Psalms No.12 Speech therapy

Now if you've got an authorised version of the Bible, then I'd like you to read the alternate verses with me from the pulpit. Psalm 141. Lord, I cry unto thee, make haste unto me, give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness. And let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head, for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.

Our bones are as scattered at the grave's mouth as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. Amen.

Now you may care to have your Bibles open at Psalm 141. And I draw your attention to verse 3, which is on the weekly bulletin, should it be the case that you haven't a Bible with you. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips.

Every education department in our country has what is known as a speech therapy clinic attached to it. And should it be the case that a boy or a girl in school is having difficulty with pronunciation of words, with forming syllables, then the child can be referred to the speech therapy unit. And in the hands of experts, the children who are so afflicted with impediments in their speech will be helped.

And indeed, a great deal of speech deficiency these days can be remedied. And it was the concept of spiritual speech therapy that struck me earlier in the week when I was meditating on this particular psalm. And I thought that that would be a good launching pad from which we could lead a study this morning, as we center our thoughts particularly on this verse.

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. The man who wrote the psalm, I'm convinced, was David, despite what some of the critics say. And it seems to me that he was probably writing this psalm at the time when Absalom, his son, had led a coup d'état in Jerusalem with the net result that Father David had to get out of Jerusalem quickly and take some refuge in the wilderness of Judea.

Now you can imagine that in that horrific situation, when he's fearful for his life at the hands of his son, David is in a state of tension and anxiety. And you good folks know what it is when your emotions are aroused. You're not always able to control the rest of your personality.

And this is the reason why I suggest in the second verse, David is concerned to ask the Lord to ensure that he still engages in his spiritual disciplines. Let my prayer be set before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. And knowing full well that in his anxious state, he's liable to do something which is out of keeping with the character of a man who wants to be a servant of the Lord, in the fourth verse he says, incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works.

Keep your hand upon me, Lord. And he's aware as we are that when you're ruffled and when you're not completely in control of your emotions, your emotion can override your intellect and you can say things that you wouldn't normally, in general circumstances, express. So in the third verse, David says, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth.

Keep the door of my lips. I don't want to blurt anything out in this sad state in which I find myself that later on I would regret. And I realize that my vocal cords are not always within the control of my mind.

They're sometimes harnessed by my emotions. And do you know how upset I am? So Lord, only you can help me. Will you set a watch before my mouth? Will you keep the door of my lips? Tell me something.

Have you during this last week let fly from your mouth that which was incompatible with a servant of God? Jesus Christ was a great elocutionist. He used words well. Not cheaply.

Not like some actor on a stage winning the adulation of the audience. No. He used his words to meet the needs of people.

And Jesus was not only a master with words to the extent that ordinary folks said, no man ever spoke like this man. He was also a speech therapist. At the literal level he cured people who had impediments in their speech.

You remember occasions. But also in the spiritual realm he did that. To the extent that disciples who came from a working class background, who were fishermen, and whose tongues often ran awry, who often let fly expletives, found that because they'd been in touch with Jesus, their speech patterns had been dramatically changed.

And the highest court in Palestine at one stage went on record, having had disciples of Jesus brought in front of it, that these men have been with the Nazarene, and they don't speak like others. Have you got an impediment in your vocabulary? Is the way that you have let your language flow this past week, in every situation, compatible with the name of someone who is a disciple of Jesus Christ? Do you need to say, as did David, and indeed do you say, as did the psalmist, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips? You see, my friends, words are important. The Bible says this, and believe me it's a sobering comment, that every idle word that we let fly, and I use that verb deliberately, that we let fly, we are accountable for.

Listen to Matthew 12 verse 37, By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned. The Greeks believed that words were immortal. And once you had let them fly, they produced, as it were, wings, and they were never lost.

And you know, Greek mythology sometimes hits a scientific fact, because we're told by the scientists, that as matter is indestructible, so is sound. And provided one had a sensitive enough piece of apparatus, you could pick up the sounds that go round the universe. Day unto day utter speech.

The world is full of noise. Tell me something, in the hullabaloo in which we live, what's your contribution like? What were your speech patterns like this last week? What were mine like? Every idle word we are accountable for, says God's word. The Lord Jesus Christ, I say, was a master of words.

And those of us who need to have our language patterns changed, must come to the Lord Jesus and ask his help. Maybe there was occasion during this past week, when you were like Peter. Your speech gave you away.

