisdom, it behoves man--

(1) Devoutly to realise the honour God has conferred upon his nature;

(2) Earnestly to aspire to the high honour of being a messenger of the Eternal. Man should not only be the student, but the revealer of God.

III. They are fertilising. They are here compared to “waters” and to “a flowing brook.” What water is to all physical life the words of heavenly wisdom are to souls. They quicken and satisfy.

1. It is a perennial brook. It has streamed down these centuries, imparting life and beauty in its course.

2. It is an accumulating “brook.” As brooks in nature swell into rivers by the confluence of contributory streams, so the brook of Divine truth widens and deepens by every contribution of holy thought. And never was it so broad and deep as now. (Homilist.)