Words From The Heart

I am so thankful to have English as my mother tongue. Many people around the world would like to learn to speak English, but our language presents many stumbling blocks for language learners. Indeed, it can be hard enough for even those of us who have spoken it from birth to speak it correctly and well. Word pronunciation, for example, is full of inconsistencies, and many of our grammar rules seem meant to be broken. On the other hand, other languages with their clicks and pops, trills, glottal stops, and tonal differentiations may be equally difficult for English-speakers to master.

The story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 explains the origin of the approximately 7,000 languages that we have in the world today. Though God devised different languages as a means of limiting mankind's united power against Him, languages have brought a great richness and variety to our world. Every language has sufficient vocabulary to communicate every thought and expression needed in a given culture, though terminology may be quite distinct from language to language. For example, a widely known piece of linguistic trivia is that Inuit-Eskimo languages have dozens of different words for snow, yet people living in the Sahara Desert simply would not need those words.

Unique language sounds are clear identifiers of languages. In the book of Judges, a simple word sound was the means of identifying the enemy.

Judges 12:5b-6a – "Are you a member of the tribe of Ephraim?" [the men of Gilead] would ask. If the man said, "No, I'm not," they would tell him to say "Shibboleth." If he was from Ephraim, he would say "Sibboleth," because people from Ephraim cannot pronounce the word correctly. (NLT)

Language is a means of verbally expressing thoughts of the heart. Poetry and other soul-stirring expressions can be verbalized in so many varied ways in different languages. A portion of an old Welsh hymn recently touched my heart and planted the seed thought for this devotional:

You have saved us and will save us.
       It is not too great a toil to sing Your praises.
With all creation, with all the saints we praise You.
       It is not too great a toil to sing Your praises.
You have all power, wisdom, and dominion.
       It is not too great a toil to sing Your praises.

God has, indeed, given us the ability to voice His praise. Imagine His pleasure in hearing His praise and glory being extolled in thousands of different languages around the world. Language as a vehicle for praise will not be limited to earth, however. In heaven, praising God together, there will be "a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language" (Revelation 7:9b NLT).

No matter what language we speak, let's use our voices today in praising God for who He is and for all that He has done for us.

Prayer: Dear Father, thank You for tongues and voices — and languages — for praising You. You are worthy of our praise. Amen.

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