Proverbs 15:4 The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
A tongue that conveys beneficial guidelines and moral and decent counseling will be comforting and gentle. Virtuous words are akin to a tree that will persistently bring about life from the fruit it bears and the shade it provides. Words are powerful things; they can build someone up or break someone down. The words we use in our everyday correspondences can do far more good than we can imagine. But, on the other hand, they also can do more harm than we might think. We can use our words to bring about the healing of a broken spirit, much the same as the Tree of Life in God’s New Heaven and New Earth does.
A wholesome tongue is an elixir for beneficial and effective speech. Everyone that listens to that person will benefit in some way by their words: because a person with a soothing tongue will cautiously choose what they are going to say. The words that a person chooses with a soothing tongue will improve the lives of their hearers. Solomon compares this person with a soothing tongue to the Tree of Life; what a powerful simile. Their listeners know that there is knowledge in their words, and people will seek them out.
For a minister of the gospel (which all children of God are) to assure that they are operating with a soothing tongue, their speech must be of sound doctrine and the nourishing and blooming words of God and not our own words. A soothing tongue serves to introduce the lost sinner to the only way to eternal life, Christ Jesus. Furthermore, these soothing words will bring comfort and reassurance to the saved sinners. Everyone will benefit from a soothing tongue; no one will go away empty. Since the idea of a soothing tongue is tied so closely to the “Tree of Life,” without any exception, the words used by this person must be God’s words. There is no way a mere human can be associated with a soothing tongue outside of the influencing power of God’s Holy Spirit.
Let us pray and ask God to help us make our words a blessing to someone today, not a curse. Only God can help us to find the words that reflect His grace and His mercy. Then, when all the language and speech around us in the world is self-centered and self-interested, we can turn to God and have faith that He will guide our vocabulary that it might have a soothing, healing, and calming effect on all of those around us.
This proverb has an underlying theme that is not mentioned but crucial and essential, nonetheless. That is that our mouths will only be able to speak of what is in our hearts (Matthew 12:33-37; Matthew 15:18-20). We will never be able to modify and alter our speech unless we first amend and transform our hearts, and there is only one that can do that. Christ Jesus will not perform a heart bypass to get us around the sin in our lives. Instead, he will take the heart of stone in our chest and replace it with a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26). As with every gift that we have, our speech comes from God.
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