The Power of Words

On Sunday, the appointed psalm for our worship service was psalm 63.  In the Anglican tradition, we were responding by the part verse (at the asterisk).  The last verse is:

But the king will rejoice in God;
all those who swear by him will be glad, *
for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.

Unfortunately, when I responded, I stated rather forcefully, “for the mouth of those who speak lies shall not be stopped.”  I corrected it as soon as I realized my error and repeated it correctly.  I am sure there wasn’t any permanent damage done.  But it is an example of how significant a small word can be.

This was the situation in the case of the “Wicked Bible” which was published in 1641.  This reprint of the KJV made a similar - but more significant error in the seventh commandment in Exodus 20:14. Rather than the correct verse, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ the editors left out the ‘not’ in this case.  Once the mistake was discovered, the available copies were destroyed and one account noted “the Printers deeply fined, as they justly merited.” 

Fortunately, as far as I know there were no consequences, intended or unintended as a result of my slip of the tongue.  However, you can never tell what the result of a word misspoken or intentional could have.  What would life be like if all the nots and should were removed from our discourse.  I don’t want to think about it.  It does, of course, matter if the use of a word is intentional or not.  But in either case, the results can be serious as in the case of the Wicked Bible.  I don’t know if anyone used the commandment in the Wicked Bible to justify his or her actions, but I wouldn’t be surprized if some scallywag used it as an excuse.  I can also imagine the seventeenth century version of a stand-up comedian using that as the punch line in a joke perhaps a variation on, “the devil made me do it.”

Of course, intentions do matter but do not always make things right.  There was no intention in my mistaken reciting of psalm 63 or in the case of the printers of the Wicked Bible, however, the results were not the same – insignificant in mine but disastrous for the printers.  We are told that the road to hell is paved with good intentions so even good intentions can cause a lot of problems.  There is also the phenomenon of the famous Freudian Slip in which an apparent mistake can reveal hidden motives that the speaker isn’t conscious of.

So, what are we to make of all this?  Well, I guess what we can do is to be aware of the power of words.  Words do matter and the author of the aphorism, “sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you” didn’t know what he was talking about.  But perhaps he misspoke and later realized how mistaken he was.  However, that phrase certainly is an example of how words can cause a lot of problems in the future.  Don’t say that to any child who has been teased mercilessly by a bully in the playground or someone who is the victim of a racist taunt. 

When Christians think of words or more specifically The Word, we know the importance when “the Word became a man,” to quote my favourite songwriter, Leonard Cohen.  So, let us be mindful of the importance of words and the Word on our journey.  Blessings.