Restrain Your Mouth with a Muzzle Rather than Saying Anything the Wicked Can Use

David W Palmer

(Psalm 39:1 NKJV) A Psalm of David. “I said, I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me.”

Jesus said that if we believe and do not doubt, we can have what we say from the overflow of our hearts. James added that our tongue is like a bit that can steer horse-strong flesh and like a rudder on a ship. No matter which way the wind blows, a skilful sailor with the use of the rudder, etc., can make the ship go where it needs to go—with all of its cargo, crew, and passengers.

Through James, the Holy Spirit also warned of the deadly power of evil that can be released through unwise use of the tongue:

(James 3:5–6 NKJV) … See how great a forest a little fire kindles! {6} And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.

Seeing unwise words are so dangerous, in our opening passage today, the psalmist says that he will guard his ways. His primary objective to achieve this is to avoid sinning with his tongue—a very wise approach. His parallel statement says: “I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle while the wicked are before me.” David emphasises the deadly danger of speaking wrongly—especially when in earshot of the wicked.

In David’s world, the “wicked” may have mainly been his physical enemies. While the same applies to us, we also have to be doubly aware that our real enemy is Satan and his cohorts. To help us comprehend how this works, Solomon wisely said:

(Ecclesiastes 10:20 NKJV) Do not curse the king, even in your thought; Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; For a bird of the air may carry your voice, And a bird in flight may tell the matter.

Thoughts mused on in the heart will turn into words. If we allow these words to exit our lips, the Holy Spirit reveals that a “bird” can pick up on it and convey what you said: “a bird in flight may tell the matter.”

Seeing the Holy Spirit is depicted as a dove in the New Testament—partly from his ability to be transported on the air, a type of the spirit. So the bird in the scripture represents a spirit that can hear what you say—even when you thought no-one was listening—and “tell the matter” to those you wish weren’t able to hear it.

God certainly hears all of our words; his Scripture reveals that he watches over his word to perform it, and that his words—once spoken on earth—will do what they have been sent to do:

(Amos 3:7–8 NKJV) Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. {8} A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy?

(Jeremiah 1:12 ESV) “… I am watching over my word to perform it.”

(Isaiah 55:10–11 NKJV) “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, {11} So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

These divine Scriptures convey some amazing truths about God’s words and us speaking them—confessing what he says. But sadly, Scripture also reveals that our enemy operates exactly the same way—in a complete counterfeit. However, unlike God, he does this mercilessly, without any grace or patience. If he can get a human—who has the authority to rule and who has dominion on earth—to speak his words (and thus, to speak in his name), this licences him to watch over it with his demonic forces to bring it to pass. But of course, as the direct antithesis of God, he doesn’t water anything to make it bud and bring forth, yielding food and creativity. In fact, Jesus revealed that Satan’s total objective is to discredit God and to:

(John 10:10 NKJV) “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

In fact, of those who were like the devil in their actions and not like God with their words, Jesus said:

(John 8:37, 44 NKJV) “… you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. ... {44} You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

In saying that their father was the devil, Jesus implied that his interlocutors were like Satan and imitated him. Whereas Jesus, God’s exemplary role model, imitated his Father God (See: John 5:19–20). But the people Jesus was speaking to in this passage certainly didn’t have God’s word abiding in them, so it couldn’t have overflowed (See: John 5:38). They were imitating the originator of lies. That is why their hearts mused on killing Jesus—the very God they claimed to serve and represent.

Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, put it like this:

(Romans 3:13 NET) “Their throats are open graves, they deceive with their tongues, the poison of asps is under their lips.”

Satan used these un-born again people to speak his word in Jesus’s day, bringing deception, death, and theft. He does the same today. Humans have the authority on earth, so if he can trick them into speaking what he wants to happen, he gladly steps in to fulfil it. This effect is probably intensified if he can get born again people to speak his words.

No wonder David said:

(Psalm 39:1–2 TPT) Here’s my life motto, the truth I live by:

I will guard my ways for all my days.

I will speak only what is right, guarding what I speak.

Like a watchman guards against an attack of the enemy, I’ll guard and muzzle my mouth when the wicked are around me.

I will remain silent and will not grumble

or speak out of my disappointment.

In his wisdom writings, the Holy Spirit had is said like this:

(Proverbs 4:20–24 TPT)

Listen carefully, my dear child, to everything that I teach you,

and pay attention to all that I have to say.

Fill your thoughts with my words until they penetrate deep into your spirit.

Then, as you unwrap my words, they will impart true life and radiant health into the very core of your being.

So above all, guard the affections of your heart,

for they affect all that you are.

Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.

Avoid dishonest speech and pretentious words.

Be free from using perverse words no matter what!

Today, to help us guard against the disastrous and very real danger of licensing the enemy to sabotage our lives and those on our ships through our own words, the Holy Spirit gave us a crucial prayer:

(Psalm 141:3 NKJV) Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.