Tuesday, June 1

For there is no truth in their mouths...they bend their tongues like bows; they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth... and they do not know me, says the Lord.
—Psalm 5:9

We know when we are bending our tongue. We usually do it when we don't want to get caught at something, or when we want to flatter someone in order to get a particular response from them, or when we are attempting to manipulate or control a situation that seems dangerously close to being out of our hands. 

We bend the truth when we don't want someone to pry more deeply into our affairs, or when we are afraid the truth will hurt someone, or when we don't want to "own up" to something that feels too painful to us. Yes, we know when we bend our tongues. The trouble is that we sometimes bend our tongue for so long, that we become oblivious to the fact that it has become misshapen.

When the tongue has become distorted and deformed because of untruth, we find it increasingly difficult to recognize the face and voice of the Holy One. There is a distinct contrast between the pure, clear truth that drips down from heaven and the tawdry lies that have come to feel so normal to us. That contrast keeps us locked in the foggy room of untruth and the Holy One feels very far away. 

What is needed is for us to concentrate our attention on the words that fall off our bent tongue. As we forsake untruth and grasp onto truth, our tongue will begin to straighten itself out, and our words will shine  like gold.

O God, when untruth lies so close to the end of my tongue that it becomes as twisted as thick cord, let the truth of your love call me away from the lair of lies.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2004.