Truth From The Mouths of Babes
In the eighth Psalm David speaks of the great love and goodness
that God makes known throughout all the earth. In a few short poetic words,
David takes our minds to the highest thought to which the mind of man can go:
God. Echoing the same thought as his most famous statement on God's creation -
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork"
(Ps. 19:1) - he states that His splendor and majestic name is known to all.
1 O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the
earth, Who hast displayed Thy splendor above the heavens!
2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes Thou hast established strength,
Because of Thine adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
The greatness of God is known to all, from the greatest to the least. It is
known in all the earth and above the heavens, but is also made known in the
mouths' of babes. This is true because they are unfettered from calculating
minds that sometimes consider the implications so as to look out for
self-interest before they confess the obvious truth. So children will often
apply and state the truth that they have learned from their parents or other
teachers in a much more ready and direct way than is comfortable for us.
This is exactly how Jesus Himself used this passage to rebuke the Pharisees.
"But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had
done, and the children who were crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to
the Son of David," they became indignant, and said to Him, "Do You hear what
these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'OUT OF
THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABES THOU HAST PREPARED PRAISE FOR THYSELF'?"
(Matt. 21:15,16)
The Pharisees were offended by the children's words. They got mad about it and
asked Jesus if He knew what they were saying. Obviously they didn't think that
Jesus' hearing was bad, but they are incredulous that He would actually accept
the meaning of what the children were saying. Yes, Jesus would accept it because
they clearly stated what was obvious and then sang it out - without thought of
who would or would not like it.
Would this have been adults who did this, it would have been after a conscience
decision to be bold. The children simply did it by nature. The ready acceptance
and proclamation of truth is one of the qualities of children we must emulate.
"And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I
say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not
enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt 18:2,3)
We may not always like the directness that children exhibit, but we have
certainly all experienced it. We shield ourselves from it by social convention
or self interest. We rightly learn to hold our tongues, but some times we hold
them too much. There are times when we do not speak the truth because we do not
want to come near the rebuke that the truth automatically gives.
Paul had to deal with this when he wrote the Galatians a letter of rebuke. Was
Paul getting on to them just to get on to them, or from some other low motive?
They might have thought it, but we understand that Paul would speak only from
the highest motives: love of God, love of truth, and enough love for them to
bring them back to God and the truth. The Galatians would not automatically see
it in this way. So Paul asked, "Have I therefore become your enemy by telling
you the truth?" (Gal. 4:16) Paul had to conscientiously decide to speak the
truth to them knowing that it might cause friction. But children often speak
truth without a second thought.
We need to recognize truth from whatever mouth it comes, and also have the heart
to speak it with a simple, childlike and trusting faith.
By Jay Horsley
From Expository Files 8.7; July 2001
