Honest Lips

“Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.” (Ps 17:1 AV)

It appears as though the LORD is continuing His instruction on honesty. Yesterday, we saw David reference honesty to and with one’s heart.  It is important to reflect on Self, especially the desires and feelings of the heart.  Now, David turns his attention to honesty from the lips.  What he says must be the truth.  It must be sincere.  This is kind of hard when we have a limited understanding of our circumstances.  How can we be sure we are seeing the situation as it really is?  How can we pray for a health need if we do not know what God intends to do by it?  Or, perhaps the outcome isn’t what secular medical care thinks it will be?  How do we pray for things as they appear to us if how they appear to us isn’t what truly are?  I don’t think David is speaking of accuracy here.  What he is shooting for is honesty of heart manifested by sincerity in prayer.  Even if he feels things that he shouldn’t because he cannot see everything as it is, to bottle it all up because he might be wrong about it isn’t using unfeigned lips.  It is better to be wrong and apologize later than to fake prayer that you think God wants to hear.  In short, to pray with feigned lips is to patronize the God of all Creation.

As a father, to hear things that one does not wish to hear is not fun.  Regardless of whether they are warranted or not, they are not fun.  One time, one of my children and his spouse sat in my office giving me their opinions of something or other.  It was critical of me in a way that was uncomfortable.  Although their observations and conclusions were way off base, I listened anyway.  Why didn’t I shut it all down and tell them when they were my age they could come and offer criticism?  Because they were being honest with how they felt.  They were being real.  And that was more important to me than lip service which they thought I might have wanted to hear.  I listened.  We talked it out.  It was so long ago that I cannot remember the specifics but I do remember I didn’t get defensive and I loved that they felt comfortable enough to bear their hearts even if, at the time, they were misguided. Honesty is what is precious.  Regardless of the words, the honesty of the words means transparency and vulnerability were on the table.  In that instant, I knew my child and his spouse deeply desired to know and love me deeper.  What a treasure!

God is not looking for us to be perfectly correct in all that we bring to Him.  That would be impossible.  What He does not want is children who say what He thinks He wants to hear without the heart that goes along with it.  Real and raw emotion is fine.  It has to be processed.  What we cannot do is ignore who we are and how we feel because we don’t think God would react well to our words.  Sometimes we have to eat our words.  Sometimes we have to beg His forgiveness.  But as a father, teacher, and pastor, I would rather have raw honesty than someone who is only trying to impress me with being something or feeling something that is not real.  When we go to Him, how real are we?  How real are our words of praise and thanksgiving?  How real are we with how we feel or what we desire?  These things matter to God.