You were ruffled. You were in a temper. You took delight in slandering someone.

You knew you shouldn't have done, but you did it, because the old Adamic nature is always just below the surface, and there's outcrops continually, and it manifests itself. Now, if you find yourself like that, and if my word exposes your condition, then take David's advice, and set a watch, or ask God to set a watch, before your mouth to keep the door of your lips. Let me suggest to you certain aspects of speech impediment, at the spiritual level to which the Bible makes reference.

There is hasty speech. The psalmist said, I said in my haste, all men are liars. What a sweeping generalization.

Now, he wouldn't have made that comment, had he not been ruffled. Had he not been dealing hastily with his situation. I said in my haste, all men are liars.

I now regret that that language ever came from my mouth. I'd want to qualify it. Are you hasty sometimes in using words? Do we not advise our children, and often we give advice to them that we don't apply to ourselves? Before you say something, count ten.

That's good advice. It's not from the Bible, but it's got the warrant of the Bible behind it. Count ten.

Why? Well, you see, if you immediately react when you're ruffled, then you may say something like David was afraid of doing. Something that was callous, something that you didn't really mean. You gave words wings, and you couldn't bring them back, so count ten before you speak.

Moses is known as being the meekest man that ever lived. And yet there were occasions when his words were hasty. He was provoked.

Particularly by the Hebrews, when they didn't have sufficient water to drink as he was leading them through the Sinai Peninsula. We read in the 106th Psalm and the 32nd and 33rd verses these words. They angered Moses also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes.

Because they provoked his spirit so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. In anger, he responded to the Israelites. And those of you who are well informed as to the contents of your Bible will recall how the Lord God punishes Moses for his hasty language on that occasion.

Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and verse 1, or rather verse 2. Be not rush with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in his heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few.

Do you suffer from an impediment of speech that could be described in terms of this? That you're always quick to answer when you should sometimes stop a little while and think through what you are saying. Good Lord, deliver us from the impediment of hasty speech. Set a watch before my mouth and keep the doors of my lips so that no hasty language from henceforth ever finds expression.

But what about militant speech? This has at its objective and certainly as its consequence the frustrating of the purposes of God. Moses again is an example of a man who once was militant in his language. You remember his commission to go back from Midian to Egypt and there to become the leader of the Hebrew community.

Now Moses didn't want to do this. And we congratulate him for his humility. But you know, if you take humility to an extreme, it merges into unfaithfulness and disbelief.

And this was the case with Moses. Towards the end of his conversation with the Lord, the Lord God was indignant with Moses. The militant manner in which Moses was responding, defying the Lord, this was within the purposes of God.

The Israelites had to be released from the grip of the Egyptians and Moses was to be the leader. But in militant language, Moses says, no, don't send me, send somebody else. New Testament example, you remember Peter? He's with his friend Simon at Joppa and he goes to sleep on the rooftop one afternoon.

And Peter has a dream, a dream of a blanket, a sheet unfurling from the sky and within the sheet there are all manner of animals and creeping beasts and some which are prohibited by the Mosaic legislation for a Jew to have contact with or to eat. And the divine voice comes from heaven. Peter, arise and eat.

Three times the command is given and three times in militant language Peter says, no, not so, Lord. Now, you know what the reason for that vision was. Ere long there would be men, Gentiles, knocking at the door of Simon, of Simon's house, and Peter is to go to Cornelius and his household and proclaim the gospel.

But he won't do that because he's a Jew and Jews who have no dealings with Samaritans certainly have no fellowship with Gentiles. And so Peter's prejudices have got to crumble and God makes a decree. He utters a command to Peter.

But with haste and with militancy of language, Peter says, not so, Lord. Do you remember how even after this incident, on one occasion Paul has to remonstrate with Peter because of his racial prejudices against the Gentiles? Good Lord, deliver me not only from hasty speech but from militant language, from the occasions when I have disagreed with what you have told me to do. How contrasting is the example of our Lord Jesus when reviewing his life's work, certainly towards the end of his ministry, he says to the Father, the words which thou gavest me to speak, those were launched forth from my mouth.

I said what you told me to say. No militancy there. Here is perfect harmony between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father, a sublime affinity so that the words that the Father wants the Son to speak, he launches forth.

