LET YOUR WORDS THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS BE PLEASING TO THE LORD

Proclamation:

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”  Psalm 19:14 (NIV)

Explanation:

This psalm is a song which was written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by King David to be used and sung in public worship.  David begins this psalm by declaring that the heavens declare the glory of God. (Psalm 19:1)  He states that “the law of The Lord is perfect … the testimony of The Lord is sure … the statutes of The Lord are right … the commandment of The Lord is pure … and the judgments of The Lord are true and righteous …” (Psalm 19:7-9)  Each of these is more precious than gold and sweeter than honey. (Psalm 19:10)  He prays and asks God to cleanse him from his unintentional sins, to keep him from presumptuous sins, and let sin not have rule or control over him. (Psalm 19:12-13)  David ends this psalm by asking The Lord God to let his words and thoughts be pleasing in His sight.

Application:

All of the celestial bodies that exist in what we call outer space, are by their existence a declaration to the glory of God.  The existence of that which we call life on earth is also a declaration to His glory.  As great, and as powerful, and as awesome as God is, we ought to do all that we can to please Him.  We should ask for His help with our moral failures and to keep us from willful and intentional sins.  We ought to pray that He will keep us from letting sin rule over us.  As believers we want our words, thoughts, and actions to be pleasing to The Lord.

Search Your Heart

"In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent."  Psalms 4:4 (NIV)

In this psalm, King David offers advice to the people, telling them to control their behavior when they get angry.  He also tells them that when they lie awake on their beds at night, they should consider their motives for and their words and actions.

Being angry does not excuse our behavior, we are still to behave in a Christ-like manner even when we are upset and angry.  We are not to let our emotions cause us to sin.  We should also think and consider our planned words and deeds before we speak and act.  It would be good for us to ponder why we do what we do, and why we say what we say.  We should not act on our sinful thoughts, rather we should ask God to forgive us for even thinking them.  The Bible states that as a man thinks, so is he. (Proverbs 23:7)  Out of our mouths come what we think, and it reflects who we really are. (Proverbs 4:23 and Matthew 12:34)  We need to ask The Lord God to clean up our hearts, and our minds, so that we would be able to be more Christ-like in our thoughts and deeds. (Psalms 51:10)

Create In Me A Clean Heart

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."  Psalms 51:10 (NIV)

This psalm of King David is a prayer to God which he prayed after the prophet Nathan had told him that he had committed adultery with Bathsheba.   He was aware that he had sinned against God, (Psalms 51:4), and he wanted God to have mercy on him and forgive him for his sin. (Psalms 51:1-2)  He also wanted God to give him another chance.

King David was a man after the heart of God, (Acts 13:22), not because he did not sin, but because he prayed, and admitted that he had sinned, and he asked to be forgiven.  We would do good to be like David in this regard.  If we confess our sins to The Lord God, and ask to be forgiven, He will forgive us. (1 John 1:9)  However, not only must we confess our sins, we must also turn away from them. (2 Chronicles 7:14)   We must sincerely ask God for another chance to do the right thing.

Commit To The Lord And Purify Your Thoughts

"Commit to The LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.  Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)  The King James Version of this verse reads: "Commit thy works unto The LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established." 

These are the words of King Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived. (1 Kings 3:12)  His divinely inspired word to the people was that if they committed their efforts to pleasing The Lord God, then their thoughts and plans would be purified and brought to fruition.

All to often our thoughts are not pure, they are sinful more often than they are not.  Our sinful words and deeds begin as sinful thoughts and plans.  Even when we do not act upon them, our sinful thoughts are still sins. (Matthew 5:28)  We are what we think, and as we think, so we are. (Proverbs 23:7)  On judgment day, we will also be judged on our thoughts and the intents of our heart. (Hebrews 4:12)  The Lord knows our thoughts. (Psalms 94:11 and 1 Corinthians 3:20)  The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to The Lord. (Proverbs 15:26)  We need to renew our minds, and pray. (Romans 12:2)  We need to pray about everything, read The Word of God, and think about things which are true, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:6-8)  We need to commit ourselves to The Lord and to His way.  We need to let the mind which is in Christ Jesus be in us also. (Philippians 2:5)  We need to pray that The Lord will create within us a clean heart and mind. (Psalms 51:10)