Our Hearts and Our Words

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer” Psalms 19:14

The Psalmist David speaks of three things in this Psalm; one, the Power and beauty of the Heavens, or what is the natural world; two, the Power and beauty of the law of God; and thirdly, David closes the psalm with two verses that speak on the subject of himself, his standing before God and his sin; either known or unknown. After he wonderfully declares the glory and honor of God, David concludes by looking upon himself in contrast to God’s magnificence. This is wisdom. The majesty and glory of God ought to act as a mirror; causing us to look at ourselves in the light of it. 

In the final verses of the psalm, he asks the Lord to keep him from sin; both those that are evident, and those that come with subtly. He reminds the Lord that God alone is the keeper of His soul and that the Lord will deliver him from the ‘great transgression’. How we need to remind​ourselves the Lord of His goodness towards us in the giving of His Son; how that Jesus saves us from the wrath of God and delivers us from the great transgression. David desires that the words of his mouth, and the meditation of his heart be acceptable in the sight of God. David understands that the two, the heart and our words, go hand in hand. He understands, as we ought to understand, that the meditation of our heart is often reflected in our words. The things we say testify to the greater part of what we think and believe; or what is the meditation of our heart. 

Peter, the night that the Lord was arrested, sitting outside the palace of the High Priest, denied he knew the Lord three times; Peter, that great apostle! This was certainly a Peter far different from the one we heard say earlier, “though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.” You would think, by the way that he portrayed himself before Jesus’ arrest, that he would rather have choked to death on those words than to ever let them out of his mouth. Yet his words revealed a truth; a condition of the heart. We also know what became of Peter, how through the power of the Holy Spirit of God his heart would become equal to his boldness in the Lord.Jesus makes the same connection of the heart and our words in Luke 6:45, saying, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh”.

Brother Paul, in his letter to the Romans, in that life changing passage we know as ‘Roman’s road’ (vss 10:8-10), he again reinforces the importance of that relationship between the heart and our words. That even in the process and act of how we might believe upon Christ and be saved, they are again found together. There is power in both the heart and our words when referred to separately, but O’ how powerful they are when referenced together. David finishes his song reminding us of how important this is concerning our heart and our words; reminding us that it is the power God and His strength alone that keeps them both.  So Like David, let me ask of God that my heart and my words be acceptable to Him first. Let me ask of the Lord as David did in Psalms 141:3, “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips."

Notice, at the end of Verse 14, David declares the answers to his desires that he lays out in the verse’s beginning;  He answers the How and the Why.

Desire: “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight..”
Answer: “…O LORD, My Strength and my redeemer."

Let us meditate day and night on the Word of God, storing up in our hearts His truths, which cleanse and purify and are able to keep us from falling; presenting us faultless through Jesus our Savior. Let us confess our sins daily, calling upon Christ, resisting the devil that he may flee from us. 

To God’s glory Let our words reveal in us a clean heart, a pure heart; words that are seasoned with salt, edifying to the hearer and so being acceptable to the Lord. 

How?          Because He is my Strength
Why?      Because He is my Redeemer

- Spencer Close, Bus Ministry Director, Sharon Baptist Church