Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Psalm 19. Psalm 19 and verse
14, the last verse. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my redeemer. Psalm 19 and verse 14. David, the psalmist here, knew
very well how important right words and right meditation were. And so, rather than relying on
his own wisdom, his own efforts, he made this a prayer. And I hope that we will do the
same, not thinking, well, we can keep ourselves, our own thoughts,
or keep our own words and make them right, but need this to
be something we pray for, ask the Lord to do for us. and look
that he will accomplish in us. And yes, he will use means, he'll
use the ministry, I hope he does tonight, and he will use the
Word of God as our instructor and teacher, but above all, he
will give us to know what is right and acceptable, and cause
those words of our mouth and meditation of our heart to be
acceptable in his sight. David may well have thought of
occasions when his own thoughts were a reason of his fall into
adultery and murder. Very often the wrong thoughts
they then lead to wrong actions. He may also have thought of the
Amalekite that came and told him that he had slain King Saul
on Mount Gilboa and as a proof he actually had the king's crown
in his hand and yet David knew that that Amalekite was not telling
the truth And how he knew, we are not told. We are told in
the scriptural account that King Saul fell upon his sword. Another
didn't kill him, he killed himself when he was wounded. But the
Amalekite said that he knew that there was no hope for King Saul,
therefore he drew his sword and killed him. So after David had
mourned, he called the Amalekite to him and he asked him was he
not careful to put forth his hand to kill the Lord's anointed
and he said let thy words condemn thee and he called his young
men and they slew him and he laid the guilt, the charge, not
on the fact that he had actually done it, but that he had said
that he did it. His own words condemned him. Psalm 49 testifies and the scriptures
testify of the vital importance of right words and a right meditation. My mouth shall speak of wisdom,
and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. And in Proverbs we read that,
as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And we finished our
reading in Romans, that with the heart man believeth, and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Our Lord, in Matthew 12, He also
gave teaching concerning our thoughts and our words. He says, either make the tree
good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his
fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit. No generation
of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you
that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou
shalt be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned. Puts a tremendous weight upon
words. It's not unimportant, it's a
very, very important thing. We think of the case of Simon
the sorcerer, that is recorded in Acts and chapter 8. He, in this case, it is charged
the thought of his heart. He had made profession, he had
been baptised, it seemed that he'd been converted, but then
he saw that by the laying on of hands the Holy Spirit was
given. and then the true thought of
his heart came out. In verse 18 of Acts 8 we read,
when Simon, that is Simon the sorcerer, saw that through the
laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he
offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever
I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto
him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that
the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither
part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in
the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy
wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine
heart may be forgiven thee. And so there's emphasized the
thought of the heart that betrays the true state and condition
of that soul. And from Simon's thought came
his words, give me this power. But Peter, he traces the root
of it to what his thoughts were. And these things impress upon
us the importance of right words and right meditation. So may
our prayer be, let the words of my mouth and the meditation
of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength
and my redeemer. We want to look three points. Firstly, in whose sight David
wants his words and meditation to be acceptable? In thy sight,
O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. And then secondly, what are acceptable
words and what are not? And thirdly, what are acceptable
meditations of the heart and what are not? Obviously, we can only touch
on some of those points. But firstly, in whose sight did
David want his words and meditations to be acceptable? It is in God's sight. I want
to remind of this, that God sees us. He knows our thoughts. Many times it was said of the
Lord Jesus that he knew their thoughts and he addressed his
word to meet what he knew their thoughts were. He didn't need
them to utter and to divulge what they were thinking. Sometimes
the Lord has impressed upon his people when they have been in
secret and the minister hasn't known their thoughts or their
words but the Lord has and he then brings the word through
the ministry that immediately addresses those thoughts or maybe
addresses those words that have been spoken one to another. It was the Lord knowing what could
only be known by the Lord that was used in Nathanael's case,
whence knowest thou me? Before that Philip called thee,
when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. The knowledge
of the Lord of the woman at well of Samaria was what was used
for her. And the realization that our
thoughts cannot be hidden from God, they are hidden from man
until it comes out in words or actions, but they cannot be hidden
from the Lord. Another aspect, another thing
to consider here is that David is not coming with this prayer
as an unbeliever. He is coming as one that addresses
the Lord Jehovah as his strength, or rock, and my redeemer. This is not saying, well, this
is a prayer that needs to be prayed for those still in nature's
darkness or those unconverted, but for those that are converted,
those that are the Lord's people, those that even have assurance,
the Lord is their strength, the Lord is their redeemer. The idea
that when one is converted that they automatically have right
thoughts and right desires and right words is not warranted
from the scripture. And if that is a stumbling block
to any here and you think, How can I be a child of God? How
can the Lord be my strength and my Redeemer and my Saviour when
I am mindful of such thoughts and such words? I feel sin is
mixed with all I say, all I do, and all I think, and therefore
I cannot be a child of God." Well, that would rule out David.
