Mensa Otabil - His Word In My Heart and Mouth
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Psalm 19, so much is the structure of the psalm and the progression of the sun. It starts with a general revelation of God: the heavens declare the glory of God. Then it goes to the special revelation of God: the law of the Lord, the word of God. It tells us our attitude towards the word of God. So there are three systems in the psalm, and it concludes with how we respond to the word of God after we’ve seen all of this and heard Him. How to respond to God? Verse 14: «Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and Redeemer.»
So that is how Psalm 19 ends; it ends with a yearning and a desire to make the word of God real in our lives. The psalmist is saying, I don’t just want to observe and hear the word of God; I want it to be part of my life. I want it to be integrated into my life, and so how does that become part of our lives? The meditations of our heart. The word of God must form the basis of our thinking, the basis of our meditation in our quiet moments; it must occupy our minds. You know, the thing you think about most in your quiet moments is the thing you are meditating on. For some, it’s about money; for some, it’s education; for some, it’s marriage; for some, it’s all kinds of things.
You know, in your quiet moments, you find these thoughts going through your mind, and those are the thoughts that really show your priorities and what is right in your life. So the psalmist says, I want God’s word to be the meditation of my heart when I’m lying down quietly. That’s what I want to think about. When I’m even absent-minded, I want to be absent- mindedly thinking about the word of the Lord. It has to be the meditation of my heart, and it has to be what I actively also think about. That’s what I talk about; that is what goes through all my being. So he says that’s how we make the word of God practical: it has to be the meditation of our heart, and then it has to be the words of our mouth.
So we think it, and we talk it, and we have to speak the word of God. So when I’m in a situation, the way I talk about the situation must reflect my knowledge of God’s word, which I’ve meditated on and which I’m now speaking about. And he says, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you. In other words, I want my thoughts and my words to be in line with your word. So when I speak, they are in line with God’s thinking; that’s how God thinks about it, and that’s how I think about it too.
That’s what God says, and that’s what I say too. So the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart, are all in agreement with God, and that’s where God wants us to be. We don’t just read His word; it has to form our thinking and our talking. And then he says, when that is done, we get to know God as our strength and our Redeemer. God becomes our strength; that means we build strength in Him. Our confidence is in Him, and He’s the one who gets us out of troublesome spots when we get there.
As our Redeemer, He’s our restorer, and He is the one who gives us victory in life. So you don’t wait until you get into trouble before you start looking for God-reading a passage here, reading a Bible verse there. No, you form a habit of it. It has to be your meditation; it has to be your words; it has to be in alignment with God’s word. And then when you are in trouble, He is your Redeemer, and He is your strength. Now, the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my strength and Redeemer.
Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, I receive your word into my heart. With my mouth, I declare your redemption over my life. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.