Empty Words :: Psalm 41:6
David prayed in Psalm 41, When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad (v 6).
1.
When people say empty words to you, they are saying things to you that might seem appealing, important, and true ... but ultimately are not. Empty words are not necessarily lies, although they can be. Empty words can simply be evasive in what they say. Empty words have little or nothing behind them ... no concrete truth, no commitment, no endurance. We Americans are comfortably accustomed to empty words. We routinely speak empty words, and we never stop hearing empty words. Thus David prayed, He utters empty words.
Our everyday language uses empty words as standard speech. We routinely include empty words in our conversations with friends and strangers alike: How are you? ... I’m fine ... I hope you have a good day, and sometimes even, I will pray for you.
Even if you sincerely mean it when you make such inquiries and pledges, how long do you remember them? Does anyone really remember their conversations, even thirty seconds after they were spoken?
The lack of memory might indicate a certain emptiness to the words. It would be okay for us to admit ... or to confess ... that most of our conversational phrases generally mean little. That is why Solomon admonished, Let your words be few (Ecc 5:2). ... It is why James also encouraged us to be slow to speak (James 1:19), and why he also compared some of our conversations to forest fires, like in today’s epistle (James 3:5).
In addition to using empty words, we regularly hear empty words by virtue of the fact that we are constantly immersed in advertising. We see empty words on every flat surface at the baseball stadium. ... We hear a stream of empty words every time we turn on the radio. ... We even wear empty words on our foreheads and chests because of the way we like to dress. We ourselves have even become walking billboards that tout empty words.
Everyone, including the preacher, participates in such emptiness. We are so accustomed to the puffery, the evasiveness, and the false urgency of advertising that we do not even notice empty words when we hear them. ... The pledges we hear from our politicians are now good only for the chuckling entertainment of the moment, not for actual policy. ... Personal promises have come to mean very little, including in marriage and family relationships. ... Even long-term commitments rarely endure the latest wave of emotion.
2.
King David lived in a time and place when words meant something. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the very embodiment of God’s living Word (Jn 1:1–4). ... He alone speaks the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68). These are definitely not empty words.
When you were baptized into the living Christ, you were individually drawn up and out from the cesspool of the world’s “empty words.” In Baptism, the blood of Christ did something more than wash you clean from every sin of empty words and “evil deeds” (Col 1:21). ... Through Baptism, you were relocated to that one, eternal place where words still matter: the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints (Apostles’ Creed, Third Petition).
But we still wrestle with empty words.
King David writes: When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad. When David prayed those words, he was praying in the voice of The Christ. All the psalms are about The Christ (Jn 5:39). Like us, Jesus of Nazareth had plenty of empty words around Him all the time. The empty words that surrounded our Lord proved to be deadly words.
There are NO emptier words than the devil’s words. That snake started in the Garden of Eden: You will not surely die, he hissed. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God (Gn 3:4–5). Later, the devil’s empty words focused their intent upon Jesus: If You are the Son of God, he said ... throw Yourself down, he said ... all these [kingdoms of the world] I will give You (Mt 4:6, 9). He said empty words.
Peter, despite his earnest desire and best intentions, likewise uttered empty words to Jesus, and Jesus endured those words: Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah, gushed Peter, not knowing what he was saying (Lk 9:33). ... Even if I must die with You, I will NOT deny You! Peter swore (Mt 26:35). But then to the servant girl, he declared with an oath! ... I do NOT know the man! ... with an oath! (Mt 26:72). Empty words.
All the other disciples joined their empty words to Peter’s, making vacuous pledges that they also would never deny The Christ (Mt 26:35). Among the Twelve, the empty words spoken by Judas Iscariot stand out as the deadliest: Is it I, Rabbi? (Mt 26:25) ... Greetings, Rabbi! (Mt 26:49). Empty words.
Is it any wonder, King David thus prayed, When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
The Lord of Life was sentenced to death on the testimony of those who spoke empty words, as we heard in our Gospel reading. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put Him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said, ‘This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’ ... Then the high priest tore his robes and said, ‘[Jesus] has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need?’ (Mt 26:59–61, 65).
3.
You know the answer. David said, When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
In these midweek Lenten sermons, I have emphasized two things for you: (1) that the Psalms speak about Jesus (John 5:39) and (2) that because the Psalms speak about Jesus, they therefore speak also about you. They are not empty words. We know this because in Baptism, you were joined to the Lord (1 Cor 6:7). Through your Baptism into Christ, your Lord’s burdens have become yours, just as surely as your burdens have been fully taken up by your Lord. Jesus assured and promised you that His burden would NOT be too heavy for you: Take My yoke upon you ... for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light (Mt 11:29–30).
Have you ever felt the urge and need for such a lament?
Has a dear friend betrayed you, allowing you to treat him as a confidant, only to turn around and tell it abroad, either verbally or on social media?
Has your marriage vow been broken and the marriage bed defiled (Hb 13:4), by someone who spoke “empty words” to you on your wedding day?
Have you entered into a business contract with someone you thought you could trust, only to have your trust violated?
If you have suffered such things as these, then David’s words and our Lord’s words are also YOUR words: When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad. When you pray those words, you can know and trust that you are NOT alone. The entire Church in this vale of tears, and all her Christians, have always had plenty of reasons to pray those words with you. Psalm 41 indicates that Jesus and David also prayed those words before you.
Take special comfort in the fact that your Lord Jesus prayed those words before you. He knows well the heartbroken feeling of betrayal. He knows personally the dismay that rises from a sense of exposure. He knows intimately the devastating pain that can be caused by a close friend, even my close friend in whom I trusted (Ps 41:9), as it is written later in the psalm. Jesus also said in another place, expressing personal familiarity with your pain, I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning (Ps 35:14). Again, Jesus said in the voice of yet another psalm,
It is not an enemy who taunts me ... then I could bear it.
It is not an adversary who deals insolently with me ... then I could hide from him.
But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.
We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng. (Ps 55:12–14)
Believe the full word of God's counsel: Jesus knows how it feels to be betrayed by empty words. Jesus died for that betrayal and its shame. The Word of God promises you, by the power of His glorious resurrection, that you will NOT be tortured forever by the betrayal of empty words.