Because if he had no consciousness of wrong thoughts or wrong words,
he would never pray this. If he didn't feel that he would
easy fall, we have in verse 13, keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. It's again something that he
felt that he was Is he able to go into that, or in Apostle Paul's
words, sinning, that grace might abound? And the Lord keeping
back from that. And these are petitions of the
Lord's people, not those that are not. And so he addresses,
he comes before the Lord his God, his strength and his redeemer. He doesn't just want to pull
the wool over men's eyes. He doesn't want to just deceive
the Church of God. He doesn't want to just deceive
his family. He wants to be right in the sight
of God. Not a hypocrite, but in God's
sight, as we most surely will be at the last great Judgment
Day, and we are now. That is where he wanted the words
of his mouth and the meditation of his heart to be acceptable
in God's sight. May we remember where David's
eye was, where his thoughts were, thou God seest me, and knowing
that all things are naked, open unto the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. In Psalm 139, Psalm of David,
he testifies there right through that Psalm. There is not a word
in my tongue, but, O Lord, thou knowest it. all together. Thou art acquainted with all
my ways. Verse 2, Thou know'st my down-sitting
and mine uprising, Thou understand'st my thought afar off. He's very
mindful of this, and right through the psalm he speaks of that eye
upon him, such is high I cannot attain unto
it. I believe that it is not in the
thought of the terrors of God. Sometimes I fear that some of
the children's hymns perhaps put so much the effort of the
fear. You watch what you do because
God is watching everything you do and everything you say. There
is that aspect of it, but it's also a great comfort for the
people of God, that He does know. He knoweth the way that I take. When ye have tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. And the Spirit maketh intercession
with groanings which cannot be uttered. When we cannot pray
and the heart is groaning and sighing, then it is a comfort
that the Lord knows that. And he knows what the true intent
of the heart is, even though the words might be faulting words
and even sometimes wrong words. And so, although it is a reality that the Lord does hear
and does see, Surely for those that know the Lord as their Lord,
their strength, their Redeemer, it is not out of fear and terror. It's out of a desire to not grieve
the Lord, to do that which is acceptable in His sign, to want
to do those things that do not grieve His Spirit and that show
forth His praise and are through evidences of His work and grace
within, moving us by grace, not by sin. Sin not having dominion,
but the work of the Lord, evident in our hearts and in our lives. So whose side David wanted his
words and meditation? It was in the sight of the Lord,
his strength, his redeemer. May we remember David, of course,
he looked forward to the work of his greatest son and spoke
in prophecy just a couple of psalms later, he is speaking
in prophecy, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The
sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a blessed
thing when we have an eye to the Lord in His redemption, in
what He has accomplished at Calvary, His sufferings, His death, that
which He has done to release us from sin, to deliver us from
sin. What is asked here is really
asking the Lord that he would set free from sins of thought
and sins of word and the previous verse presumptuous sins yet free
is through the redemptive work of Christ to be redeemed from
them at the end of Psalm 25 we have redeemed Israel O God out
of all his troubles I wonder how often we feel when we make
our petitions to the Lord that the only way the Lord can answer
those petitions is that He put away our sin and that those blessings
come to us through His precious blood, that they are blood-bought
blessings. Without them, without Christ's
work of Calvary, then He could not justly, righteously do anything
for a sinner, which includes what he's asking for here. We're asking for those benefits
that flow forth from Calvary. We put in Paul's words in Romans
5, if while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, how much
