“For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.”
Psalm 5:9
In the previous devotional in this series, the tongue was a pen. This month, it is a tool for sinful flattery wielded by boastful evildoers. Words are versatile. As writers, we know that; our careers depend on it. Because words can be used for good and evil, we must type them carefully and thoughtfully.
In Psalm 5, the writer chooses powerful words to describe evildoers. They are liars with a desire for destruction (6, 9). Words like “destroy,” “abhor,” and “hate” communicate God’s feelings toward those who speak evil (5-6). The antagonist is bloodthirsty. His throat is an open grave (6, 9). The vivid imagery of God’s Word builds a complete picture. Those who speak lies and flattery are guilty and deserve to be cast out (6, 9, 10).
Use Your Words for Good, not Evil
In contrast, the protagonist calls upon God to let those who take refuge in Him rejoice and sing for joy (11). These words of praise come from the righteous, who are protected, blessed, and coveredwith favor (11-12). The protagonist knows his propensity to use words for evil, so he proactively asks the Lord to hear his prayer (1-2). He prepares a sacrifice (3). He petitions the Lord to lead him and make his way straight (8). He knows what is easy for us to forget—we enter God’s house and bow in fear of Him through the abundance of His steadfast love (7).
In the New Testament, Paul quotes this passage in Romans 3:13 when he argues that all people are under the power of sin.1 At our core, we are liars with a desire for destruction. Apart from God, we would use our words for evil. Apart from God, we’d write and speak for our glory and fame instead of His. In Romans 3, Paul lays the groundwork for the rest of his argument; the only way we can be grouped in with the righteous instead of the evildoers is through repentance and dependence upon the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus invites us into God’s house, where we bow in fear of Him through the abundance of His steadfast love.
God is the Subject
The writer of Psalm 5 is referenced 13 times in the chapter, evildoers 16 times, the righteous 6 times, and the words or sounds that people utter 10 times. But God, our King and Lord, is referenced 30 times. So this chapter might communicate much about our words, but it says even more about our God.
Questions to Ponder
God hears, loves, protects, blesses, and covers His people. He is righteous. He hates evil, destroys liars, abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men. He does not delight in wickedness and will not allow evil to dwell with Him. He will cast out the guilty and rebellious. Does your writing represent this full picture of God? Does it illuminate His loving nature as much as His intolerance of sin? Does it celebrate His mercy while communicating His judgment?
Does your writing reflect an author that longs for the blessing of this holy God, all the while knowing it is undeserved (v12)? When you examine your word choices, are you like the psalmist, preparing a sacrifice and watching for God (v3)? Do you enter His presence bowed low in fear of Him (v7)? Do you ask for God to lead you and make your way straight (v8)? Or, are you more like the enemy? Are you full of lies and destruction with words like an open grave (v9), rebelling against God (v10)?
Meditate on Psalm 5. Ask God to reveal your heart. Ask God to ignite a fresh passion for writing that exposes the folly of the path toward destruction and judgment. In all your communications, thread themes of hope and redemption that lead to the Lord. The only way we can be made right with God is through the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus. Resolve today to represent this truth well.
1 Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 946). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
When people tell me they’re afraid to fly, I can easily diagnosis their fear and its cause. As most of them will admit, they dislike and fear flying because they have a hard time trusting the pilot. They’d rather be in a car that they’re driving.
They want to be in control.
But I’ve never minded flying. At least, the part of actually being on the plane, taking off, flying to a destination, and so on. I can easily identify that being afraid because I’m not the one flying the plane would be irrational. After all, I could die just as easily if I were in a car I was driving myself. (In fact, I’d be statistically much more likely to die in a car!)
Have you noticed how easier it is to address and excuse the fears of others’ than your own? In typical fashion for us human beings, I’m much slower to recognize and diagnosis my own fear.
Whenever I do fly through airports, I spend that entire day filled with anxiety. No, I’m not afraid of flying, but air travel is still extremely stressful for me.
First, there’s the worry about packing everything I need and not forgetting anything. Then, there’s the concern about arriving at the airport early enough to check-in and get through security.
Next, fear plagues me as I wait in the TSA line—will I be picked for a random, invasive, and humiliating search? Will they reject my carry-on because of some prohibited item I didn’t realize I’d packed? Will security take too long, and I’ll miss my flight?
Once through security, I need to find my gate. Will I have time to reach it before boarding? Time to use the restroom first or grab food?
