Psalm 120

A friend recently reminded me of this collection of psalms: the Psalms of Ascent. They were written to celebrate and prepare for going up to worship at the Temple (which was literally a higher elevation). I've already written about a few of them, but I decided to go through them as a group and just skip (or maybe re-post) the ones I've done.

This first psalm is short but not sweet. I think it was probably intended to be about someone else's tongue, but this is what I need to pray over mine. Even when I have a heart that loves openness, transparency, honesty, kindness, gentleness, and peace, my tongue doesn't always follow suit. I hate this trait. Sometimes I've wanted to go after my tongue with sharp arrows or a burning coal.

I had another friend describe recently the feeling of wishing you could reach out and grab your words out of the air to recall them as soon as you've said them. That has and never will be possible. So the answer then lies in prevention. So how to do that? I've already said I don't want my tongue to run amok. I believe the answer is in the New Testament. "Out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth speaks." I can't very well say, "Oh, I didn't really mean that." Because I did really mean it enough that I thought it and then said it. So what I really mean is, "I didn't mean to mean that. That's not who I want to be. I'm so sorry for giving voice to that vile attitude."

So the only prescription then is a heart transplant not a tonguectomy. This psalm demonstrates praying for God to bind up others' tongues so I will turn that strategy on my own. And pray the prayer that never gets old (also from a psalm), "Let the thoughts of my mind and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight O Lord."

And may my tongue follow suit.