“The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.” (Psalm 12:6)

How do you describe the message from the Holy One of Israel? In trying to explain anything about God, man is left without proper words. So awesome is the Lord of Creation, the language of men fails to find the superlatives. The words of the Lord are pure. What does that mean? How do we define pure in this regard? Do we actually know what it means to be pure? We sometimes see adds that claim 99% pure but totally pure, that is hard to come by.

While we can micro-filter water or some other substance, there remains no filter for language. Only God speaks words that are totally pure. God’s words are like silver that has been filtered over and over again in the refinery until nothing impure remains. God’s words are the real thing, without hidden meaning or buried agenda. God says exactly what He means and means exactly what He says.

Don’t you wish we humans would emulate Him and His language? Our words like our hearts are so impure. Our words are so often false, misleading, hurtful, and harmful. We lie, and we cast innuendo as we gossip and spread rumors. All gossip is wrong but hurtful, harmful gossip is the worst. James in his great book reminds us that our tongue is a raging fire, totally out of control and somehow beyond our control. The tongue is one of man’s worse enemies. Whether its filthy speech or false talking it does not belong to Christians.

Task for Today: Find a furnace to refine your speech. Subject your words to the scrutiny of others. Taming the tongue is difficult because first, you must tame your heart. Check your heart because it will feed your tongue. Your choice of words is a result of your thoughts. Pray for a clean heart today.