No safe place, but in God
As long as we’ve had them, our tongues, pens, and keyboards(!) have been our greatest asset and liability, both. They can set the world on fire. This psalm prays for rescue from the tongue’s incendiary powers.
A song of ascents.
1 I cried out to Yahveh in desperation
and he answered me.
2 Deliver me, Yahveh
from lips that lie
and tongues that twist!
3 You brazen deceivers
can’t you see what God will reward you with
and what perks he’ll throw in?
4 A hailstorm of arrows
with red-hot coals attached, that’s what!
5 How wretched to be an alien
stuck out here in the wilds of Meshek
with Kedar’s warlords on every hand!
6 I’ve lived way too long
among people who have no use for peace.
7 I’m all for peace
but whenever I say so
they’re bent on war.
This psalm begins a series of fifteen psalms pilgrims sang going up to Jerusalem to attend one of Israel’s annual feasts. Recounting her past deliverance, the psalmist seeks God’s help in her current crisis. Isolated, threatened, vulnerable, she pictures herself an alien in a hostile land, surrounded by warring tribes.
The psalmist may be attacked by gossips so intent on power that the hostility and insecurity they engender risk destroying the group. Alternatively, deception may be so endemic it’s destroying her culture’s social cohesion. This is increasingly true worldwide, thanks to our social media moguls and their politician-enablers, who selfishly enable their unprecedented power of connection to divide us as never before. Whoever she has in mind, they’re so addicted to wealth or power that they knowingly spread lies and chaos.
Such narcissists think they need only outswim the other sharks in the tank. But the psalmist says peddling distortion pits them against God, who will make sure everything their distortions bring them goes up in flames. Bartering the at-one-ness that fosters wholeness and hope in both individuals and societies ultimately robs us of everything. Either we sacrifice truth and whatever else gets in the way of our personal fiefdom—to our own undoing—or we prioritize peace and invest in what truly lasts.
Nothing has changed since the psalmist’s day, Lord, with families and whole societies often torn to shreds by vicious tongues. Deliver me from such evil! Give me words of peace and harmony to combat words of hate and aggression. Help me live as if you’re in control—for you are! Amen.
In your free moments today, pray these words:
Deliver me, Yahveh
from lips that lie and tongues that twist!
