Psalm 141:3: “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; / Keep watch over the door of my lips.”

May 26th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

The Book of Proverbs tells us that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, / And those who love it will eat its fruit” (18:21). The things we say matter, and according to speech pathologists, we say a lot. Their research states that the average person speaks enough in one week to fill a 500-page, single-spaced book. In an average lifetime, that would amount to 3000 volumes of 500-page books. So it is a rare person who could go even a week without saying something they regretted. David was aware of this and that is why he was saying in this psalm, “Lord, I need your help not to go off and say things I will regret later.” Asking God, as David did, to guard our mouths, is a wise request for every believer to make during their prayer time.

There is a story of a pastor who was riding his bike and came upon a young boy trying to sell a lawn mower. “How much do you want for the mower?” asked the pastor. “I just want enough money to go out and buy a bicycle,” said the little boy. After a moment of consideration, the pastor asked, “Will you take my bike in trade for it?” The boy asked to try the bike out first. After riding around a little while, he said, “Mister, you’ve got yourself a deal.” The pastor took the mower and tried to crank it. He pulled on the rope a few times with no response from the mower. He called the boy over and said, “I can’t get this mower to start.” “That’s because you have to cuss at it to get it started,” replied the boy. “But, I’m a minister; I can’t cuss. I’ve been saved for so long, I don’t even remember how to cuss.” The little boy looked at him happily and said, “Just keep pulling on that string. It’ll come back to ya.”

“LORD, please set a guard over our lips this day, in Jesus’ name.”