Psalm 15, Part 3

The second characteristic is holy speech. The holy speech that God requires has a positive and negative aspect to it as seen here. Positively, this man speaks the truth in his heart. Negatively, he does not slander. Let’s look at the positive aspect first. The idea here seems to be that the man’s heart is so saturated with truth that all his words come out drenched with it. What he says is not swayed by a fear of man, fearing he will displease one man or the other. Why is that? Because to the degree that you fear man you will twist your words in order to conform them to what you think people want to hear. For this man, truth is what dictates what he says.

Now let’s look at the negative aspect, 'he does not slander'. The meaning behind this word is very interesting, because it has connections with spying. The idea David seems to have in mind here is one of being so intent on criticizing someone you are like a spy looking for one mess up, one blemish that you can pounce on and tell others about in order to ruin their reputation. The man who will abide with God however is far removed from that. His speech isn’t clouded with the pollution of slander. He doesn’t tear others down in order to build himself up. He doesn’t use others’ failures as a stepping stone to his own exaltation.

The reason this man speaks the truth and does not slander actually has nothing to do with his lips. We learn this from Jesus in Matthew 12:34 where he says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” This necessarily means that this man’s heart is pure and undefiled, for that is what his speech demonstrates. What does that say about my heart and yours? Is it a pure fountain from which words of truth spring and where there is no trace of slander to be found?