Thought for the Day 15/02/21 - Mouth-guard

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Ireland gave France a real run for their money this weekend in the latest round of the Six Nations rugby.

A lot of things about that game really stood out, but for me one of the big ones was their appearance. It was the same last week when they were unfortunate to go down to Wales ... just thought I'd mention that ... you can see what the stand out feature was from this picture of Irish winger James Lowe from last week.

Mouth guards

Yup. Some of the Irish boys were sporting huge sparkly white gumshields in their mouths.

Fair enough. They have lips, they have teeth, and a kick in the teeth can put a tooth right through your lip ... and so they were wearing plastic padded gumshields to protect themselves.

I've got to admit, I was a little bit tempted to think some people should wear gumshields ALL the time, because they're always putting their OWN feet in their mouth ... never me, of course! (I'm kidding.)

Opening your mouth and putting YOUR foot in it

Opening your mouth and putting your foot in it is human, it is common, but it can be a really big problem.

David seems really conscious of that as he's writing this psalm:

"Set a guard over my mouth, Lord;

    keep watch over the door of my lips."

                                       Psalm 141:3

How often have we looked back at some mouth-mistake we've made, and WISHED we'd had a guard on our lips?

It's really easy to hurt,offend and lose friends we'd rather keep ... but look: David has Someone particularly special in mind here that he really doesn't want to offend.

Putting your foot in your mouth with God

David is thinking here about putting his foot in it with the way he talks to God. Here's how it reads in the verses immediately before:

"I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me;

    hear me when I call to you. 

May my prayer be set before you like incense;

    may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. 

Set a guard over my mouth, Lord;

    keep watch over the door of my lips."
Psalm 141:1-3

The significance of the Evening Sacrifice

At the evening sacrifice at the Jerusalem Temple the incense was burnt and offered by the priest alone, in solemn silence, in the holy place — while the people were praying outside.

The evening sacrifice was of a lamb, offered to make atonement and procure pardon for the daily sins of the people, which would otherwise make their words offensive to God.

As they stood in the Temple courts praying, the people saw the smoke from the offering go up and as they prayed they knew their sin was atoned for and their prayers were made acceptable to God.

So the Psalmist is concerned that his prayer would be acceptable to God and not give offence ... and he therefore prays for a gum-shield, for God to set a guard over his mouth and set a watch over the door of his lips so that no offensive thing would come tumbling out of his mouth towards God.

The point

At the time he was writing, David was away from the Temple and what was in his era the source of forgiveness for the God-offending careless words he might pour out at a time of pressure towards God.

He therefore prays to the Lord to prevent him from giving any offence TO GOD by his words.

The Takeaway

We are very conscious of not wanting to put our foot in it with somebody else, but there really is a lot more to be concerned about with regard to our speech being unacceptable to God ... because what may not be considered offensive in our culture and community ('everybody does it') may turn out to be most offensive to Him.

The sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God, covers for all of His people's sins.

And yet it remains true that ... "Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy" 

Proverbs 28:13

Let's be conscious of the need to ask the Lord to guard our lips as we speak to Him and of Him, and to cover by His grace any unworthy utterance offered before Him by the offering of the sinless, spotless Lamb of God ... Who always stands ready to bathe away our careless words in the atoning sacrifice that He has once for all made for us.

And while we remember to careful to seek God's forgiveness for even our imperfect prayers, let's also remember to be thankful to God for the grace that covers even for the residual sin in our prayers!