Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”  NKJV

This prayer of David is another reason I can accept God’s declaration that David was a man after His own heart.  Too many times we focus on David’s flaws and failures and wonder how it could be possible that God would so speak of Israel’s great king.  But if we allow the Holy Spirit to open the prayers of David we will being to understand what God was speaking of.  We must always remember that God does not look on the exterior but the interior (heart).  1 Samuel 16:7

This prayer in Psalms 19 is one of many that reflect the ‘heart’ of David.  Imagine a man whose greatest concern was that his ‘words’ and ‘thoughts’ be acceptable and pleasing to God.  He is a man rising in power or ascended to the highest position of power in the land and yet his ‘heart’ cries out to Please God! In my studies of the life of David and other characters in the Bible, I find that one of the central parts of the equation for greatness was having a ‘tender heart’ before God.  They were strong men and some were men of war but when it came to their heart’s desire it was to Please God!

God is always looking for hearts that are open, receptive, and have a willingness to obey His purposes.  He chose Abram who became Abraham and one of the central characteristics of Abraham’s life was his ‘heart’.  We are told in Genesis and Romans that Abraham ‘believed’ God and it was accounted to Him for righteousness.  Likewise, we are instructed that ‘without faith’ it is Impossible to please God.  These men, such as David, were men who trusted, received, and exhibited a willingness to obey the Word and Spirit of God. 

David repeatedly revealed his humanness and in many churches of today would have been disqualified as a result of his failings as would most of the other Biblical Patriarchs.  Yet, God chose to use these men to establish a nation that would usher in the lineage from which Christ would come.  He continually confounds the wise, the religiously self-righteous, and questioners using things and people we would not have chosen, and their hearts crying out to Him brought about glorious results for the Kingdom of God.

If you only review the exterior or actions of another you will likely miss what God is doing are working in their lives and through them.  You will reject the messenger and thereby miss the message.  No wonder Jesus said to those who brought the adulterous woman before Him, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.”  No wonder we are told, “Get the log out of your own eye before you try to remove a splinter or speck from the eyes of another.”  I have experienced the Holy Spirit opening my eyes to a spiritual truth through people and in places, I would not have anticipated that happening.  He has taught me to not look at the packaging but the product.  It is not the marketing but the message that is important.

My heart cries out that the ‘words’ of my mouth and the ‘thoughts’ in my heart be acceptable and pleasing to My Lord.  I ask and continue to ask, Lord, set a guard over my mouth.  Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips guarding my heart from evil.  That is a daily prayer and the desire of my heart.  I want to be a man after God’s own heart.  I want to be a vessel usable for His purposes.

May God be with you as you go through this day!