Psalms 141:3

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.

The regulation of the tongue

I. Importance of the subject. The use of speech is seldom considered morally. Unless on some very particular occasions, people imagine that it is perfectly optional with them what they speak and how they speak--saying, with those in the time of David, “Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?” Hence numberless words are daily uttered with indifference, and never thought of again; and if ever people confess or pray, speech never makes an article either in their confessions or prayers

II. Danger of transgression.

1. From the depravity of our nature. The stream will always resemble the fountain.

2. From the contagion of example.

3. From the frequency of speech.

4. From the extent of our obligation.

(1) There is the law of prudence. This condemns silliness and folly--for no one has a licence to talk nonsense. This condemns all that is impertinent and unsuited to the place, the company, and the season.

(2) There is the law of purity. This forbids all ribaldry: and not only everything that is grossly offensive, but all indecent allusions and insinuations, however artfully veiled.

(3) There is the law of veracity. This condemns everything spoken with a view to deceive; or spoken so as to occasion deception; and which may be done by a confusion of circumstances; by an omission of circumstances; by an addition of circumstances.

(4) There is the law of kindness. This condemns all calumny and tale-bearing; the circulation of whatever may be injurious to the reputation of another. This requires, that if you must speak--if you must speak--of another’s fault, you do it without aggravation; that you do it, not with pleasure, but pain; and that if you censure, you do it as a judge would pass sentence upon his son.

(5) There is the law of utility. This requires that we should not scandalize another by anything in our speech; but contribute to his benefit by rendering our discourse instructive, or reproving, or consolatory.

(6) There is the law of piety. This requires that we should never take God’s name in vain; never speak lightly of His Word, nor His worship; never charge Him foolishly; never murmur under any of His dispensations. It requires that we extol His perfections, and recommend His service.

III. Inability to preserve himself.

1. This conviction is well founded. “Without Me ye can do nothing.”

2. This conviction is continually increasing. As the Christian, in the course of his experience, is learning to cease from man, so is be also taught to cease from himself.

3. It is a conviction the most happy. You need not be afraid of it. This self-acquaintance will only reduce you to the proper condition of a creature, and prepare you for the reception of Divine supplies. Our misery is from our self-sufficiency; it is pride that ruins us.

IV. The wisdom of applying to God for the assistance we need.

1. God is equal to our preservation. However great our danger, He can keep us from falling. Whatever difficulties we have to encounter, or duties to perform, His grace is sufficient for us.

2. His succours are not to be obtained without prayer. He has a right to determine in what way He will communicate His own favours; he is infinitely capable of knowing what method is most consistent with His own glory and conducive to our good--and He has revealed it; and however freely He has promised His influences, He has said (Ezekiel 36:37).

3. Prayer always brings the assistance it implores (Isaiah 45:19; Matthew 7:7). (W. Jay.)

Sins of the tongue

I. Foolish talking (Ephesians 5:4).

1. Some persons are so indisposed to sobriety of thought, and have so long accustomed themselves to regard seriousness as bordering upon stupidity or gloom, that the gravest concerns lose in their conversation every symptom of importance. The wisest reflections are encountered with unmeaning laughter; and conclusions of the highest moment are repelled by a paltry effort at a jest.

2. Of another class, more numerous, and, if it be possible, equally thoughtless, the conversation is altogether and uniformly idle. Day after day, at home and abroad, you hear nothing drop from their lips which manifests a cultivated mind, or a desire of mental improvement. Everything is trifling.

II. Those which arise from impatience and discontent.

1. Of this description is hasty and peevish language in common life. Thus domestic comfort is perpetually invaded by little uneasinesses, little bickerings, little disagreements; and at length perhaps falls a sacrifice to the multiplication of inconsiderable wounds. Is this to be kindly affectioned, tender-hearted one towards another? Is this to walk in love? Is this to imitate the gentleness of Christ?

2. But some men advance to bolder manifestations of impatience and discontent. Not only is their fretfulness querulous, vehement, and acrimonious in domestic and in social life; but, after tormenting man, it shrinks not from insulting God. They repine at His dispensations: they murmur against His providence. Having received so much is this your gratitude, to be indignant that you have not obtained more? Does not He who knows all things discern whether it is better that you should enjoy a greater or a less portion of His gifts?

III. Those which may be regarded as the offspring of contention. “Be ye angry, and sin not” If anger in its lowest degree overtake you, beware of transgression. Sin after sin is the usual consequence of anger; and among the first sins which arise from anger are sins of the tongue. The irritated mind unburdens itself in passionate language. When the heart glows with resentment, heat and vehemence of language betray the inward flame. The tongue of rage blazes fiercer and fiercer; and abstains from no injury towards man or towards God. Is this to be the disciple of the meek and holy Jesus? Is this to imitate Him who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, etc.? Wily does the Almighty permit provocations to assail thee, but to prove thee, to know what is in thine heart, whether thou wilt keep His commandments or no; whether thou wilt obey the headlong impulse of wrath; or strive through the grace of thy God, and for the sake of pleasing Him, to remain unmoved?

IV. Those sins of the tongue which owe their origin to vanity and pride. The boastful man speaketh of himself and seeketh his own glory. His heart is lifted up; his mouth uttereth proud things; he giveth not the honour unto God; he vaunteth himself against the Most High. Not unfrequently wickedness itself becomes his boast. He openly triumphs in the violence with which he has borne down an opponent. Solicitous in every circumstance of life to magnify himself, he speaks contemptuously and degradingly of others; and the more contemptuously and degradingly in proportion as he apprehends that they may be advantageously compared with him, or may stand in the way of his enterprises and projects.

V. Censoriousness. Some persons are censorious through carelessness; some through selfishness; some through anger; some through malice; some through envy. According to the difference of the sources from which censoriousness springs, its guilt is more or less flagrant. But even when it arises from carelessness, deem it not a trifling sin. You are not careless concerning your own character, your own welfare. Are you not to love your neighbour as yourself?

VI. Those sins of the lips which originate in a busy and meddling spirit; sins which, if not in themselves of a deeper hue than some which have already been mentioned, often prove more extensively destructive to the peace of society (Ecclesiastes 10:11; Proverbs 11:13; Proverbs 17:9; Proverbs 18:18; Proverbs 26:20; Lev 19:16; 1 Peter 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:11).

VII. Those offences which fall under the general description of deceit. Of these the most prominent is open falsehood. The liar destroys the foundation of all confidence, whether in the public dealings of men one with another, or in the retirement of domestic life. The falsehood, however, of the lips frequently shows itself in the form of slander, which is but a more refined, and therefore more mischievous, mode of lying. What were the engines of sin by which ruin was brought upon mankind? An open falsehood and a disguised slander. As the imitators, the slaves, the children of the devil, all liars, whether they deal in open falsehood or in lurking slander, are objects of detestation to Almighty God (Proverbs 6:17; Proverbs 12:22; Revelation 21:8).

VIII. Violations of modesty (Colossians 3:8; Ephesians 5:3). There is no sin which is more odious in its nature, more expressive of a depraved and polluted heart. Christ hath called you unto holiness. You are required to be holy, as He was holy; pure, as He was pure.

IX. Profaneness. This sin comprehends every irreverent expression concerning the Deity, His titles, His attributes, His providence, His revelation, His judgments. (T. Gisborne, M. A.)