Hebrew
Highlights 33 - Acceptable
Shalom. This is Yuval Shomron, coming to you from
Jerusalem.
PSA 19:14 “Let
the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Thy
sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”
This psalm of David, is one of the most beautiful, and indeed, humble,
of his songs. It is obvious throughout,
that King David, as great as he was, saw his smallness in comparison to God.
Notice that he
is simply asking for acceptance; not for fame, or greatness, or wealth, or a big
ministry, or revelation. The word
acceptable here is translated from the word “ratson”. It can mean in this context acceptable, or
desirable, or even more simply, “wanted”.
In the 12th and 13th verses of Psalm we see David
asking for the Lord to cleanse him. I will look into those verses on a future
Hebrew Highlights.
Meanwhile,
let’s look at PSA 119:108, which is similar, “O accept the freewill offerings
of my mouth, O Lord, And teach me Thine
ordinances.” Does God accept, desire,
and want the sayings, which are proceeding from our lips? Our mouths are to be fountains of blessing,
as we see in JAM 3:8-10, “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil
and full of deadly poison. With it we
bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the
likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My
brethren, these things ought not to be this way.”
Unfortunately,
even those of us who love worship, and make a sacrifice of praise a priority in
our lives, still sometimes use the same vessel to judge, strive, and put others
down.
Sometimes we
come to seemingly innocent conclusions in our assessments of people, based on
our limited experience or doctrinal knowledge, as seen in ROM 14:2-3, &
16-18 One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats
vegetables only. Let not him who eats
regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat
judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil;
for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who
in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
I often need
to remind myself that God has already accepted my brother. Who am I to reject him? And in the same way as “forgiving our
debtors” brings forgiveness for our own debts, so too, accepting our brother’s
faults, or shot-comings, will bring us acceptance in God’s eyes. This makes it much easier for us to fulfill
1PE 2:5, which says, “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a
spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
King David’s
theme of God’s greatness, and our humbleness, is repeated in the New Testament
in HEB 12:28, “Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken,
let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with
reverence and awe;”.
I am sure that
all of us want our sacrifice, to be accepted.
We want to do things that our Heavenly Father actually desires. Sometimes it seems to be an impossible task. If we look at the fruit of our lips, is the
scale tipped toward blessing or curse?
Will we ever be able emulate the character of Yeshua in our actions,
thoughts, and words?
Once in a
“Peanuts” cartoon, the philosophical Linus makes a
statement to Charly Brown, saying, “I’ve given up on
taking life one day at a time. I’m down
to half a day at a time!”.
I believe the
key to success, is simply not to have the time to serve our flesh or the enemy
with our mind and tongue. We need to be
busy doing the right things, as it says in HEB 13:15-16, “Through Him then, let
us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit
of lips that give thanks to His name.
And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God
is pleased.”
Forgive and be
forgiven. Love and be loved. Praise and be praised. Accept… and be accepted.
Shalom, Shalom from
Jerusalem.