I read through one of my favorite Psalms today and one verse especially caught my attention. Psalm 15.
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
3 who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
and speaks truth in his heart;
3 who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
Verse 3 is the one that stood out to me.
I must've heard my pastor preach on this sometime b/c I have a lot of notes written around this passage. Beside the word "slander", I wrote "reduces them".
Wow. Think back to recent conversations. Anything said to "reduce" someone? Maybe what we said was true but was the intent to "reduce" them in someone else's eyes?
I looked up the Hebrew word for this and it includes the idea of carrying it along. So I guess it means taking our opinion...or agenda....and advancing it at someone else's expense. I've done it. Perhaps you have too. It's the gist of many conversations, even some "prayer requests". What's disturbed me lately is how I see this playing out on social media. Somehow cyberspace seems to give us permission to air all our frustrations/disappointments/commentary regarding other people/groups/philosophies/institutions. Maybe it's without thought to the results but I fear that is not the case. I am afraid that what we intend with our "sharing" (whether in person or through a button on a cell phone) is to "reduce" someone in the eyes of others....to slander.
Perhaps we think we are helping the situation by sharing. Somehow?? Perhaps we have an unconscious motive to wound the victim of our talk. Or maybe we are deceived into thinking that "reducing" someone else will "enlarge" ourselves.
I know somebody is gonna bristle at this and argue that I am suggesting we cannot speak the truth. I'm not saying that. I am asking that we examine our motive in passing along that truth. And then consider whether such "sharing" is the right thing to do. The standard for our speech - which certainly includes speaking and writing - is to be wholesome, edifying, giving grace to the hearer (Eph. 4:29)
I am asking God to help me do just that. Because I want the promise of that last verse:
He who does these things (or does NOT do the wrong things) will never be shaken.