Psalm 140:1-5 says, “Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.
They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.
Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.
The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.”
David is asking God to deliver him. But look at what he’s asking to be delivered from. It’s not chariots, armies or swords. The weapons David lists in this psalm are all built into the man himself.
Notice the progression.
It starts in verse 2 with the heart. “Which imagine mischiefs in their heart.” This is where all sin begins. In the war room, behind closed doors and before anybody sees anything, something is already being planned.
Proverbs 6:18 talks about “an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations.” Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Then in verse 3, it moves to the tongue and the lips. “They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips.” Once the heart conceives it, the mouth delivers it.
Then verse 4, the hands. “Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked.” Now the plan goes into action. What the heart imagined and the mouth pushed forward, the hands carry out!
And behind all of it, verse 5, the proud. “The proud have hid a snare for me.” Pride is the engine driving the whole thing. It was the first sin that ever existed. Pride was born in heaven, when Lucifer said five times, “I will” (Isaiah 14:12-14).
Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”
Five weapons: Heart, tongue, lips, hands, and pride.
But out of all five, the deadliest one is the tongue.
A sword can wound the body. The tongue can destroy a life, a family, a church, and a reputation, and never leave a mark anyone can see.
The Tongue Is Connected to the Original Serpent
“They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent.” Psalm 140:3
The serpent in the Garden of Eden didn’t use force to overpower Eve. He simply used words.
Genesis 3:1 says, “Yea, hath God said?” That was the first attack on mankind, and it came from a tongue. He twisted what God said and he questioned what was already clear.
Revelation 12:9 calls him “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.” And Jesus said in John 8:44, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
The devil didn’t need a weapon of mass destruction to bring down the human race. He just needed a mouth.
So when David says the wicked have sharpened their tongues like a serpent, he’s telling you exactly what spirit is behind it. When a man uses his tongue to tear down another person, to twist the truth, to spread things that shouldn’t be spread, he is doing the devil’s work with the devil’s own tool.
The Tongue Carries Poison That Kills Without a Wound
“Adders’ poison is under their lips.” Psalm 140:3b
Notice where the poison is. It’s under the lips so you can’t see it coming. It’s hidden and that’s what makes it so dangerous. You don’t see the strike until the damage is already done.
Paul picks up this exact verse in Romans 3:13 and applies it to all of fallen mankind. “Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips.” Paul is saying this isn’t just about David’s enemies. This is the condition of every man apart from God.
James 3:8 says, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”
And Proverbs 18:21 puts it like this: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
Spurgeon wrote that “the deadliest of all venom is the slander of the unscrupulous. Some men care not what they say so long as they can vex and injure.”
You don’t need a knife to kill a man’s good name. You don’t need a weapon to break apart a marriage. One sentence, spoken to the right person at the right time, and the damage is done. No blood, bruises, or evidence needed. Just ruin!
The Tongue Is a Fire That Burns What Took Years to Build
James 3:5-6 says, “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.”
Notice that last part again: set on fire of hell. That means when a man uses his tongue to tear someone down, he’s doing hell’s work. The fuel comes from the pit.
Proverbs 16:27 says, “An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.” He goes looking for it, digs it up and then his lips light the match.
Proverbs 26:20-21 tells you how it works. “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth. As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.”
Take the talebearer out of the room and the fire dies. But as long as he keeps talking, the fire keeps burning.
A building can take years to build and minutes to burn down. That’s true for a church too. That’s true for a family or a good name. And the tongue is the match that starts it all.
The Tongue Is Sharper Than a Sword
David was a warrior. He killed giants, fought armies and knew what a blade could do. But when he described his worst enemies, he talked about their mouths.
Psalm 57:4 says, “My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.”
Psalm 52:2-4 says, “Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.”
That passage was written about Doeg, the man who ran his mouth to Saul and got an entire city of priests killed (1 Samuel 22:18-19). One man’s tongue, and eighty-five priests dead. It’s also interesting that David’s lie started that whole ball in motion too.
A sword wound can heal, but a word wound can follow a person for the rest of their life. People still carry scars from something someone said to them twenty, thirty years ago.
The Tongue Will Be Judged
Most people think God only judges what we do. But Jesus said something that we should remember.
Matthew 12:36-37: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
God takes the tongue seriously. Far more seriously than most of us do.
Christ, the Word, Overcame the Serpent’s Tongue
Here’s where it all comes together.
In Genesis 3, the serpent used words to destroy. But go back one more step. In Genesis 1, God used words to create. “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). The tongue that the devil uses to tear down, God used first to build everything that exists.
John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. The serpent twisted the word and Christ is the Word.
And when the devil came to Jesus in the wilderness, he tried the same thing he pulled in the garden. He twisted Scripture and he questioned God’s provision. But Jesus answered every attack the same way, with His tongue. “It is written” (Matthew 4:4). “It is written again” (Matthew 4:7). “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written” (Matthew 4:10).
He fought the serpent’s weapon with the sword of the Spirit. Ephesians 6:17 calls it “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The tongue that the enemy uses for poison, Christ used for truth.
And that’s the choice every one of us has. The same tongue that can destroy can also preach the gospel. The same mouth that can spread poison can speak life into someone who is broken. Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
Guard your tongue. It’s the one weapon you carry with you every single day. And it’s either serving the serpent or it’s serving the Saviour. There is no middle ground.