Oh, to have that spiritual affinity. Oh, for God to set a watch before my mouth to keep the door of my lips so that only that speech pattern which he preordains shall find expression. What about poisonous speech? Psalm 140 and verse 3, the previous psalm to the one that I've drawn your attention to.

Listen. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent's. Adder's poison is under their lips.

Paul, quoting that psalm, at least quoting the metaphor, refers to those whose throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongue they have used deceit. The poison of Asp's is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Understand that the Asp carries his poison in a little bladder which is beneath his tongue. And when that deadly serum is injected, perhaps it's not deadly, but it's certainly harmful, then it causes a disagreeable effect on the part of the one who receives it. Now, this is possible.

With the human tongue, which can be deadly as the bite of a snake, James says that the tongue is a little member, but who can bridle it, who can control it? Sometimes I've quoted from the pulpit, and I'm sure you all agree. The children's adage which says sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but calling names won't harm me. And you who are mature know full well that often you'd rather stop a stone than stop a word, because at least your body recovers from the wound that the stone brings, but a word, oh my, that can really pierce and penetrate, and the wound never really heals.

Do you know when the Apostle Paul was writing to the church at Corinth, he was penning his epistles simply because there were people who had that poison within their lips, they had a sort of bladder under their tongues, and they were injecting a serum which would be deadly in its consequences amongst the redeemed community at Corinth. And so to stop the effects of this, Paul writes to the church, and he reminds them of all that he has taught them, and he tries to expose these people who are injecting their serum and thus frustrating the purposes of God at Corinth. Now, this is a ploy of the devil, and believe you me, he has his emissaries even in this church, as he will have his emissaries in every church, because there is no meeting of God's people that is immune, that is immunised from the assaults of the devil.

In fact, he makes his target such communities, and there will be those who will come along, and under their tongues there is this bladder of poison, and they will try to inject that serum of discontent, that serum of disharmony, and they will do this willfully, and they are indeed storing up for themselves judgment on the day of judgment. How contrasting is that speech pattern to that of Jesus, of whom we read, there was no guile in his mouth, there was no bladder, there was no poison that ever came forth, there was no unjust criticism, there was no uncalled for slander, for that sort of thing was incompatible with his very nature, and it's the will of the Lord Jesus that we follow him in his speech patterns. Good Lord, deliver us from the impediment of hasty speech, of militant speech, of poisonous speech, of boastful speech.

Psalm chapter, or rather, Psalm 12, on the fourth verse, makes reference to this. It speaks of people who have said, with our tongue will we prevail, our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? These are people who believe that they are the captain of their own souls, they are Lord of their own personalities, our tongues, they belong to us, our lips are our own, there is no one's lordship to whom we are subservient.

One thinks of the civilization before the flood, who built the tower, and they said in their pompous fashion, we have built a tower to heaven, and implied within their boastfulness was their claim to have outreached God in power and in majesty. One thinks of other occasions, of say, Pharaoh, who when he was confronted by Moses, and Moses had delivered his message that in the name of the Lord, the Israelites were to be released and allowed to go and worship him in Sinai. Who is God of the Hebrews that I should let you go? Again you find enshrined, encapsulated in that appeal to his own authority, a boastfulness.

Within the redeemed community there is no place for boastful speech. Says Hannah in her lovely prayer in the second chapter of the first book of Samuel, the third verse, talk no more exceedingly proudly, let not arrogance come out of your mouth. And the redeemed of the Lord who have confessed their sins, who have been to Calvary, and had their sins expunged by the cleansing blood of Jesus, have no right to boast in themselves.

Talk no more exceeding proudly, let not arrogance come out of your mouth. Says the apostle Paul developing this line himself in the Roman epistle, where is boasting then? It is excluded. The Jew has no right to boast.

The Gentile has no right to boast. Why? Well, as Paul has plainly shown, all men are sinners. All mankind stands guilty, condemned, before the holiness of a God who is pure and who has all power.

And the only right, my friend, you have to boast, is in Jesus Christ. God forbid that I should glory, save, accept this one exceptional clause in the cross of Jesus Christ. Good Lord, deliver me from the impediment of hasty speech, from the impediment of militant speech, of poisonous speech, of boastful speech.

