Psalm 119:13 – Speaking It
With my lips I have recounted
All the judgments from your mouth.
We tend to talk, and also write a great deal about speaking. On social media, people take note of the things you don’t speak out about, and consider you apathetic for your apparent silence. On the other hand, there are those who are just waiting for one wrong word so that they can condemn you.
I has been said that when all is said and done, a great deal more is said than done. This often comes from the one sanctimoniously declaring superiority and completely ignoring the fact that he (or she) is speaking and not doing.
My first thought about this passage was to emphasize the importance of saying well-selected things, of being willing to be known for what you believe. That would have turned into a tangled post as I would also want to discuss all the good reasons for choosing what you would spend time talking about.
But for me the more important lesson of this passage was simply how do I source the things I say. Where do these come from? How careful am I in hearing, studying, and applying the things I believe God said?
This could come down to deciding when to speak and when not to, considering “a time for silence and a time for speech” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). The psalmist intends to declare the judgments that God has spoken. God’s judgments are spoken not only with accuracy but with perfect timing.
When do you and I speak? Do we consider the “truth” of the time, the timeliness, as well as the factual truth of what we say?
Let’s conclude with the words of another writer of Hebrew scripture:
The Lord YHWH has given me the tongue of the learned,
Isaiah 50:4 (REB)
To speak timely encouragement to one who is weary.
Are our words both timely and truthful?
(Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)
