SINS OF THE TONGUE

“Their mouths are full of cursing, lies, and threats. Trouble and evil are on the tips of their tongues.”  (Psalm 10:7 NLT)

In the summer of 2012, northeastern Oklahoma was a tinderbox after weeks of drought and triple digit temperatures. On August 2 a devastating wildfire in Creek County burned 58,500 acres, destroyed 376 homes, and left hundreds of people homeless. As it turned out, the fire was started by a single cigarette. A wicked person’s words are like a spark that ignites violence.

In fact, sins of the tongue are the most common kind of violence in the Psalms. C. S. Lewis noted, “I think that when I began to read it these surprised me a little; I had half expected that in a simpler and more violent age when more evil was done with the knife, the big stick, and the firebrand, less would be done by talk. But in reality the Psalmists mention hardly any kind of evil more often than this one, which the most civilized societies share.... It is all over the Psalter. One almost hears the incessant whispering, tattling, lying, scolding, flattery, and circulation of rumors. No historical readjustments are here required, we are in the world we know.” 

-- James Johnston in an article entitled “The Marks of a Truly Wicked Person”

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