“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (v. 14). Many people, even Christians, don’t particularly care what they say in public or to whom they say it. Some of us care very much. We think that if we pass the public approval on what we say, we’re ok.
David wasn’t satisfied with that. He said, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O God.” When we ask the Lord to make what we think about in our hearts and say with our mouths acceptable in His sight, not just in other people’s sight, we don’t have to worry about any great transgression.
We can pass this to our children as well. We are used to laying out rules for them to make their actions acceptable in our sight. Suppose we could teach our children so that the meditation of their hearts would be acceptable in the sight of God? If our children were like that, how many rules would we have to lay down? Not many. Not many at all.
Here is how you can teach your children to meditate on the Lord and have their meditation be acceptable in His sight. First, keep your meditation acceptable in God’s sight and the words of your mouth acceptable in His sight. How do you speak to your children? Is that how you speak to everyone else? The Scripture says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). When I take care of the mediation of my heart, I have already taken care of what I’m going to say. What you say is the result of what you’re meditating on. If you are not mediating rightly, what you say will not be right either in content or in manner. Your children will pick it up and meditate right back to you that way.
James 3 says that out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing, and that should not be. Ask God to make the meditation of your heart acceptable in His sight. That is the solution for holy, godly contact. That is where to start. I start with your heart, your motivation. Then you can go on to your children’s hearts, your children’s motivations.
Go back to dealing with secret sins. Go back to presumptuous sins. Go back to the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart. When you get those things acceptable in God’s sight, you won’t have to worry about falling over any cliffs.
It is easy to fixate on big sins and let anything less than them pass for ok. You are doing something little that is not right, and someone says, “What’s wrong with that?” That’s what wrong with it—you saying, “What’s wrong with it.” What’s wrong is wanting to say that anything less than a big sin is ok.
We live as if sin was the same as crime. If it’s not violating the law, then it’s alright. If it’s not literally violating the Ten Commandments, it’s ok. But Jesus said, “Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery” (Matt. 5:28). God is after the meditation of your heart. The person who solves the problem there doesn’t have to worry about the act of adultery. The person who solves the problem of hatred never has to worry about murder. The person who solves the problem of coveting never has to worry about stealing. Go after the basic things. Go after the heart sins underneath.
What if you are already guilty of the basic things? God forgives those like He forgives great transgressions. But you have to admit it first. You have to call it sin. You may have a good reputation with your friends and family, but you are miserable in your heart. If so, start asking God to search your heart.
Recently I reread a letter I received in the 1970s from the wife of a navy captain of the Naval Academy Class of ’53. Her husband had just told her that that as soon as the seniors of the class of 1950 graduated at the end of his plebe year, the plebes (the freshmen) went through all the seniors’ rooms to see if they had left anything behind.
This man was not a Christian. He was searching through the dorms, and he came to my room. He pulled open the locker door, and on the inside panel was pasted Psalm 139:9: “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Thy hand shall lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.” That struck him. He became a Christian shortly thereafter, and twenty-six years later, I found out that that verse of Scripture pasted up in my locker door had helped bring him to the Lord.
Psalm 139 is the greatest cure there is for secret sins. It is the story of a man trying to run away from God and not succeeding. Verse 23 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” If you don’t know what the problem is, ask God to search you. Then in prevention of future sin, ask Him to cause the meditation of your heart to be acceptable in His sight.
Look back at Psalm 19. David’s great desire and delight came from the Word of God. The Word of God is light; the Word of God is a joy. If you do not know how to meditate in an acceptable way, dwell in the Scriptures, and you will come to find them like gold, like much fine gold. Your heart will change directly proportional to how much time you spend in the Word of God.
(To be continued November 5...)
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