But how do you control your tongue? You see, that's the problem, isn't it? James says the tongue no man can control. Well, what do you do? I prayed earnestly before the Lord in the early hours of this morning that he would give me some word along this line. How can I control my tongue? How can I change my speech patterns if it is the case that my tongue is loose and my words are often hurtful and harmful and have not the sanction of divine approval? And this is what I offer you, and I believe I dare to offer it to you in the name of the Lord.

God controls your tongue for you as you enter into the throne room, as you enter into the throne room, as you draw near to the holiest place of all. Isaiah has been content to proclaim his woes upon the citizens of Jerusalem. Read it through in the first five chapters.

Woe unto the citizens of Jerusalem. Woe unto the Hebrews. Several occasions he heaps his woes up upon the people.

And then you read, what is it? The seventh chapter? In that prophecy, Isaiah is drawing to the very presence of God. He has a majestic vision of the holiness of the Lord and of the seraphim above the holy place. And as Isaiah appreciates who God is and what his nature is, having turned his attention from the sinfulness of the Jews, he turns his eye upon his own state and he says, woe am I, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips.

Woe am I. It's when you come into the presence of God and you're overwhelmed by the thought of his holiness that you're broken by the knowledge of your sinfulness. And what does God do then? He sends one of his messengers with a fiery coal from off his altar. And what does he do with the coal? He places it on the lips of his servants and he clears their language and he remakes their speech pattern.

How do you control your tongue? Enter into the throne room. Fuel your mind. Says Proverbs, the lips of the wise disperse knowledge.

Jesus said that it is out of the heart, out of the mind, that pollutions come as far as sin is concerned. So if I feed my mind, if I feed my heart with the word of God, then that in turn will help for control to come to my speech processes. When the heart is prepared, the tongue is controlled, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by keeping heed thereto according to thy word.

I congratulate you, good friends, without being patronizing, for being inconsistently in the tabernacle on a Sunday morning. Not, God forbid, because I'm the minister. I have no pretensions to this ministry whatsoever.

I never have had. And I hope to God I never will have. It is important for a Christian person to be in a sanctuary where the word of God is proclaimed.

Not just the gospel, and I'm not belittling John 3.16 or the glorious simplicity of the gospel of Christ, but it is necessary for a person to come and hear the word of God expounded, to be exercised by that word, to be built up in the word for their mental processes to be saturated with the word of God. Because when I'm near to the Lord, and when I have a mind that is immersed in the word of the Lord, then God controls my tongue. When my heart is prepared, my mind is controlled.

And the third way, and with this I conclude, is by knowing the fullness of the Spirit. Enter into the throne room. Refuel your mind and know the fullness of the Spirit.

It is not a coincidence that when God moved on the day of Pentecost, He took over the speech processes of the apostles of the 120-odd people who knew a mighty baptism in the Spirit. They spoke with other tongues. Those languages were recognized by the crowds who gathered together from the cobbled streets of Jerusalem and came to the place where this phenomenon had happened.

And we read in Acts 2 that they heard the disciples declare the wondrous works of God. Shall I tell you something? As blunt as any Yorkshireman can tell you anything from the pulpit, I'm convinced of your spiritfulness, of the genuineness of an experience of the baptism, the overwhelming, the filling, call it what you will, of the Spirit. Not because you tell me.

Not because you've had some remarkable experience that has lifted you out of one realm of spirituality so you'll claim into another. I believe you. And I'm glad to know that some people are in this category.

When one detects by your speech patterns that your tongue is controlled by the Lord, you can go to meeting after meeting, you can have your emotions roused to almost the tip of Everest level. You can have experience after experience and unless it gels in this, unless it dovetails in this, unless it produces this, a vocal cord, vocal practices, speech patterns that are in harmony with, that are compatible with the Word of the Lord and the great elocutionist, the great speech therapist of all time, the Lord Jesus Christ, then I tell you your experiences amount to absolutely nothing. When God moves in power in your life, He controls, He saves not only your personality, He redeems your tongue.

And that's the reason, you see, why I had to bring you this Word. And I had to as I have faced up to the challenge of the Word myself, ask you whether you have gone to the speech therapy clinic of Jesus Christ and whether you say each day words to this effect, Lord, set a watch before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. And I tell you He'll do this and it's possible for your tongue to be bridled as you enter into the throne room, as you refuel your mind with the teachings of Scripture and as you know increasingly the fullness of God's Spirit.

Amen. Let's join in the grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.