OUR LORD WHO GUIDES US TO RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HIS NAMES SAKE

Psalm 19 verse 13 says this;

Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

Here, the psalmist asks the Lord to intervene and save him from committing willful sins so that they would not dominate him. If he is kept from willful sins, he reasons, he would avoid committing great transgressions.

Verse 13 asks for help to avoid external sins but the next verse speaks of that which is cultivated in the psalmist's mind. Psalm 19 verse 14 says this;

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

What is in our private words and even in our secret thoughts are always before the Lord and the prayer here is that the God who knows all things would be pleased by the thoughts of our minds and the words of our mouths.

May our outward conduct and our inner lives be pleasing to the Lord our God.

Amen.