“Lord, rescue me from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.” (v. 2)

You can read this prayer two ways:

Do you need to be rescued from the lying and deceitful tongues around you?

Or do you need to be rescued from the one within you?

Both are valid readings.

We are all too aware of the bitterness in the world: slander and cancel culture and unguarded social streams. And so we are subjected to all their deceits. The prayer for God’s protection against the destructive force of their tongues is a good prayer.

Yet we are also aware that that same potential—for the murderous and slanderous misuse of the tongue—exists inside us, too. So, then, ought we pray: “God, by grace, rescue me from my lips and my tongue!”

One prayer shields you. The other shapes you. All for God’s glory.

— Tyler