more? being now reconciled, we shall
be saved by his life. And really that is what David
is coming. He's coming to his God who has
redeemed and saved him, and now he's asking these blessings in
life. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins, blotting out
all their transgressions, all their sins, and where their sins
plague them and come in their thoughts and words, he alone
has power to deliver and save from those sins. So I want to
look then secondly at what are acceptable words and what are
not. When Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes,
we read that because the King was wise, he sought out acceptable
words. And of course that's part of
the inspired and infallible word of God. And we know then that
those words that are according to scripture are acceptable words. But what a reminder when we think
of the temptations of our Lord and how Satan used the word of
God saying, cast thyself down from the pinnacle of the temple,
for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over thee. How solemn that the word of God,
the very words, good words, shall be used, but in a wrong sense. And so our Lord says, it is written
again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. So when we say
that acceptable words are words of the Scripture, words that
the Holy Ghost teacheth, then we must qualify that the message
is according to the Word of God. No Scripture is of any private
interpretation, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. Not to read into the Word what
we want to have in the Word. Mr. Ansbottom tells in one of
his books of a thief that was before a judge. And the judge
said to the thief, he said, don't you know what the commandments
are? Thou shalt not steal. And he said, well, but I've no
need of that word not. All I like is thou shalt steal.
And just by leaving out one word, it suited his case. But it wasn't that which was
acceptable or right in the word of the Lord. Our Lord speaks
of his people stealing his words, every one from his neighbor. So when we have the word of God,
that we might be delivered from handling it deceitfully, or deliberately
using it, but using it in a deceitful way. And so, let the words of
my mouth, if our words are scripture words, let them be words that
are in accordance with the message of the scripture. When Paul writes to the Ephesians,
he exhorts them that they let no corrupt communication proceed
out of their mouths, but that which was good to edifying, that
which profited and built up, that which ministered grace unto
the hearers. In the prophecy of Zechariah,
we have the exhortation to speak every man truth unto his neighbor,
that there not be deceit or lying to the neighbor. When the Apostle
Paul gave his call by grace, his testimony to Festus and others,
and as he spoke of the things of God, Then Festus said with
a loud voice, Thou art mad, much learning doth make thee mad. And he says, I am not mad, most
noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. We are to be ready to give an
account of what the Lord has wrought in us, with meekness
and fear to everyone that asketh a reason of the hope within us. And those are acceptable words
when we speak out of the abundance of the heart, we speak of what
the Lord has done, come and hear, all ye that fear God and I will
tell what he hath done for my soul. Those two on the way to
Emmaus, when they came back to the apostles, they told what
was done in the way, and how the Lord was made known unto
them in breaking of bread. They were acceptable words, they
were words of truth, they were words of their own experience,
they were words that told of what they had walked through
and gone through. We think of the words of the
Pharisee and the publican in prayer. The Pharisee in prayer
could speak of all what he'd done, good things that he'd done.
And the publican standing afar off could not so much as lift
up his eyes to heaven but beat upon his breast, God be merciful
to me a sinner. And if you look at those words,
you think, In a natural sense, you'd think, well, what an eloquent
prayer the Pharisee made. What a wonderful profession.
He could say all these things that he'd done, his tithes that
he gave, and all of those things. And this publican, he doesn't
pray a good prayer, and he cannot say anything good for himself.
