In the Old Testament, David asked God to grant him a request that could likely be the most far-reaching prayer any person might pray. The prayer was, "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). This prayer of David closes out a psalm where David is giving praise to God and extolling the virtue and power of the Word of God.

As we think about it, we must admit that if every word we spoke were pleasing to God, our lives could be less stressful. Words have great power to bless or hurt. If we do not carefully guard what we say, our tongue can wreak havoc.

The New Testament book of James speaks about controlling the tongue, that is, what we say. James begins chapter 3 by saying, "If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check" (verse 2). God is telling us through James that issues of self-discipline in moral purity, ethical character, and personal appearance begin with our learning to control what we say.

James continues in verse 8: "No man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." Controlling what we say is one of the biggest challenges in our lives and certainly worthy of our praying that the words of our mouth would be pleasing to God.

Jesus taught that "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34). The key to controlling our words is guarding our hearts. David knew this when he linked the words of his mouth with the meditations of his heart in Psalm 19.

The battle for our heart is fought on two fronts. The first is to realize that we are fallen creatures and that, in and of ourselves, without any outside influence, we have more evil influence than we can handle on our own. The second front is to guard against outside influences that might further corrupt us.

The first battle line is fought on our knees in prayer, asking God to fill our lives with His Spirit. In addition, we must fill our minds with God's Word so that truly the meditations of our heart are based on Scripture and the things of God.

The second battle line is well served by the words of this song: "Be careful, little eyes, what you see; be careful, little ears, what you hear." Guarding our heart involves protecting against wrong input.

Our relationship with God, our own sense of well-being, and the relationships with family, friends, and community hinge on our heart being protected (i.e., filled with the right things) and our heart prompting us to speak words of comfort and peace rather than words that curse, divide, and hurt.

David's prayer is one we should all pray: "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD."