Psalm 19:14 - February 28, 2009

Ps 19:14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. " NIV

The heart and the mouth are joined together like links in a chain. Each one is influenced by the other and where one goes the other soon follows. There is a powerful link in the scriptures between our confession and the condition of our heart. The psalmist has captured the essence of this principle in these profound words. “Let my speech and my heart please you Lord!” If the church would grasp this one principle so much more of what has been promised us in the scriptures would be consistently experienced by the body of Christ.
The two key biblical principles that this is founded upon are the words of Christ In Luke 6:45, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” And the verse in Prov 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” KJV. It is man’s nature to speak that which has found a place in his heart. When we are depressed it comes forth in our speech. When we are happy, others tend to know about it. When we are afraid we speak that into the middle of our listening audience. We all pour out that which is in us. What we often overlook is the reality that is created by the second principle. Either death or life is flowing out of the words that I speak. The very work of creation as well as the many healing miracles of Christ all operated through this principle of the spoken word. Even our salvation and the ability to receive the promises of God is dependent on the fact that faith comes by hearing and the confession of what we believe.
When we allow our hearts to become the garden for thoughts that do not honor God’s character and his word then it is only a matter of time before we begin to plant those same seeds of darkness into the hearts of others. Think of how many children are damaged by the hurtful, unwise words of a parent who is speaking from their own pain and impatience. Yet those words are a living force that is sowing death into that child’s heart. James expresses the destructive potential of our tongue in a powerful way when he writes, James 3:6 “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” Imagine that, your mouth can corrupt your whole person! What power there is for life and death in the words that we speak. This is the foundation of David’s prayer when he cries out for God to help him speak and think in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. Today set your heart on that which will breed life within and speak only that which is pleasing to the Lord and agrees with his word. This life giving confession is not based on how you are feeling. It flows out of a decision to live by the principles of the word and to shape our life to the word of God rather than shaping the word of God to our lives.