Surely his words cannot be acceptable. But the Lord said, no, his words
were acceptable, but the Pharisees were not. and he went down to
his house justified rather than the other. The pleading for mercy
was acceptable words. It answered to what he really
felt in his heart, and it testified of the only way of salvation,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His
grace, by His mercy, by grace ye are saved through faith, that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Sometimes we might
have in our minds that, well, we need to speak these words,
we need to be able to give utterance of these words. Remember with
Moses, when Moses was to be sent into Egypt, hindrance that he
felt that he was slow of speech. The Lord said, well, who hath
made man's mouth? And he told him to go. And yet we can. We can be backward
thinking that, well, we don't know how to speak, how to rightly
speak of the things of God. Thinking that, well, we've got
to pattern off what we've read in this obituary, in this person's
testimony, in that person's testimony, and have something in our mind.
What is right words? What is a right testimony? Right words are words that the
Lord hears, and he says that is exactly right. That is what
this person has felt. That's what they've gone through.
That's what I've done for them. They're telling the truth about
themselves, about their sin, about what they hope has been
blessed to them, and what God has done for them. And He knows
their heart. He knows the truth of what is
being set forth. We think of the dying thief.
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. But before
that, there were some other words. And those words were what he
said, we indeed do justly, for we receive the due reward of
our sins. But this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, hath done nothing amiss. And then he presents his petition,
the acceptable words of acknowledgement of our sin, the just dealings
of God with us, the confession of our sin, David, when Nathan
was brought, the parable, I have sinned. Wasn't many words. And
the words of blessing back, the Lord hath also put away thy sin,
thou shalt not die. Not many words, but how precious
they would have been to David, and how precious were the words
of our Lord back to the dying thief. Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Acceptable words, words according
to scripture, words that, words of truth, is what the Lord has
revealed to us and what the Lord has brought us to know. Out of
the abundance of the heart, man speaketh. And where the heart
is full of the things of God, then, well, it is poured out. Like Hannah, I've poured out
my heart unto the Lord. And that was her petition for
a child. The Lord give thee thy petition
that thou hast asked of him. And yet they were not audible
words. They were words, but not audible. Our prayers don't need to be
audible. Sometimes it is easier to, if
we have a secret place, a place where we are not overheard, to
pray audibly because it helps to order our thoughts and keep
our minds on our prayers, otherwise it's very easy to just wander
hither and thither and not be at all focused in prayer. And so, like with Hannah, when
we think of words here, the words of my mouth, as in the sight
of the Lord, especially in prayer, it is still heard by the Lord. But I believe especially He means
this, that those things that are actually heard and said of
men, that which man hears. It's a great mercy to have the
doors of our lips closed if they cannot speak that which is good
and right and acceptable. We think of that which is acceptable,
especially regarding the Gospel, to bear true testimony of the
salvation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that especially
if we are ministers, I know many of our articles of faith, they
deal with the ministry, and words that are right to use, words
that are not to use, and we seek really to address the thought
that implies to a hearer that he has salvation at his own command,
that God is standing helplessly by, wanting men to respond to
the offers of salvation, and if they don't then The Lord is
robbed of his people. And in times past, and we still
have it today, there's ministry that those words give that impression. Well, man is, we are responsible
for our actions. We cannot point to another man
or to Satan and say, well, he is responsible for my sins and
my actions. We are accountable too. We must
give account at the last day of judgement. But our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ, is responsible for the salvation of His people. He shall save His people from
their sins. And I believe we must realise
that. And though we preach the Gospel
and the Word commandeth all men everywhere to repent, in these
Gospel days that they turn from idols to the true and living
God, Yet salvation is of the Lord. He will build His house,
He will add unto it daily such as should be saved, and that
work is of God. And that is the great comfort
to God's people, those who feel their sin, those who feel they
need the Lord, to have mercy upon them and to save them. And
it sets the crown on the head of the Lord. It magnifies His
grace, irresistible grace. It magnifies that those that
are chosen in Him from the foundation of the world will most certainly
come to faith and be saved. But where we know the worth of
a soul, where the Lord has opened that to us, then it will cause
many cries to the Lord. that he will have mercy upon
us and make known to us his salvation. So in the way of salvation, may
our words, especially to others, put the crown on the Lord's head,
set it really as it is, that it is by grace and not by works,
and it is to the Lord's honour and glory, to please God through
the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. I want to then think thirdly
of those acceptable meditations of the heart. We spoke of Simon
Magnus, and often those thoughts of the heart, they come first
in salvation. go to Cain and Abel and they
knew, they knew from how the Lord had killed animals and clothed
Adam and Eve with the coats of skins, they knew that without
the shedding of blood there was no remission. And yet when they
came to offer sacrifice, Cable takes of the first thing of his
flock that Cain he brought of the fruit of the fields. And
we read the Lord did not have respect unto Cain and his offering. Cain was very upset and the Lord
said to him, if thou do us well, shall not thou be accepted? But instead he slew his brother.
