psalm 20

May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble. May the God of Jacob keep you safe. May he send you help from the sacred tent. May He give you aid from Zion. May He remember all of your sacrifices. May He accept your burnt offerings. May He give you what your heart longs for. May He make all of your plans succeed (Psalm 20:1-4).

Psalm 20:19:
He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: Therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

“The best way to deal with slander is to pray about it: God will either remove it, or remove the sting from it. Our own attempts at clearing ourselves are usually failures; we are like the boy who wished to remove the blot from his copy, and by his bungling made it ten times worse.” --Charles Spurgeon

Thomas Adams

Slander is a water in great request ; every guest of the devil is continually sipping of this vial. It robs man of his good name, which is above all riches. It is the part of vile men to vilify others, and to climb up to unmerited praise by the stairs of another's disgrace. This is no new dish at some novelist's table, to make a man's discredit as sauce to their meat ; they will toss you the maligned's reputation, with the rackets of reproach, from one to another, and never bandy it away till they have supped. If they want matter, jealousy is fuel enough ; it is crime enough for a formalist (so they term him), that he is but suspected guilty.   The calumniator is a wretched thief, and robs man of the best thing he hath, if it be a true maxim that the efficacy of the agent is in the apt disposition of the patient ; whiles thou deprivest man of his credit, thou takest from him all power to do good. The slanderer wounds three at one blow : ( 1 ) The receiver, in poisoning his heart with an uncharitable conceit. ( 2) The reputation of the slandered : for a man's name is like a glass, if it be once cracked it is soon broken ; every briar is ready to snatch at the torn garment. (3) The worst blow lights on his own soul ; for the arrow will rebound. The slandered scapes best : ' for God shall bring forth his righteousness as the light,' &c. , Ps. xxxvii. 6. These are those hogs in a garden, which root up the flowers of a man's good parts. But if there were no receiver there would be no thief ; men would not so burden themselves with the coals of contumely, if they had nowhere to unload them.     --Thomas Adams; The Sermons of Thomas Adams

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