“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” (Psalm 141:3 ESV)

David prayed that the Lord would help him control his tongue. He wanted to stop sinful speech. He understood the difficulty in taming the tongue and knew he needed help. Many is the sin that spews forth from the mouth, which in fact, expresses the condition of the heart. David was right to petition the Lord for a guard over his mouth, yet an even better prayer is to ask the Lord to deal with our hearts. And this is just what David did in the next verse of the psalm, saying, “Do not let my heart incline to any evil” (Psa. 141:4). Let us join David in praying today, “Lord, cleanse my heart and control my tongue today!”