At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: But perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit” (Proverbs 15:4).
We can see at a glance that a wholesome tongue is a good thing, and that a perverse tongue is a bad thing. That much is plain and simple.
But what kind of a good thing, and what kind of a bad thing?
It is quite striking that a wholesome tongue is described as a “tree of life.” The tree of life is what our first parents were shut away from when they were exiled from Eden (Gen. 3:22-24). If Adam and Eve had eaten from that tree in the condition there were in, that would have sealed their lost and rebellious condition. God banished them from the Garden as an act of kindness, leaving room for gospel mercy. In the last book of the Bible, the tree of life is promised to those who overcome through the gospel (Rev. 2:7; 22:2).
But in the book of Proverbs, the tree of life is associated with a number of things. Wisdom is a tree of life (Prov. 3:18). The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life (Prov. 11:30). Hope and desire fulfilled is a tree of life (Prov. 13:12).
The opposite of a wholesome tongue is a perverse tongue. What this does is create a breach in the spirit. What is a breach? It is a hole or an opening, through which unwanted things can come. Like a breach in a dam, and flood waters destroy the town, or a breach in a city wall, through which the enemy troops can pour. The wholesome tongue is life, growing on a tree of life. The perverse tongue is death, ministered in any number of different ways.