The list of my potential worries related to air travel goes on and on.
And, yet, I’m fine on the plane. I don’t fear the flight itself. I’ve examined this odd dichotomy that I seem to have, trying to figure it out.
I think that rising into the sky itself, up above clouds and reaching unearthly, unexplored territory in a floating contraption that somehow rides on air I can’t see makes me acutely aware of how out of control I am.
More than that, I’m up near the heavens in an airplane. It feels like I’m undeniably in God’s territory. How could I not, then, realize my own finite and limited abilities and rest in His control over my airborne fate?
But clearly, I’m forgetting something when I give in to anxiety when I’m still on the ground, navigating the logistics of successful air travel.
I’m forgetting that everywhere is God’s territory.
Rising Danger
This is a lesson Bristol Bachmann, the heroine of my new suspense novel Rising Danger, has to learn, too. As a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, Bristol has tasted the danger of things she can’t control. Her response is to try to control everything in her life.
As a bomb technician and handler of an explosives detection K-9, Bristol faces danger every day. But it’s a risk she believes she can control because she knows how to find and disarm a bomb. She’s in her element with bombs—that’s her territory, the part of her life she can control.
But the reality she encounters in the story is one we all encounter in our lives, sooner or later, if not every day.
We are not in control of anything that happens in our lives. Even in our comfort of driving a car versus flying on a plane, we’re kidding ourselves. We’re no more in control of our own car than we are the hundreds or thousands of other vehicles we’ll encounter as we drive—all of which could cause an accident that could lead to our injury or death.
But the surprising twist to this reality is that, rather than having more fear if we accept that we’re not in control, the key to fearlessness is embracing this truth.
It’s good—no, wonderful—news that I’m not in control. Because the One Who is in control of everything is God Himself. He’s omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and perfect. And He is good, all the time, in every way.
We cannot travel out of His territory or get too far away for Him to be in control, even if we pierce the heavens in a soaring airplane.
Whether land, sea, sky or the far reaches of outer space—whether in good times or horrific tragedy—we can be fearless as our illusion of control shatters around us.
Relinquishing that fabricated comfort frees us to live with indestructible peace. Because only then can we rest in the glorious reality that we are in the hands of our loving Father and almighty God Who is in control and will do all things for the good of those Who love Him.
First, it is my favourite genre to read and write: inspirational romantic suspense.
Second, the danger of explosives destroying the dams threatened to unleash one of my favourite conflicts – man-against-nature (in this case – water). I adore water-related plots! (No, I don’t know why, lol.)
Third, there is plenty of man-against-man conflict and man-against-self to keep you flipping the pages long into the night. Every time I’d planned to stop reading at the end of the chapter, the hook had me turning the page. (I blame Jerusha for the dark circles under my eyes!).
Not only does Rising Danger deliver on genre expectations, but it also contains a beautiful spiritual thread to the story. It’s refreshing to find a fictional author who shares my desire to “do all things for the glory of God” and “show nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” That ranks Rising Danger as top shelf in my books.
Contest announcement!
When are you most aware you’re not in control? Do you battle anxiety or other forms of fear when things are out of your control? Please share (and see contest rules below).
*Contest open to USA residents only.
Commenters located in the USA will be entered into a draw for a signed copy of Rising Danger. The winner will be chosen by random draw on August 5th and notified via the email address connected to your comment. You must note your country of residence in your comment and answer the question to be entered.
About Jerusha
Jerusha Agen imagines danger around every corner but knows God is there, too. So naturally, she writes suspense infused with the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ.
With a B.A. in English and a background in screenwriting, Jerusha is a speaker, writing instructor, and Fear Warrior who sounds the call to battle against fear in our everyday lives.
Jerusha loves to hang out with her big furry dogs and little furry cats. You’ll often find her sharing irresistibly adorable photos of them in her newsletter and on social media.
Get a free suspense story from Jerusha and find more of her thrilling, fear-fighting novels at www.JerushaAgen.com.
“My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.”
Psalm 45:1
Context: A love song written for a royal wedding and addresses a king.1
A Pleasing theme
In Psalm 45:1, the author is overwhelmed with a “pleasing theme.” These beautiful words stir his heart (NLT). The Contemporary English Version says it like this: My thoughts are filled with beautiful words for the king, and I will use my voice as a writer would use pen and ink.
