"His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords." Psalms 55:21 (NIV)
These are the words of King David as he lamented while praying to God after being betrayed by a close friend, probably Ahithophel the great orator, during the time when his son Absalom had turned on him. (Psalms 55:12-14) This traitor spoke kind words to David's face, but he had evil in his heart.
We should not believe all that we hear. Some people will smile in our face, and then stab us in the back. Not every kind word which is spoken to us is sincere. Some people only pretend to be our friend, while they harbor evil toward us in their heart. Some of the people who we think of as our friends, will lie to us with a straight face. They have the inscrutable countenance of a good poker player, we cannot read their mind or heart by the expression on their face. Some people can lie so convincingly that they can fool a lie detector. As believers we need to pray to God for discernment, for only He can give us the ability to see through people. (Proverbs 28:11) We should be friendly to our friends. (Proverbs 18:24) We should treat our friends like we want to be treated. (Matthew 7:12) However, we should trust in God and not in man. (Psalms 56:11, Psalms 118:8)
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