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Psalm 34:13
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.
11Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
13Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.
14Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.
15The LORD’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
Notice
Tongue and lips make the fear of YHWH concrete: the words spoken in an ordinary conversation belong within the life this psalm describes.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What distinction do you notice between keeping your tongue from evil and keeping your lips from lies?
Write on thisIn which conversation this week might speaking the truth require more care from you?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
James 1:26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.Both connect devotion to God with restraint of the tongue, and James warns that an unbridled tongue makes religion worthless.
Psalm 141:3Set a watch, LORD, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips.Both speak of keeping watch over lips; Psalm 141 turns that concern into a prayer for the LORD’s help.
James 3:2For we all stumble in many things. Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also.Both treat control of speech as part of right conduct; James connects restraint in words with restraint of the whole body.
Psalm 39:1For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm by David. I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle …Both describe guarding the tongue against sin, with Psalm 39 picturing that restraint as a bridle over the mouth.
James 3:5–10So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!Both take the tongue’s capacity for evil seriously; James illustrates its reach through a small fire spreading into a forest.
Proverbs 21:23Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.Both urge restraint of mouth and tongue, while Proverbs states that such guarding keeps a person from troubles.
1 Peter 2:1Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,Both require turning away from deceit and evil speech as part of leaving evil behind.
1 Peter 2:22who didn’t sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”The psalm forbids lies on the lips, and Peter describes a mouth in which no deceit was found.
James 1:19So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;Both require restraint in speaking; James pairs being slow to speak with readiness to hear and slowness to anger.
Colossians 3:9Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,Both forbid lying, with Colossians naming the obligation to speak without lies to one another.
Proverbs 13:3He who guards his mouth guards his soul. One who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.Both describe guarding the mouth, and Proverbs contrasts that guard with opening the lips wide toward ruin.
Matthew 12:35–37The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.Both distinguish good from evil, though the supplied Matthew sentence speaks more broadly about what a person brings forth.
Where this verse fits
Work conflict. temptation. an ordinary day.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The fear of YHWH reaches into your next sentence. Care with words matters to God; keeping your lips from lies is part of obedience to him.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 34:13. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).