An Acceptable Heart

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” - Psalm 19:14

This is the final verse of Psalm 19 after three divisions – a creation fireworks starburst, then the glory of verbal revelation, and finally a confession of sin that is graced-based.

Psalm 19 ends with the Psalmist placing his heart in the center of his prayer, reflecting both public and private acts of worship and communication with “O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” This was done “in your sight,” (that is, in your presence). What a way to end a Psalm!

In considering how the language of the Psalm can “shape, encourage and describe” our devotions, the word “heart’ is often used. In Psalm 19 the request is “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.” The Psalmist wants the words and meditations of his heart to be acceptable to the LORD. His worship/devotion is concentrated in his heart. His prayer for acceptance is grounded in the LORD as redeemer, not his own efforts. The Psalmist confessed, “Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;..”

Verse 1 can help shape our devotions, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” We can certainly see the glory of God in the creation we share. Verses 7-11 shape our attitude about the verbal revelation from the LORD. The mix of images in verse 10 is so descriptive, “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.”

Verses 12 and 13 encourage us to confess our sins to a gracious and redeeming God. This confession comes before the prayer of the Psalmist’s heart to be accepted in the sight of the LORD. Listen to the prayer-shaping encouraging words, “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.” This is why the LORD is my rock, steadfast because of his grace as my redeemer.

So now back to the final verse, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Reflect, think about, and reread this verse to shape, encourage and describe your devotion life, your heart in the presence of our LORD, our rock and our redeemer.

The Heart is the Matter

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” So begins Psalm 14. We will consider the heart and the language about the heart in the Psalms in “shaping, encouraging and describing” our Christian devotional life and experience. The heart is at the center of our devotion, worship and daily lives. Paul echoes this idea in Romans 10 reflecting on what Moses wrote: “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Conversion, the decision to follow Jesus as Lord as a disciple, is a matter of our hearts. Our devotional lives are expressions of our heart in the presence of God.

Our heart is where our passions, dreams, desires, affections, and our memories lodge. Our heart and the memories that reside there are controlled by the defaults or habits of our heart. These automatic choices make us comfortable and help us to feel safe in a changing and sometimes dangerous world. The heart dwells on what we chose to see as determining our significance. Tim Keller writes, “Where you find your significance is where you find your salvation.”

Psalm 14 reminds us that “The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.” What does the LORD see our hearts seeking after moment by moment?

Consider the following verses. Remember the context is the whole Psalm.

Psalm 26:2 – “Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind.”

Psalm 36:1 – “Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.”

Psalm 119:32 – “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!”

Psalm 28:7 – “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”

Psalm 73:26 – “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Psalm 9:1 – “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.”

Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Psalm 21:2 – “You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah”

Psalm 25:17 – “The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.”

Seeking the LORD's face at his request

David asks questions about fear at the start of Psalm 27. In the middle of confessing his faith in the LORD, David has a request: “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” It becomes more focused in this verse: “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’ Hide not your face from me.”

The heart of this Psalm is about desire, about what we seek. David seeks the LORD’s house, the temple. The LORD responds, “seek my face.” David’s response in Psalm 27 is, “My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me’.” This will be third and last Psalm about seeking the presence of God in our devotional life before we begin to examine the role of the heart in our devotional life, as described in the Psalms.

Last week in Psalm 16 we considered “setting the Lord always before us.” This week we will explore how we “seek.” Both setting and seeking are acts of the Psalmist. David first uses the image of the house of the LORD and then the temple of the LORD, that is, a place entered after sacrifice and the spilling of blood, the Holy of Holies entered only once a year by the High Priest. The LORD’s response is about seeking the LORD’s face at his request or command. This is grace and love by the LORD, who like the seeking-after Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, now seeks after David. This seeking is not just to restore walking together, but from the Psalms’ perspective is to seek the very face of the LORD at his invitation. 

This Psalm reminds us that there will be conflict and disappointment in life in so many ways. Jesus, in John 15, reminds us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you…If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” David starts Psalm 27 with his battle flag – “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Seeking the LORD’s face is not something just for quiet times. It is also for times of disruption and conflict. David’s poet states: “When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, … For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” Today eating of the flesh is the stuff of Zombie stories. Generational family break-ups are almost too common to be noticed. Sadly this is almost normal and expected.

Seek speaks to our heart’s desire. Psalm 27 is about what God desires. Seek, not just his house or his temple. The LORD’s expressed desire in Psalm 27 is that we seek his face. We seek his face through seeking Jesus Christ his incarnate son, the son of David, whom he sent.

This week we will consider how this seeking in Psalm 27 shapes, encourages and helps us describe our devotional life experiences.