May the words of my mouth...

Coming home from Guatemala I was reading my bible and a verse that I have heard a million times jumped out at me. I really caught the meaning and was amazed at what the writer was saying.

Psalms 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my
Redeemer.

It is a verse often read and there is even a song written about it. But we don't often think about what it truly means. Right before this verse David was crying out to God for help to be cleansed from his sins- not only to be cleansed but to be kept from sinning again.

Then he asks what seems impossible. "God may every word I speak- and every thought I have- be pleasing and acceptable in Your sight!" It does something inside of me to hear this. Last night we got together with friends and we were all being very sarcastic. Half way through I realized and started getting sick of it. At first I was thinking it was all them, but I know I was acting the same way. I came back to this verse today and it has been tearing me up. I want this to be my prayer.

"God may all I say and think be pleasing to you! Lord, my strength and my Redeemer! Please help me have my words and thoughts bring you pleasure!"

Oh to please the heart of God by what we say and think. I believe if we tame these two areas than our actions and lifestyle will follow. What if we considered every word we said? Our relationships would be so much deeper- we would bring people closer to God. Instead of hurt and pain from sarcastic words, we could bring life to people.

I looked up the word "Tongue" in a bible search engine and there seemed to be two refrenced two ways it was alwasy used in scriptures.

1. Praising God- Psalm 35:28 My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long.

2. Speaking of deceitful tongues- or talking about taming the tongue. Proverbs 10:31
The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but a perverse tongue will be cut out.
1 Peter 3:10 For, "Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.

I want my tongue to be praising Him, and not to be a foolish. I want to have His wisdom come out of me. My heart hurt when I read all the scriptures declaring "keep your tongue from evil" "the wise man guards the tongue" because I know I don't do that. I will put someone down for a laugh- and I don't like it. I am am sorry everyone for things I have said that might have caused pain. I want all of what I say and do and think to be pleasing to Him. Oh! to bring Him pleasure!

I also like the end of the verse because it reminds us that we can't do it without Him. "O Lord, my STRENGTH.." and also that if we do mess up He will forgive "..and my REDEEMER." Thank God for His strength and forgiveness- I need it all the time.

We will talk about the meditations of the heart part another time. Here is a verse for that, one we all know.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.