A Word in Season: Acceptable in God’s Sight (Psalm 19:14)

Psalm 19 speaks so beautifully of the ways in which God has revealed himself to mankind, the two books that he has opened, each adequate in itself for all its purposes, that book of nature by which God has shown his eternal power and Godhead, the heavens declaring the glory of God and the firmament showing his handiwork, and then the book of special revelation, the law of God which is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord which is sure, making wise the simple.

And as the Psalmist thinks, perhaps particularly of the revelation of God in the law of the Lord, in the written word and the statutes and the testimonies that God has given to his people, he is moved to a high adoration of the Lord God and that brings him low in his own estimation.

He knows that by these things God's servant is warned and in keeping them there is great reward and so he cries out, who can understand his errors, cleanse me from secret faults, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me, then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression.

Is that how you and I feel when we are exposed to the word of God, when the law of the Lord is before us, when his statutes and testimonies in all their sweetness, with all their clarity, with all their pressing distinctness in touching our lives, come to bear upon our souls.

We understand then that we are so easily led astray, that we can so easily turn to the left hand or to the right and go whichever way we will, perhaps the danger of our wandering, the fear that we might not even realize how far astray that we are going.

And so the psalmist concludes with the prayer, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Now how often do you or I pray like that?

Is that not a prayer that breathes the sweetest humility? Is that not a prayer of proper dependence upon God? Is this not the prayer of a man or a woman who is conscious that they stand before God, that the Lord has spoken to them, that the Lord has made known his will, that we are so prone to wander, prone to leave the God that we love, and that we then desperately need that God should sustain us and guide us according to his holy law.

So here is a proper prayer, here is a proper plea, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. You see how he is conscious to use the New Testament language that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

It's not just an external acceptability but an internal acceptability. He wants to make sure that both what takes place in the inner man as well as what is expressed in the outer man, that both are of such a kind that God might in all holiness smile upon it.

That's not illegitimate, that's not beyond the reach of God's people. The law of the Lord is given that we might know how to walk in his ways. It is sweeter to our souls than honey and the honeycomb. It is more desirable than gold.

God has spoken that we might know, that we might obey. And here's a man who, conscious of how easily he can go astray at that point, simply casts himself upon the Lord and his great desire is that everything within and without should be pleasing in his sight.

You'll see how in expressing such a desire he is confident in his covenant God, my strength and my redeemer. It is not his own wisdom, it's not his own righteousness, it's not his own might upon which he is relying.

He knows that it is only in relation to God that he can even begin to live acceptably before him. And so it is for us. We come to God through Christ Jesus. We come to our covenant Lord. He has a right to direct us in every aspect of our lives.

We cast ourselves upon him who is altogether holy, both just and merciful. We look to him to be our strength. We trust in him as our redeemer. And we simply desire that whether men see or not, God, knowing all things, would look upon our hearts, would hear our words, and that all that we are and all that we do would prove acceptable in his sight.