Ecclesiastes 5:1-7: a reflection

1Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil. 2Don’t be rash with your mouth, and don’t let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few. 3For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool’s speech with a multitude of words. 4When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow. 5It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay. 6Don’t allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don’t protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands? 7For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, as well as in many words; but you must fear God.

The Preacher gives counsel about how to come before God, and it is all about reverence and restraint. Guard your steps when you go to God's house, he says; be ready to listen rather than to babble. Do not be rash with your mouth, nor hasty to speak before God; for God is in heaven, and you are on earth, so let your words be few. And when you make a vow to God, pay it; do not let your mouth lead you into sin. The whole counsel is a call to approach God with reverent care, especially in our speech.

Notice the reason he gives: God is in heaven, and you are on earth. The reverence he commends flows from a right sense of who God is and who we are. Because God is God, high and holy, we do not come to him casually or carelessly, rattling off many words, making rash promises. We come with care, ready to listen, our words few and weighed, our vows meant and kept. Reverence shapes how we speak before such a God.

That is a needed corrective to careless, casual approaches to God. We can grow flippant in prayer, quick with many words, rash with promises we do not keep, forgetting the greatness of the God we address. The Preacher calls us back to reverence: come to listen more than to talk; let your words be few and sincere; keep the vows you make. When you come before God, remember who he is and who you are. Guard your steps, weigh your words, and come with the reverence due to the God who is in heaven. Draw near above all to listen, not merely to speak.

Lord, your word calls me to guard my steps when I come to you, to be slow to speak and ready to listen, remembering that you are in heaven and I am on earth. Give me that reverence. Keep me from coming to you carelessly or flippantly, quick with many words, rash with promises I do not keep. Help me weigh my words, to draw near above all to listen, and to mean and keep the vows I make to you. Let a right sense of who you are, high and holy, shape how I speak before you. Teach me to come to you with reverent care, not careless haste.