Right from the very start, Really you have a contrast with a blood
sacrifice and not, with works of the flesh, the fruit of our
own labours or the fruit of God's labour. And man's thoughts, may
our thoughts be really acceptable in the sight of the Lord as to
how we are saved. Salvation by grace, like the
publican in humility, laid low before the Lord. The Lord says,
I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace
and not of evil, to give you an expected end. But man's thoughts
often is so different. Your thoughts are not my thoughts.
As the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts
than your thoughts. And you read of so many. You
have Haman. He wants to be mighty. He wants to be great. He wants
to have men bow down to him. And when the king asked him,
what shall be done unto the man that the king delighteth to honour? He thinks, who shall the king
delight to honour more than myself? And he patterns his answer on
that. Thoughts that led to his downfall
pride. But then we have Naaman who really
did want to be healed. But on his own terms, his own
thoughts, I thought the Prophet should come out and do some great
thing, wave his hand over the place. Instead he just sends
a serpent, tells him to go wash in Jordan seven times. and his thoughts had to be overthrown. In salvation, may we remember
this, our proneness as well, to have different thoughts, wrong
thoughts. Sometimes we can have thoughts
that are running completely contrary to the Word altogether, or sometimes
even to frustrate God's purposes. I remember a dear uncle once,
he said to me, he said, you know, he said, I felt it impressed
that the Lord had appointed me to be in the diaconate. And he said, I didn't want to
be a deacon. So he said, I thought that if I never made profession,
if I didn't go forward in the church, then I couldn't be a
deacon. And that's what he refused to join the church. refused to
make profession because he thought that would stop it. We can have
thoughts like that. I'm not going to pray in public.
I know how to stop that. I won't join the church. And
we can think those thoughts go on, scheming, almost unbrought
forth, unplanned. They just rise up. We'll get
round God's word in some way. You know, with Naaman, The Lord
overcame his thoughts, with my uncle as well, 26 years, he was
deacon at Dicker. He did have to go forward. But
we are so prone to wrong thoughts, and so Paul, when he writes to
the Philippians, he gives that direction as to our thoughts
in the fourth chapter He says, Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue
and if there be any praise, think on these things. There's a direction
for those things that we are to think upon. Our thoughts sometimes are like
the flowing garments of the Jews and how they need to be girded
up. But David puts it in a different
way, in a way of petition here. And in other psalms he says,
my meditation of him shall be sweet. And then the law of God,
O how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day. And our thoughts then are not
to be foolish thoughts, but thoughts governed by the scriptures, governed
by the work of the Lord within. True thoughts, let the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. How many of
us feel that we need this prayer? May we be held to prayer and
the Lord be pleased to answer to His honour and glory and to
the comfort of our souls. And if there are those thoughts
that have not been right and may be this evening they're overthrown
and for the Lord's good, the Lord's honour and glory that
it not be our thoughts but the Lord's thoughts and the Lord's
way that we walk in. May the Lord add his blessing.