Pleasing Words

 

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

—Psalm 19:14

A couple of years ago, back in the days when I walked with two canes, I had decided to make a rare appearance at our nearby mall. As I walked slowly through a moderately sized group of shoppers, a young woman, probably in her early twenties, stopped as she walked toward me.

“Do you realize what a fat, ugly pig you are?” she blurted out. “You should stay home and spare us from looking at your fat, horrid body and ugly face!”

As you might imagine, I was startled. The very fact that someone I didn’t know would even speak to me in such a public place was a surprise. That her words and her tone of voice held such hostility was even more startling.

I didn’t say anything to her. I just kept walking slowly toward the store I had come to the mall to visit. But, her words haunted me.

I am very well aware that I am morbidly obese. I have been extremely fat since I was a young child. I inherited an endomorphic body type from my birth mother. As I have recounted on this blog previously, I had always been told my birth mother was so obese that she was able to conceal her pregnancy from everyone until the day she gave birth. So, I come by the tendency to be fat, you might say, “naturally.” As to looking “ugly,” it certainly is true that I will never be asked to pose as a male model for a fashion magazine.

I recount this story, not to solicit pity, but to illustrate how powerful words can become in shaping our thinking. In fact, I should not care one bit about what some woman I do not know said about me. Instead of thinking very much about it, I should dismiss her observations completely. After all, she doesn’t know me at all. Apart from the little value her words might have to use as an illustration in a blog post, what she had to say means nothing. Yet, words do have great power.

The Scripture verse with which I opened this blog post shares a prayer of King David found as the closing phrase in one of David’s great Psalms. As with many Psalms, this Psalm 19 comes in the form of a prayer. David expresses to God a desire to have God control every aspect of David’s being, including the words that come out of his mouth. Since David realizes that the words he might speak come from deep within the core of his being, David also asks God to control the meditation of his heart. In other words, David desires God to place within the depths of David’s being thoughts, wishes, hopes, and dreams—those things that would prove pleasing to God.

I believe this is a prayer we should take to heart. Each day during this coming week, I invite you to join me in praying this prayer. As we start each new day, let’s do so by asking God in prayer:

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

 

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