Let the lying lips be mute
Psalm 31:20-24. January 30, 2023 - Monday, 4th Week in Ordinary Time
In our responsorial psalm today, we hear the concluding part of Psalm 31. The entire psalm is a prayer in times of crisis. We do not know in what kind of crisis the psalmist found himself but verses 18, 19 and 21 would indicate a false accusation. The psalmist speaks about lying lips and an insolent speech against the righteous (see Ps 31:19).
History knows many people being accused of things they had never done. Some were sentenced to death on the testimony of false witnesses (see 1 Kings 21:1-16), others spent years in prison for crimes they did not commit, and still others were shunned by their relatives and former friends. Like the psalmist, they were “a reproach, to [their] neighbours, and an object of dread to [their] acquaintances” (Ps 31:12). Nobody wanted to have anything to do with them.
Verse 19 of our psalm includes this petition of the psalmist: “Let the lying lips be mute,
which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt”. We see the power of the lying lips on the first pages of the Bible. The serpent lied about God’s motive to forbid Adam to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (see Gen 3:1-3). He was accusing God of withdrawing special knowledge from the people and preventing them from participating in His divine nature. That lie caused the first humans to lose trust in God’s providential care and transgress His commandment.
The power of the lying lips is also seen in our society. Fake news and gossip spread about individual people, companies, religious organisations, and even entire nations can have a disastrous impact. Pope Francis compared gossiping to terrorism. He said: “Gossipers are terrorists because with their tongues they drop a bomb and then leave, and the bomb they drop destroys reputations everywhere”. Those who gossip, engage in spreading fake news or falsely accused others transgress God’s commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour" (see Ex 20:16).
We find one sentence of this psalm of the lips of Jesus Christ and the first martyr of the Church, Saint Stephen. At the moment of their death, they prayed: “Into your hand I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59). What is incredible in their stories is the fact that it did not end there. By raising Jesus Christ, the Father has proven the innocence of his beloved Son. By receiving Stephen to the heavenly inheritance, Lord Jesus proved that Stephen did not do anything wrong. Our judicial systems can make errors or be outright corrupted but the Lord, the Judge of the living and the dead cannot. He silences the lying lips, shows no partiality, and judges everyone according to their deeds.
May this truth of our faith bring comfort and hope to all those falsely accused. The force of malicious words can be overwhelming but the Lord is our refuge and in him we put our trust.