**Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. ** Psalm 17:3
A noble statement, right? The Psalmist states that he has been proved, visited by God, tested and has come up clean before God and that He has not found any evil in him. David goes on to say that he does not sin with this mouth. That seems a bit difficult to accept… to never complain, insult, criticize, gossip?
But if we know the story of David, we know this to be basically true. When others criticized King Saul or some other enemy, he rebukes the ones that spoke evil of Saul instead of joining in on the verbal bashing. He did not talk about his enemies negatively to others. He suffered at their hand, but he did not lash back with his own words. David can say honestly that he was able to keep his words in check.
But can we?
Can I?
Unfortunately, I am not as innocent as David was. But my desire is that one day I can have as clear a conscience as David. In another of his Psalms, he prays and asks God to keep an eye on him:
**Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer. **
Although David was not known for bad mouthing others, he still prayed that God would help him should the temptation present itself. That is good news for you and I. We can’t hide anything from God, so we might as well lay it on the table and ask outright for help with our weak areas.