The tongue is the heart’s messenger. So often as it speaks before the heart dictates, the messenger runs without his errand. He that will not speak idly, must think what he speaks; he that will not speak falsely, must speak what he thinks.—Arnot.
What is before said (verse 2, and chap. xii. 23) of the wise and the foolish, is said here of the righteous and the wicked: and what is before said of the utterance of wisdom and folly, is here said of the utterance of good and evil. We have repeatedly seen how Solomon identifies these in his statements. Wickedness is folly; goodness is wisdom.—Wardlaw.
“Mouth,” all agency. Religion is so much like politeness, that a polite man “winnows” (ver. 7) his acts till they look sometimes like religion; but watch men where the guise of kindness fails them, viz., their aim to be polite, and their “mouth pours out evils.” There is a recklessness of act that only a religious purity can essentially restrain.—Miller.
The wicked, speaking so much, cannot but speak “evil things” (chap. x. 19). Not his heart, as in the case of the righteous, but his mouth takes the lead.—Fausset.
I. It is not easy at the first to apprehend the right, because error at the first ken standeth usually in men’s light, and hindereth them from seeing the truth, whereof they may better inform themselves by serious deliberation. II. When the mind hath time and liberty to ponder upon, and will to weight the point to be spoken unto, it findeth out good arguments for good causes, and digesteth the same in so apt a manner as may best persuade the hearts of the hearers. III. A meditating heart affecteth itself for that which it provideth for others to hear, and such men speak not only truly and pertinently, but faithfully also, and conscientiously: their souls having first feeling of that within, which after their mouths are to deliver out.—Dod.
The answer, which I conceive the heart of the righteous to study, is the answer of obedience unto God’s commandments—the answer of thankfulness for His favours and mercies received. For, as St. Gregory speaketh, to answer to God is to render to His precedent gifts the duties of our service. Now, this study is the study of the whole life of a righteous man. Whatsoever he goes about, he knows that he must answer to God for it, and therefore he considereth before he doth it, that it be answerable unto God’s law.—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse 29.
God Near and Far Off.
I. God is not far from the wicked in a local sense. The most wicked man upon the face of the earth lives and moves and has his being by reason of his relation to that God who he practically ignores. The power of life that he possesses is not self-originated, and although we do not know exactly how he lives in God, we know that in this sense he is near to Him, for “He is not far from every one of us” (Acts xvii. 27). But—
II. God is far from the wicked in a moral sense. There is often a wide moral distance between those who are locally near each other. The father who lives and toils for his children, and eats with them at the same table may be as far from them morally as he is near to them locally. Judas lived for three years with the Son of God—often shared the same hospitality and partook of the same meal. There was a local nearness to Christ but a wide moral gulf between the Master and the professed disciple. The moral distance between God and the wicked is the subject of the first clause of this verse. Notice—1. The cause of this distance. The ungodly man cherishes purposes and desires which are directly opposed to the will and purpose of God. God has one view of life and the ungodly man has another. That which God esteems of the highest moment is lightly esteemed by a wicked man. This being so, there can be no sympathy between the creature and his Creator—a great gulf is fixed between them. 2. The wicked man is to blame for remaining at this distance from God. God invites him to bridge the chasm. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him: and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa. lv. 7). He rolls upon him the responsibility of the separation. “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). 3. This distance, if not annihilated, will increase with time and continue through eternity. Sinful habits and desires, if yielded to, grow harder to overcome—a man never stands still in the way of transgression. And no local change from one world to another can have any effect upon the moral distance. It is not to be bridged by change of place but by change of character. Either the man must turn to God or be ever getting farther from Him. But—