- Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in my truthfulness. I have trusted also in the LORD; I shall not slide.
- Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; purify my heart and my mind. (MKJV)
- For Your loving-kindness is before my eyes; and I have walked in Your truth.
- I have not sat with lying men, neither will I go in with hypocrites.
- One thing I have desired from the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple,
- When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O LORD, will I seek.”
- Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a level path because of my enemies.
- Wait for the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall make your heart strong; yea, wait, I say, wait on the LORD.
My Heart
These two psalms are absolutely necessary for renewing of the heart. Many of God’s children do not remember what was written: (Jeremiah 17:9-10) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
The Holy Spirit instruct us the first thing to deal with the heart has to be pray; ” Judge me, O LORD; Examine me, O LORD,” It seems no one likes to do that, but instead, many people prefer asking Jesus to come into their heart without first asking God to “prove me; purify my heart and my mind”.
Because we don’t like to “dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life”, we always have more “important” earthly things. And we don’t believe it’s necessary to “inquire in His temple” and wait for the Lord.
All modern translation use “vindicate me” instead of “judge me”, so I can’t see this after typing this paragraph. Now I remember it is written: (I Corinthians 11:31-32 ISV) But if we judged ourselves correctly, we would not be judged. Now, while we are being judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined lest we be condemned along with the world. As the heart is too far away from the Father, We missed too many things from above and acquired too many stuffs from this earth that is so full of garbage and deception.
Listen to Isiah
We have to remember Jesus’ word when asking Him to come into the heart; (John 14:23) Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching, my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home within him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. Jesus and the Father are one, asking Jesus to come is the same as asking God to come. And we better know the word spoken by Him, below are just several verses from Isiah;
- (Isaiah 1:15-17 NASB) “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.
- (Isaiah 1:19-20) “If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; “But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
- (Isaiah 5:20-21) Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those wise in their own eyes, and bright in their own sight!
- (Isaiah 8:11-13) For thus the LORD spoke to me with a strong hand, and warned me against walking in the way of this people, saying, “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy!’ to everything of which this people says, ‘A conspiracy!’ And do not fear their fear, nor be afraid. The LORD of hosts, Him shall you sanctify, and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.
- (Isaiah 29:13) And the LORD said, “Because this people draws near Me with their mouth, and with their lips honor Me, but their worship of Me is made up of the traditions of men learned by rote, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandments of men;
- (Isaiah 30:1) “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not of Me; and who form an alliance, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;
- (Isaiah 33:6) And He will be the security of your times, and strength of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
- (Isaiah 48:17-18) So says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the LORD your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
- (Isaiah 55:6-8) Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man His thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, says the LORD.
- (Isaiah 66:2) For all those My hand has made, and all those exist, says the LORD. But to this one I will look, to the afflicted and contrite spirit, and the one who trembles at My word.
Fear of the Lord
When I was meditating these word of God, my heart started pounding, and the following thoughts came into my mind; Woe to those who know the Word but still decide to reject the word from the Almighty God. Woe to those who understand the Word but still wanted to distort the truth, deceiving and being deceived. It is better to start learning how to Fear The LORD before it’s too late.
Then psalm 86 came to my mind; (86:11) Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. This is very simple, yet we all missed. To unite my heart is to join my heart together with the fear of The Lord, so that we will never forget to fear God. We have no idea how important it is to fear God’s name always.
Let’s consider there are two believers in a church who pray something different everyday;
- One would pray; Thank you Lord for saving me. Thank you for forgiving all my sins. Thank you for giving us the salvation. Thank you for shedding your blood on the cross so that we can all be saved. And maybe once a year he or she will ask Jesus to come into the heart.
- Another would pray; Judge me, O LORD, purify my heart and my mind. Teach me Your way, lead me in a level path. Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.
Assume 10 years had passed, here comes the question; whose heart do you think will Jesus and the Father wanted to come into, at the end?
Now let us pray psalm 86 (AFV2020);
Bow down Your ear, O LORD, answer me, for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my soul, for I am holy; O You my God, save Your servant who trusts in You.
Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I cry unto You all day long.
Rejoice the soul of Your servant, for to You, O LORD, do I lift up my soul,
For You, LORD, are good and ready to forgive, and rich in mercy to all those who call upon You.
Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplications.
In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answer me.
Among the gods there is none like You, O LORD; neither are there any works like Your works.
All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O LORD, and shall glorify Your name,
For You are great and do wonderful things; You alone are God.
Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.
I will praise You, O LORD my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore,
For great is Your mercy toward me; and You have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave.
O God, the proud have risen against me, and the company of violent men have sought after my life, and have not set You before them.
But You, O LORD, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and truth.
Oh, turn to me, and have mercy upon me; give Your strength to Your servant and save the son of Your handmaid.
Show me a token for good, so that they who hate me may see and be ashamed because You, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
Amen.