As I first read this psalm, particularly verse 3, I noticed a word play that I wondered if it was an intentional pun. When David talks about the wicked “whetting” their tongue, is of course the idea of using a whetting stone to sharpen their tongue like a sword. However, it also made me think of a phrase we used to say in football, “Lick/Wet your chops”. So this is why I wondered if this was an intentional pun of whetting you tongue or wetting your tongue.
In football, we mostly used this phrase for pulling guards. In our eight-man formation, on certain plays our offensive end would leave the defensive end unblocked. Now a defensive end’s whole job is to get across the line, into the backfield, and disrupt the play as much as possible (while still containing the outside for you football-savvy people). Most plays his job is hindered by the offensive end blocking him. However, on these certain plays when he is left unblocked, he can freely come across the line and has a perfectly clear line of sight at the backfield. This is where our coach would say, “he’s just wetting his chops” thinking about the big play he is about to make. Basically, that end is so excited for the free chance to light somebody up, he starts salivating thinking about it. However, little does he know, this is intentional and that the pulling guard is headed straight down the line for him. The pulling guard coming down the line, is usually unseen by the defensive end who is giving his full attention to the backfield. So the guard gets a free shot at full speed to take that end off his feet and completely out of the play.
This is why this psalm and word pun made me think of this right away. David is talking about how the wicked are getting everything ready for the attack, they are laying traps and have everything ready just like that defensive end thinks everything is set up perfect for him to make the big tackle for a loss. However, David talks about God shooting the enemy with arrows suddenly, much like the pulling guard taking that end out of the play without the end even knowing what happened. This probably makes much more sense if you have played football and know what this really looks like in real life.
Regardless though, we all can understand the point. Our enemies watch us, they get their tongues good and sharp ready to tear us down, belittle us, attack us, and lay traps for us to fall into. But we aren’t as defenseless as we seem. The backfield isn’t threatened by that charging defensive end because they know what he doesn’t, that they are protected by that pulling guard. We aren’t threatened by the wicked looking to attack us, because we aren’t as defenseless as we seem. We know that the wicked doesn’t, that the “pulling guard” of our God is headed straight at them, shooting them with arrows, wounding them suddenly, taking them out of the play altogether. We have the protection of the one true God of the whole universe. And unlike a human lineman who sometimes forgets to pull, or is too slow on his execution to get to the end, God never misses, He never fails, He is always there to protect us from the attack of the wicked. Then once God has protected us from our enemies, all of mankind will fear our protector. They will use their “sharp” tongues to spread the word of how we were saved by God instead of for future attacks.
And what will we do? We will use our sharp tongues to rejoice in the Lord. We can take refuge in Him, trust Him, and know we are perfectly safe in Him. With that kind of confidence in our protector, we can truly rejoice and exult!!
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