Imagine your tongue as your pen and ink.
A computer feature that I have come to appreciate is the voice-to-text shortcut. It is very easy for me to click a few buttons, speak, and see the words magically appear on the screen. I love this. My tongue is my pen. Consider the implications for writers if we carry this metaphor through Scripture.
Psalm 141:3, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!”
Proverbs 21:23, “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”
Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
James 1:26, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”
Scripture has a lot to say about the words we speak, and the implications apply to the words we write as authors. This new blog series is an opportunity to journey together and consider what God has to say about the words stirring in our hearts and spilling out of our mouths or onto the page.
Pray
Pray through the verses above, asking the Lord to set a guard over your words to keep you from trouble. Resolve to write and speak no “corrupting words.” Resolve to “build up your readers” and “build up the people around you.” Consider the solemn warning for Christians who do not “bridle their words.” Ask the Lord to expose your heart, so you do not deceive yourself.
Footnotes:
Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 992). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
Let’s give Karen Malley a warm welcome to the blog! Karen has visited before, and a handful of readers reached out to tell me they were excited to check out her book Following the Sparrows. Today, Karen is sharing about her newest release and the truths woven through her novel’s themes. Welcome, Karen!
Have you ever felt like you’ve messed up so much there’s no hope for forgiveness? You’re in good company. The Bible tells of the amazing accomplishments of men and women of faith, but we also learn of their failings. I believe God includes these failings to show us we can never fall too far to be forgiven.
Consider Moses. He is best remembered as the deliverer of the Israelites out of slavery, the one to whom God gave the ten commandments, the leader of Israel. He wrote the first five books of the Bible and spoke to God face to face. Before all that, though? He murdered an Egyptian man and ran off into the wilderness to tend sheep for 40 years. When God came to tell him he would lead his people out of slavery, he made excuses.
What about David? David, the king of Israel who delivered the nation from her enemies, was called “a man after God’s own heart.” He loved God deeply and poured out his emotions in the Psalms. David also committed adultery and murder, and he failed in parenting.
The disciple Peter boldly declared his allegiance to Christ. He was the first to proclaim Jesus as the messiah. He led hundreds to Christ after Jesus’ death and resurrection. He performed miracles in Jesus’ name and was eventually martyred. When Jesus was arrested, however, Peter denied even knowing him.
Perhaps the most striking example is Paul. Paul was one of the most influential people in the early church. He started multiple churches, spread the gospel to the Gentiles, wrote more books of the Bible than any other author, and spread the gospel throughout the world through his missionary journeys. Before all that, though, he actively persecuted Christians. He spoke against Jesus and had Christians thrown in jail. Paul says the following:
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”
1 Timothy 1:15-16
The Bible is full of examples of God’s forgiveness. No matter your past, whether you’re a murderer like Moses or have actively spoken out against Jesus like Paul, you can be forgiven. It’s simply a matter of asking. When you sincerely ask God for forgiveness, He offers it freely. Does that mean we’ll never mess up again? Absolutely not. It means when we do mess up, we get back up and try again. I, for one, am grateful God is a God of second chances.
A new life coming into the world disrupts Susan’s quiet life …
Susan Montgomery is used to a quiet, peaceful life managing her apartment building, where the hardest problem is her grouchy neighbor’s leaky faucet. She soon finds herself dealing with a pregnant teenage niece, a mysterious briefcase left behind by a tenant, and two very different men vying for her heart.
A near-death experience gives Mac a new outlook on life …
Christopher “Mac” MacAllister is trying to figure out how to “do the Christian thing.” As a new convert, he’s drawn to Susan’s love for life and for God. She’s nothing like the women he used to date; but can Mac compete with the guy who’s come out of nowhere and knows all the right things to say?
Mother’s Day is a complicated day in our home. I didn’t cart home from the hospital the three kids that made me a mom. They did not grow in my body. They arrived, fully formed, at ages ten months, two years and three years old.
We celebrate Mother’s Day with such gratefulness that God has knit our family together through adoption. We celebrate how adoption beautifully models how God adopts and grafts us into His family. And then we mourn.
We mourn with our children for all they have lost. We grieve for what could have been—what should have been—for our children. The aftermath of Mother’s Day has always brought questions.
We bend our knees to pray for the family they didn’t get to know. We thank the Lord that when unwanted pregnancies are easily terminated, our children were born to a woman that valued life. We pray for God’s mercy in her home, for His saving arm to reach down and retrieve the lost from the miry bog and set her feet on solid ground.
