So I think what God means to do through this message is to help you become the kind of person whose mouth will freely, refreshingly bring forth more and more life for other people. God wants to make your mouth a fountain of life. The way I tried to answer this question was to look at other places in Proverbs where it says something is a fountain of life. I thought this would show me just how this righteousness is thought of that turns mouths into fountains of life. Here's what I found.
Righteous people are people who live by true wisdom.
But we're not quite at the bottom of things yet. So life seems to flow through the root of the fear of God into the trunk of wisdom out through the branches of righteousness into the fruit of the lips which people eat and live. Forsaking the Lord is a terrifying prospect to those who fear the Lord. He is Life. So those who fear the Lord stay with the Lord.