Thursday after the Eighth Sunday after Trinity, 8/17/00

Psalm 141: 1-3 Lord, I cry out to You; make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You. Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips. --NKJV

In the name of the One Who guards our mouth, amen.

Have you ever seen a child slap his hands over his mouth after he says something bad or untrue? The idea seems to be to keep the words from coming out. Of course he is already too late. But wouldn't it be good if we could put something over our mouths to stop ourselves from saying things we should not say?

That is exactly what we pray for in this psalm, and it is especially true when we speak God's word. This psalm is rooted in worship: "Let my prayer rise before you as incense, etc." When we worship, when we speak God's word we want to be doubly sure that we speak the truth. So we pray that God guard our mouths and watch our lips, not so that something bad doesn't go in, but so that nothing bad comes out. After all, it is just like Jesus said, "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man" (Matthew 15: 11).

This prayer is a very good prayer because in it we look to God for strength in overcoming evil, rather than ourselves. He does hear us when we cry to Him, and He does come to us quickly. Amen.

Prayer: Dear Lord, Your word is true and full of life. Forgive us for the times in the past when we have not spoken it accurately. Help us by Your Holy Spirit, to speak Your word carefully and accurately so that no one is every eternally harmed by the what we speak, but turned away from evil, helped and healed, amen.

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