Thought for Wednesday, 19 July 2023

 Psalm 140:1-3

O Lord, rescue me from evil people.  Preserve me from those who are violent, those who plot evil in their hearts and stir up trouble all day long.  Their tongues sting like a snake; the poison or venom of a viper drips from their lips. 

I suppose we all have our favourite tv programmes and sometime our taste will be the same as those we come into contact with and sometimes it will be quite different.  I came across a programme quite some time ago and I’m certainly the only one in our house that watches it.  It’s called ‘Snakes in the City’ where a heavily tattooed couple remove snakes from homes, businesses and gardens around the Durban area of South Africa and release them in the countryside well away from settlements. 

Most of the snakes they catch are highly venomous and anyone bitten that does not receive treatment soon after may well die.  Almost every episode features some of the following poisonous snakes: Mozambique spitting cobra, forest cobra, black mamba, green mamba, puff adder, vine snake and the boomslang.  When they receive a call, the snake is seldom visible.  It could be in a room full of furniture and belongings, it could be in a loft area, it could be in a tree, there has even been a couple hiding in car engines.  The couple in the programme are always careful to avoid being bitten but they are also careful not to injure the snake they are trying to catch.  Many of the locals live in dread of dangerous snakes but the couple in the show try to educate them on the snakes that are dangerous and those which are not and explain to them that all the snakes are doing is trying to exist and survive. 

I guess we are blessed to be living in a country without dangers such as these.  Being bitten by any of these snakes can result in truly horrific impact on a person and even if they survive the encounter, they may have had to suffer tissue loss, blindness and other serious after- effects. 

It’s interesting to note that the psalmist who wrote today’s piece from scripture must have had a real awareness of how serious it is being bitten by a snake and, in those days, there was no anti-venom to treat victims, so in most cases, it would be fatal.  He uses this analogy to describe how poisonous and evil gossip can be.  Most of us will have suffered directly or indirectly due to gossip, and whether the gossip is true or false, it can be a truly hurtful experience and can stay with us for a long time. 

One Christian writer suggested that God gave us two ears but only one mouth so that listening and understanding and thinking is twice as important in many instances than the sharing of the information we have been given by others when it may cause someone pain.

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we would ask you to rescue each and every one of us from unfounded gossip and come into the hearts of those who would spread hurtful and damaging information about others.  Help us to resist the temptation to share things we may hear about others that may cause them distress and upset.          Amen.