Set a guard, oh Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips.
– Psalm 141:3
What a great prayer and verse to pray, memorize, and meditate on. For the psalmist David here to say, “God, I need you to guard my mouth, to keep watch over the door of my lips.”
Psalm 141:3 challenges us to be wise in our speech.
And just think about all the ways that God in his Word warns us about what comes out of our mouths. James 3, “With the tongue, we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth can come praise and cursing. My brothers this should not be.” We can be so quick to Ephesians 4, talk about others or to others in ways that don’t build them up in Jesus.
And you see it all over Psalms 140 and 141. Temptations to slander, temptations to speak evil against others. Temptations that we see all over God’s Word to gossip, temptations to just be careless with our speech. And so David says, God, I need your help to guard my mouth.
And I just want to encourage us today to pray this and to be intentional in response to this prayer, to keep watch over the door of our lips with God’s help. Instead of just speaking what comes to our mind. To have watch over the door of our lips. That we pause and we’re intentional with our words and we speak that which is life-giving to others. We speak that which builds up others in Jesus, that we speak about things that truly matter forever instead of just filling our conversations with temporal things that don’t matter forever.
Psalm 141:3 encourages us to glorify God with our words.
And so we pray, oh God, help us to speak today in ways that bring glory to you. Good to others and good to us as we walk with you. God, please help us set a guard over our mouths today. Keep watch over the door of our lips. We pray that nothing would come out of our lips today that is not honoring to you, honoring to others. God help our every word to be useful, helpful, loving, serving those around us and serving those we speak about who are nowhere near us.
God, we pray that you would help us to honor you with our lips and you would help us to be quick to realize and confess when we have said anything that is not honoring to you and others. How do we pray that we would not grow casual with flippant words or sinful words because they’re so common in our speech or the speech of those around us?
No God, in all of this, we pray you would help us to speak today the words of life to other people, to build up brothers and sisters in Christ with your Word, flowing from our lips, and to share the gospel, your Word with people who don’t know it. God, we pray for boldness to share the gospel today.
Prayer for the Shaikia People
God, we pray for our brothers and sisters specifically in Sudan today. Help them amidst so much suffering and persecution to spread your Word in the middle of it. We pray specifically for the Shaikia people of Sudan. 1.1 million of them who’ve not heard your Word. God, we pray that the gospel would spread through your church among the Shaikia people of Sudan, this Muslim tribe.
Lord please, that they might hear your Word and find life forever in it through your Word being spoken to them by your church. God, help us as your church to work with all our might to get your Word spoken to all the peoples of the world. We pray all this in light of your Word in Psalm 141:3. Oh Lord, set a guard over our mouths. Keep watch over the door of our lips. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
