The Wisdom Forge and the Gushing Sewer Text: Proverbs 15:28
Introduction: The Age of the Open Mouth
We live in an age that has mistaken the speed of communication for the quality of it. Our entire digital world is built on the hot take, the instant reaction, the unfiltered thought spewed into the public square for all to see. We have microphones in every pocket and a global megaphone at our fingertips, and the result has been a deafening cacophony of foolishness. The man who can type the fastest, who can clap back the quickest, who can "own" his opponent with a rapid-fire retort is considered clever. But according to the wisdom of God, he is very often just a fool with a fast internet connection.
The book of Proverbs is a bucket of ice water thrown on the feverish face of our generation. It values weight over speed, substance over style, and careful deliberation over impulsive reaction. It teaches us that wisdom is not about having an immediate answer for everything, but about having the right answer when it is needed. And it teaches us that the words that come out of our mouths are not incidental. They are a diagnostic tool. They are a spiritual EKG, revealing the true condition of the heart. Jesus said it plainly: "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34). Your words are a window into your soul.
This proverb before us today draws a sharp, clean line between two kinds of people, distinguished by how they handle their words. On one side is the righteous man, whose heart is a slow, careful forge, heating, hammering, and shaping an answer before it is ever presented to the world. On the other side is the wicked man, whose mouth is an open sewer, constantly and thoughtlessly pouring out filth. This is not a contrast between personality types, between the quiet introvert and the garrulous extrovert. This is a contrast between the regenerate and the unregenerate, between wisdom and folly, between a heart submitted to God and a mouth that serves the self.
The Text
The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer,
But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil things.
(Proverbs 15:28 LSB)
The Righteous Heart: A Wisdom Forge (v. 28a)
The first half of the verse sets before us the ideal of godly communication.
"The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer..." (Proverbs 15:28a)
Notice where the action begins. It begins in the heart. For the righteous man, speech is a matter of cardiac activity before it is a matter of lip and tongue activity. The word here for "ponders" or "studieth" in the King James is a rich one. It can mean to meditate, to mutter to oneself, to chew on something, to growl over it. It gives the picture of a craftsman in his workshop, carefully considering his materials and his tools before he makes the first cut. It is the image of a blacksmith at his forge, heating the metal, turning it, hammering it, plunging it into the water, and repeating the process until the tool is shaped, hardened, and fit for its purpose. Righteousness does not blurt. Righteousness does not shoot from the hip.
This is not a call to be slow-witted or indecisive. The Apostle Peter tells us to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks for the reason of the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). But a ready answer is not the same thing as a rash answer. A ready answer is the result of a heart that has long been pondering the things of God. The readiness comes from the long, slow preparation. The man who has spent years studying the Scriptures, praying, and meditating on God's law has a heart that is well-stocked. When a question comes, he is not starting from scratch. He is reaching into a storeroom that he has been diligently filling for years. His pondering is not a frantic search for a new thought, but a careful selection of an old and tested truth.
This kind of deliberation is a form of spiritual self-control. Another proverb says, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls" (Prov. 25:28). The man who cannot control his tongue, who must immediately say whatever pops into his head, is a defenseless man. His city is overrun. Any foolish notion, any provocation, any bit of gossip can come in and take over because there are no guards at the gate. The righteous man, by contrast, rules his spirit. He guards the gate of his lips. He understands that words are powerful, that they can build up or tear down, and so he handles them with the care one would afford to dynamite.
This pondering is done in the heart, which means it is done before God. It is a humble recognition that my first thoughts are not always God's thoughts. It requires me to ask: Is this true? Is this kind? Is this necessary? Is this the right time? Does this serve my brother or does it serve my pride? This process takes time, and it is a process the world despises. But it is the path of wisdom.
The Wicked Mouth: A Gushing Sewer (v. 28b)
The contrast could not be more stark. We move from the righteous heart to the wicked mouth.
"But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil things." (Proverbs 15:28b)
The contrast is intentionally jarring. The righteous man has a heart that works. The wicked man has a mouth that works. For the wicked, there is no forge, no deliberation, no filter between the brain and the lips. The answer, such as it is, is already in his mouth, ready to go. Delivery is prompt, but the quality is abysmal.
The verb here is "pours forth" or "gushes." It is the picture of a spring that cannot be capped, or a sewer main that has burst. It is uncontrolled, unceasing, and unclean. The wicked man is not carefully measuring out his words; he is vomiting them. He is a fool who "uttereth all his mind" (Prov. 29:11). Because his heart is a cesspool of pride, bitterness, envy, and rebellion, what gushes out is necessarily "evil things."
What are these evil things? It is the whole sad catalog of verbal sins. It is slander that destroys a reputation. It is gossip that titillates the ear with stolen information. It is flattery that seeks to manipulate. It is the profane jest that cheapens what is holy. It is the lie that twists reality. It is the endless stream of foolish opinions on matters he knows nothing about. It is the constant complaining and murmuring that reveals a deep ingratitude toward God. It is the sharp, cutting remark designed to wound. All of this pours out of him because it is what fills him. "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."
The wicked man speaks quickly because he is not concerned with truth; he is concerned with winning. He is not trying to serve his listener; he is trying to gratify himself. His speech is a monument to his own ego. He talks because it is his turn to talk, because he likes the sound of his own voice, because he thinks his opinions are fascinating. He has no walls on his city, and he thinks this makes him open and authentic. God says it makes him a defenseless fool.
Conclusion: Check Your Plumbing
So the fundamental question this proverb forces upon us is this: Is your speech governed by a thoughtful heart or by a gushing mouth? Are you a blacksmith or a broken sewer pipe?
The difference between the two is not a matter of temperament but of transformation. The natural man, the unregenerate man, is by definition wicked in this sense. His heart is deceitful above all things, and so what pours from his mouth will be, at bottom, evil things, even if they are coated with a veneer of civility. He cannot do otherwise. You cannot get clean water from a polluted well.
The transformation begins when God gives a man a new heart, a heart of flesh for a heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26). The Christian is one who has been given a new nature. He now has a heart that is capable of pondering righteous things because the Spirit of God dwells there. The Christian life, then, is the process of learning to live out of this new heart. It is the process of training the mouth to be silent until the heart has had its say.
How do we do this? First, we must be radical in our intake. You cannot ponder what you do not possess. If your heart is filled with the junk food of this world, with cable news and social media outrage and godless entertainment, then that is what you will ponder, and that is what will eventually pour out. You must fill the forge with the high-grade ore of Scripture. Meditate on the Word day and night. Let it be the stuff your heart chews on.
Second, we must practice the discipline of silence. "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise" (Prov. 10:19). Before you speak, before you type, before you hit send, pause. Pray. Ponder. Ask the Spirit to guard the door of your lips. More often than not, you will find that the clever retort you were about to unleash was simply a bit of pride that needed to be mortified, not broadcast.
Finally, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfect embodiment of this proverb. He was the Word made flesh, and every word He spoke was perfectly weighed, perfectly timed, and perfectly true. When confronted by His enemies, His answers were forged in the heart of divine wisdom, sometimes confounding them with a question, sometimes stunning them with silence, and sometimes piercing them with a word of truth. He never poured forth evil. He only ever spoke what the Father gave Him to speak.
He is the one who can take our gushing, wicked mouths and cleanse them. He is the one who can take our foolish, impulsive hearts and give them a new spirit, a spirit that learns to be quiet, to listen, to ponder, and to answer in a way that gives grace to those who hear. Let us therefore come to Him in confession for our torrential sin of foolish speech, and ask Him to make us more like Him: slow to speak, and rich in wisdom.