“I tell you this: on the day of judgment,
people will be called to account for every careless word they have ever said.”
— Matthew 12:36 (The Voice)
There Will Be An Unfolding of Truth
Have you ever been wounded by gossip or slander?
When I read Psalm 120, it feels less like ancient poetry and more like a report from my own life. Perhaps you will feel the same. The Psalms catalogue the full terrain of the human heart—its joys and its sorrows—and that is why they have comforted souls for centuries.
I know what it is to be spoken about rather than spoken to. I know the peculiar violence of distorted stories carried from voice to voice. No blood is drawn, yet something real is damaged. A reputation bends. A relationship fractures. A room shifts when you enter it.
The psalmist calls it “lying lips” and a “deceitful tongue.” Those phrases are not exaggerated. They are precise. Words can become weapons without ever rising above a whisper.
What strikes me most is not merely the accusation but the restraint. “I am for peace.” That confession carries weight. It means refusing to answer slander with slander. It means choosing silence when retaliation would be easier. It means absorbing misunderstanding rather than escalating conflict.
Yet the psalm does not pretend that careless speech is harmless. There is a reckoning. Sharp arrows and burning coals are images of consequence. Words sent into the world do not dissolve into nothing. They land somewhere. They lodge in someone. And in time, they return to the one who released them.
This is not about vengeance. It is about justice woven into the fabric of reality. Truth has weight. Lies leave debris. A reckless tongue may feel powerful for a moment, but it cannot outrun what it sets in motion.
Psalm 120 gives permission to name the wound without becoming the aggressor. It reminds us that being for peace does not mean pretending no conflict exists. And it reassures us that we do not have to settle every score. There is One who hears. There is One who keeps account.
People may speak carelessly. They may distort, exaggerate, or wound. But their words are not the final word and that is comforting for those who have been victims.
Scripture quotations marked VOICE are taken from The Voice™. Copyright © 2012 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved
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