It Starts Small

who does not slander with his tongue,
who does not harm his friend
or discredit his neighbor,

Psalm 15:3

This morning we continue our look into Psalms 15:3. David is describing the very people who God works His righteousness through. Yesterday we looked over the first part of the verse and discovered that righteousness is not gossiping or slandering. This morning we are going to look at how we speak to our friends and neighbors.

The Hebrew word for harm here is ḥerpâ. It means reproach, scorn. The meaning of this words lends to taunting or scorning your enemy. It also lends to meaning reproach as in resting the condition of shame or disgrace. Meaning to shame or disgrace someone.

Righteousness in no way brings any sort of scorn to your friends or enemy. In today’s modern era we have this word I can not stand: frenemy. It means someone who you fake a friendship with that you consider an enemy. When they are present you act one way, but when they are not around you speak of them as an enemy.

Many people tear down the people they know best. The human heart is often full of pride, jealousy, envy, and selfishness. This leads to all sorts of evil talk about people you might otherwise “love.” Think about it: no act of selfishness; no moment of impatience and irritation; no lashing out with unkind words; no moment of bitter judgment; no pushing themselves to the center of attention; no closing their eyes to the need of their friend because they’re too busy taking care of their own desires.

Jesus gave no distinction between enemies and neighbors or enemies and friends. David is describing a godly person who would never say anything that might hurt another person’s reputation – friend or neighbor. I think this is a helpful distinction, because it’s easy to speak highly of those who make our life enjoyable, and easy to speak negatively of those who make life difficult.

The second part we are going to look at is discrediting our neighbors. The Hebrew word used is raʿ. We have become familiar with this word over time and study. It simply means evil. Righteousness is not doing evil to your neighbor.

A person who seeks to worship and be in the presence of God does not slander, does not do evil, and does not harm their friends or neighbors.

Let’s take a moment this morning and do some holy introspection:

When you learn something about another person what do you chose to do with it? What is the first thing or person you seek?

When someone experiences a win that you feel you should have, how do you react?

When someone is at their lowest, how do you respond? What about your enemies? How do you respond when your enemies experience a low?

Is there something about my life that I continually justify that I should not?

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