I. How important it is that we should seek to order our speech aright, seeing that our words are the outcoming of our inmost heart, the revelation of the deepest, most hidden things which are there.
II. How important it is that we should order our speech aright, seeing that words reach so far, exercise so vast an influence. They have sometimes been called "winged," and so they are, travelling far and fast by paths of their own.
III. We might well pray this prayer, having regard to the difficulty of the duty which we here propose to ourselves: a difficulty so great that St. James could say, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."
IV. Consider the strict judgment and account to which God will call us for our use of this excellent talent of speech. "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned;" and from other sayings of Christ our Lord it is to be feared that many a light word, as it seems now, will prove heavy enough at the day of judgment: many a word lightly spoken now will have to be heavily accounted for then.
R. C. Trench, Sermons in Westminster Abbey,p. 114.
References: Psalms 39:1. R. Duckworth, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xx., p. 200; C. Wordsworth, Sermons at Harrow School,p. 198; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 74; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,3rd series, p. 60.