Keep the door of my lips

“Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” - Psalms 141v3

The perils of the tongue – so serious that God gives it many, many references in Scripture. The clearest depiction of the dangers may very well be in James 2. God doesn’t mince words when He describes the dangers.

It boasts great things.
It causes a great fire
It is a fire
It is a world of iniquity
It defiles whole body
It sets the course of nature on fire
It is set on fire of hell.
It cannot be tamed
It is an unruly evil
It is full of deadly poison.

Is it any wonder that he psalmist writes – “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips”? If we think back over our lives we quickly realize that the vast majority of the problems we have brought on ourselves have been caused by things we have said, or something someone has said to us.

God says that no man can tame his tongue. Out tongues must be under control, and they must be under God’s control. Our speech must be guarded and locked up, just like the gate of a city.
May God have the kind of control over our speech that the psalmist prayed for.