Devotional Portion: Psalm 15:3
He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbour, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
David continues with the character of the one who can come before God in this verse as well. We saw a positive approach in verse 2, but in verse 3, we are seeing how they should avoid the negative characters.
The psalmist is focusing on three virtues here: talk, work and character.
He who does not backbite with his tongue,
Backbiting is the malicious talk about someone who is not present. Like 6:45 says, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” When our heart is corrupt and has a grudge toward someone, it will come out as words and it’s a sin as we are backbiting the one who is created in the image of God. We must have the courage to speak directly to people and settle things rather than backbiting.
“The tongue is not steel, but it cuts, and it’s wounds are very hard to heal; its worst wounds are not with its edge to our face, but with its back when our head is turned.” Charles Spurgeon.
Nor does evil to his neighbour,
The fifth quality is related to action or work. When speaking about the untamed tongue, James says, “But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” (James 3:8). This verse has an inner meaning that the one who could tame the tongue has control over all the members of his body. So, the one who bridles the tongue will never let his hands do vicious things against the neighbour. We are called to love our neighbours as ourselves. (Mark 12:31).
Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
Speaking evil of others is an abomination in the eyes of God. Trapp says, that “the tale-bearer carrieth the devil in his tongue, and the tale-hearer carries the devil in his ear.” Better to keep ourselves away from the tale-bearers so that we can keep ourselves holy. Jesus is the true example and she never spoke evil of anyone, but He prayed and did miracles to His enemies too. A great example of Christian love.
Reflection: Ask God to cleanse us of we possess any of these in life, reconcile with God and man.
