40 Days of Prayer, Day 19
Day 19, Thursday, September 8
Psalm 19:7-14 “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple…Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.”
The Words of My Mouth and the Meditation of My Heart
The Bible gives fair warning to the followers of God. The Bible warns and confronts. It exposes hidden sins. It breaks the power of abiding sin and brings purity. The Scripture transforms. As David says here, “Restoring the soul…making wise the simple…” The Scripture, through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit brings purity to what we think – “the meditation of my heart…” and to what we say- “the words of my mouth…” Since God is a God of relationships, if we are in a relationship with Him, our thoughts and words reflect the relationship. Our Words must reflect His priorities. Our thoughts must reflect His thoughts. Christianity is no mere religious expression. Religious acts can be performed without the heart and mind engaged. However, God pursues the whole of the person. His Word challenges both our observable behavior and our inward motives. David, after reflecting on God’s work in creation and God’s work in His Word, sought after God’s work on his own life. “Expose the hidden sins.” “Keep me from being presumptuous.” Hidden sins and presuming on God led to David’s crisis. The external actions of the King of Israel may have appeared sufficiently religious, but the heart of the king was a long way from God. That is how David sinned against God through the events of Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. David sought God’s protection from these types of moral failings. David opens Psalm 51 with the words “Be gracious to me…blot out my transgressions…” Psalm 19 seeks protection from the types of failings that made his confession in Psalm 51 necessary. David longed for God’s protection. “Oh God, please keep me out of the messes in this life.” David knew that God’s preventative medicine for sin begins with God’s Word applied to the heart, mind and speech of the hearer of God’s Word. Had David been actively meditating and sharing God’s Word when he saw Bathsheba on that night his story might have been very different.
Just as God reflects His trustworthiness in His creation and in His Word, so we too must reflect His trustworthiness in our words. He has redeemed us and brought us into a relationship with Him, our words should reflect His character. We are His. He purchased us. How we speak and how we think, both in content and in attitude, puts our relationship with Him on display for the world. How we speak and what we think also gives hint to the potential sin lurking around every corner. “Who can discern his own errors?” The implied answer is “no one.” No one is able, on their own, to really ascertain their own potential sin. God’s Word exposes our abiding trouble. When our hearts, minds, and words, focus on His Word, then God provides protection from the hidden sins that so easily trap us.
From Spurgeon on Psalm 19:14. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer. A sweet prayer, and so spiritual that it is almost as commonly used in Christian worship as the apostolic benediction. Words of the mouth are mockery if the heart does not meditate; the shell is nothing without the kernel; but both together are useless unless accepted; and even if accepted by us, it is all vanity if not acceptable in the sight of God. We must in prayer view God as our strength enabling, and our Redeemer saving, or we shall not pray aright, and it is well to feel our personal interest so as to use the word my, or our prayers will be hindered. Our near Kinsman's name, our Redeemer, makes a blessed ending to the Psalm; it began with the heavens, but it ends with him whose glory fills heaven and earth. Blessed Kinsman, give us now to meditate acceptably upon thy most sweet love and tenderness.
Prayer Focus
Just as the psalmist, I pray, Oh Lord, that You would make the words of my mouth acceptable to You. Protection my thoughts. Make my thoughts consistent with Your Word. As Your creation and Your Word demonstrate Your perfect character, make my words an instrument of displaying Your character. Protect me from profane and godless chatter. Protect my words from harsh, destructive language. Thank You for Your word. Use Your word to change my thoughts and my words. Amen.
From Bunyan’s The Acceptable Sacrifice
A third instance is that of Saul; he had heard many a sermon, and was become a great professor, for he was more zealous than were many of his equals; but his heart was never broken, nor his spirit ever made contrite, till he heard one preach from heaven, till he heard God, in the Word of God, making inquiry after his sins: 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' says Jesus; and then he can stand no longer: for then his heart broke, then he falls to the ground, then he trembles, then he cries out, 'Who are You, Lord?' and, 'Lord, what will You have me to do?' (Acts 9). Wherefore, as I said, Then the word works effectually to this purpose, when it finds out the sinner and his sin, and also when it convinces him that it has found him out. Only I must join here a caution, for every operation of the Word upon the conscience is not saving; nor does all conviction end in the saving conversion of the sinner. It is then only such an operation of the Word that is intended, namely, that shows the sinner not only the evil of his ways, but brings the heart over to God by Christ.