As the kids have aged, Mother’s Day has become less traumatic, but the grief is just below the surface. The questions are still there. Who am I?
We praise the Lord that all three of our kids have confessed Christ as their Saviour, and that decision defines them more than anything else ever will. God defines them as forgiven and clean, and God calls them holy. Col 3:12, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved…” 1 Pet 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation….”
They are holy, not because they have earned it or made themselves holy by responding to God’s call, but rather, they are holy because those adopted into the family of God are made holy by Christ. They belong to God. They are His child, and nothing can never sever that relationship.
Year after year, we witness God giving them the strength to endure their losses as they lean into Him. As they mature in Christ, we see them stand more confidently because they understand their status is secure because Jesus not only stands with them, but He stands in their place.
And every Mother’s Day I am overwhelmed afresh by the blessing it is for them to call me mom.
This past year, I’ve fielded more questions about our decision to homeschool than any other time.
Our family of five has been homeschooling for about seven years. This year, our children turn 17, 14, and 13, and they will be the first to tell you that we are not perfect homeschool parents. So if you are reading this and feel overwhelmed because you are not doing this homeschool thing perfectly or you fear you could never do this homeschool thing at all, you are in good company.
Why we chose to homeschool
I never planned to be a homeschool mom. I’m a writer, novelist, and speaker. I never even considered home education as an option before we moved to Brantford, Ontario. We had great public school experiences up to that point in life, and we know and love fantastic public school teachers. Our choice to homeschool did not come as a result of a wound or a fear. Our decision to homeschool began as a practical decision.
My husband is a pastor, and we were in a transition year that took us from our public school in St Catharines to the United States for four months (where we were gifted private Christian education), then back to St Catharines to sell our house to land in Brantford, Ontario. Brantford would have been our children’s third school experience that year and fourth transition. We felt that was too much change and opted to homeschool the remaining four months. I thought that even if I were the worst homeschooling mother ever – they likely wouldn’t lose an entire year in four months with me. No one is more shocked than I am that we are still homeschooling all these years later.
Unexpected blessings through homeschool
Through homeschooling, I have grown closer with my children in a way previously unknown to me. There is a greater depth to our relationship, and it saddens me to know that I had no idea what I was missing before. My kids were gone all day with conventional school and busy with homework and sports/clubs at night, but I didn’t know anything different. I thought it had to be that way. Now we are together nearly all the time (which has its pros and cons), and I have grown to love their quirks, sense of humour, and personality traits more than ever before.
So much time together has been a blessing, but it has also been the most sanctifying and challenging experience I have ever endured. Nothing has exposed the sin in my heart more than homeschooling my children. God has used this to shed light on my selfish tendencies, my sense of entitlement, and a shocking level of personal laziness. When I went into this, I believed God would use homeschooling to grow and impact my kids, but I had no idea how much he would use it to grow and challenge me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
I’m not alone
I’ve learned that my ability to teach my children rests entirely on God’s ability to keep His promises to me. It rests on God’s ability to bring about the changes in me that He desires. It rests on God’s ability to provide for our every need in Jesus Christ.
I’ve found the homeschool community to be a tremendous encouragement. Moms further along the path have encouraged me through difficult years and offered advice and resources. We’ve cried together, laughed together, and prayed together as we sought to raise our children to be responsible and God-fearing adults. As I near the finish line of homeschool, I am challenged to pour into those just beginning. I desire to be available to answer questions and share resources that I have found helpful.
Have questions?
I’m excited to be part of the 2021 Canadian Homeschool Symposium. If you have questions – this is the conference with answers. It’s affordable ($25), it’s accessible (ONLINE), offers several workshops and allows you to interact with the speakers.
I have the privilege of opening God’s Word to 2 Chronicles 20 at this online symposium. Raising our children in the ways of the Lord and educating them to be responsible God-honouring adults is an all-in, no-holds-barred, the-enemy-fights-dirty battle. Sometimes, even after suiting up in the armour, fear spears us right through the heart. At the conference, you can journey with me through 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 in Homeschool Hardships and Humble Hearts and learn how a teacher’s character shapes the student and how you can fearlessly lead your children through battles that belong to the Lord. Click the image to visit the website and learn about the other speakers, vendors, and help available.
