Discover The Word

Monday, April 20, 2009

“He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; he has broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction; bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in You” (Psalm 55:20-23).

IDEA: Sometimes a good truth can be used in a bad way.

PURPOSE: To help listeners see that when we read the text of Scripture we must discern who says what to whom.

Do you think it’s a good practice to send cards to people on special occasions?

I heard of a 5-year old boy whose grandmother had died, and he found a very lovely card to send to his grandfather. The only difficulty was that the greeting on the inside said “many happy returns of the day.”

Sometimes we can do that with the Bible and sometimes it’s done in the Bible.

I. In Psalm 55:22, we read “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”

That is a lovely assurance but in the context of the psalm it resembles “many happy returns of the day.”

II. Who is it that is speaking these words?

Psalm 55:20-21—”He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; he has broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.”

What were the words of the enemy to David? Psalm 55:22.

III. Is there a way that our words drawn from the Bible can be used in a destructive manner?

The whole development of the book of Job is that Job’s friends spoke truth: sin brings punishment. But they also went on to assume that what seemed like punishment was the result of some sin on Job’s part. Job was hurt by those words and at the end of the book God was angry that the friends would say that.

CONCLUSION:

We must be thoughtful about what we say to someone who is hurting. Or else it can be like a greeting card to someone who has lost his wife: “Many happy returns of the day.” It’s great for a birthday, tragic for a funeral.