Speak Life - Forgiveness Through the Psalms

“Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies!” (Psalm 34:13, NLT)

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14, NLT)

“I said to myself, ‘I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. I will hold my tongue when the ungodly are around me.’” (Psalm 39:1, NLT)

I didn’t grow up in a home where cuss words were thrown around. In fact, I rarely—if ever—heard my parents use unwholesome language in front of my brothers and me.

But as I entered the foray of public school, I was introduced to a whole new vocabulary.

One day, I couldn’t wait to share a new word I had learned with a few of my friends. We had indoor recess, and our teacher gave us some extra liberty to roam the halls. After a quick bathroom break, I came around the corner and—with all the confidence in the world—yelled, “What the hell are you guys talking about?”

“Mr. Davis?”

Instead of my friends who I’d left a few minutes ago, there stood my teacher.

“What did you just say?”

“Uh, nothing.”

“Excuse me?”

“Heck! I said heck!”

“Look me in the eyes and tell me what you said.”

“I said heck!”

It is I. A bold-faced liar. I compounded an already sinful situation by lying about the fact that I had cursed.

I look back on that story now and laugh, but unfortunately it wasn’t the last time that I told an outright lie. And as I got older, some of those lies had far bigger consequences than a time-out at recess. Perhaps you know all too well how lies can spiral out of control.

One instance of compounded deception in Scripture is the story of two brothers: Jacob and Esau. In Genesis 27, Jacob takes advantage of his father’s poor sight and lies to him. He wears his brother Esau’s clothes and puts goatskin on his hands and neck to mimic the hair he does not have. As he goes to his father, the Scriptures say, “Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing’” (Genesis 27:19, NIV).

And that’s exactly what happens. Jacob, the second born, steals the blessing of Esau—the firstborn—via a lie.

That lie ends up costing both brothers a great deal of pain in the years to come. An initial lie, which spirals into more lies, causes immense relational harm.

Since the beginning of time, we have been deceived and participated in deceiving one another and ourselves.

It is estimated that the average person tells one to two lies per day. That comes out to over seven hundred lies per year. All that to say, it’s certain that we have lied and been lied about.

The ancient proverb states, “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life” (Proverbs 10:11, NIV). And yet, we have probably spoken more death than we’d care to admit.

So, perhaps today, we need to ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for the things we’ve said that we shouldn’t have. Forgiveness for things spoken that were untrue. Forgiveness for the ways we’ve exaggerated or misspoke or used coarse language.

To pursue reconciliation is to pursue wholeness. We can’t become whole, holy, and healthy people without words to match.