Found myself hovering over Psalm 141 this morning. A relatively short psalm but, for me at least, not an easy psalm to figure out.

It’s prayer, that’s clear (v.1-2). And there are some enemies involved, that’s obvious too (v.5b-10). But it’s the middle part of the psalm that seems a bit tricky. I think it deals with David’s concern about how he might interact with his enemies (v.3-4). So he prays, guard what I say. Keep my heart from evil. Don’t let me get drawn into “wicked deeds” and “delicacies” by justifying “company with men who work iniquity” as a means to an end. And here’s the really interesting part, while he trusts in God as his defender against his enemies, it seems he looks also to his friends to protect him from himself. Hmm . . .

So, as I often do when I’m stumbling a bit to understand a reading, I looked back in my journal to see if I’d chewed on the passage before. I had. Here are those thoughts, reworked a bit. Relevant 6 years ago, I think, relevant today. Because that’s how God’s word is, relevant for the ages, transcending cultural moments, “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2Tim. 3:16).

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Everything within David wanted to get into a shouting match. Insult me? I’ll insult you more! Slander me? I’ll show you what trash talking is all about! But though that was David’s natural propensity, his prayer in Psalm 141 asks for the supernatural. It reveals how a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) — and God alone tunes hearts after His own (Ezek. 36:26-27) — responds to the temptation of the flesh to get down in the dirt with the wicked.

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
       keep watch over the door of my lips!
Do not let my heart incline to any evil,
       to busy myself with wicked deeds
in company with men who work iniquity,
       and let me not eat of their delicacies!

(Psalm 141:3-4 ESV)

And what grabs me this morning is David’s anticipation of what that guard might look like. That while God could use His unseen Spirit to mystically watch over the door of David’s lips, He might also choose to use a flesh-and-blood hammer to keep things buttoned-up.

Let a righteous man strike me–it is a kindness;
       let him rebuke me–it is oil for my head;
       let my head not refuse it.

(Psalm 141:5a ESV)

Reminded this morning of the need for righteous hammers in our lives. From time to time, the need for someone to strike us, to hammer us, to beat us down a bit, in order to keep us in line.

Faithful friends who can wield the sword of the Spirit, the word of God (Eph.6:17), to protect us from ourselves. Relationships with godly people that are grounded in such transparency that the Spirit can use their sanctified voice to call out our bad behaviors and wavering hearts. Those who know us so intimately, and love us so unconditionally, that they are not afraid to bruise us deeply with the truth.

I fear those sorts of relationships are all too rare. In this age where we’re increasingly known by the pictures we post and the tweets we tweet, where self-esteem is built upon the number of “likes” and “follows” and “friends” we have, we find ourselves with no close friends at all. Superficiality rules the day. Transparency is something to be avoided.

In a time where increasingly every other pursuit chokes out the pursuit of the kingdom of God, time spent with God’s people is now measured in how often we gather with the saints per month rather than per week. As such, the number of godly voices many have speaking into their lives approaches zero — leaving the voices of the world to flow in un-checked. Our media feeds drowning out the voice the Spirit of God seeks to have through well-known and much-trusted people of God.

But it is a kindness to be struck by a righteous friend. It is like oil for the head to be corrected by a godly confidante. How every saint needs at least one righteous hammer in their life.

And it takes time, intentional time, to cultivate such relationships. What’s more, it takes honesty, vulnerable honesty, to open up our still-work-in-progress lives for another to see how messy that work is.

But I’m convinced it is a critical component in our sanctification. God wanting to use the voice of others to help us hear His voice. God leveraging the insights of others to help us see what He sees. God employing those who love us enough to call us out to keep us walking in the ways to which God has called us in.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend . . . (Proverbs 27:6a ESV)

Righteous hammers . . .

And this too by God’s grace. So that we might continue to live for God’s glory.