Heart Meditations

David concludes Psalm 19 by expressing his desire that the words of his mouth and the meditation of his heart would be acceptable in the sight of God. We serve a God who takes account of our words. Jesus once said that by our words we will either be justified or condemned. (Mt. 12:37) We realize that we must set a guard over our mouths so that what we say is acceptable to God. "O be careful little mouth what you say," was part of a song I enjoyed singing as a child. Even a child can understand the simple principle that we should control what is coming out of our mouths. So, why is it so difficult? If you have tried to control the words coming from your mouth, you have learned it is not a simple task. In fact, in the Epistle of James we are told "No one can control the tongue." (Jas. 3:8) Jesus taught us that this the case because the tongue is a muscle connected directly to the heart. "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." (Lk. 6:45) This means that in order to control our speech, we must control what goes on in our hearts. It means in order to have pure speech, we must have pure hearts. We can't separate the words of the mouth from what is happening in the heart, so David's desire is that both are pleasing to God. The word he uses for meditations of the heart is a seldom used Hebrew word. In another verse, the word refers to a musical interlude. It's almost like David wants the music of his heart to be pleasing to God. How do we know if the meditation or music of our heart is pleasing to God? The answer is found in the words that are coming from the mouth. In another Psalm David says, "You have put a song in my mouth, a song of praise to my God." (Ps. 40:3) God put that song in his mouth by the work God had done in his heart. Are the meditations of our hearts pleasing to our God? We will know when he hear the words coming from our mouths. May God's love continue to be the music of our hearts, so that the words of our mouths are a pleasing song in His ears.