My First Bible Prayer

Growing up in a church that relied on spontaneous prayer, rather than prayers from the Bible, I didn’t hear the Lord’s Prayer aka Our Father right away. However, my Sunday School teachers encouraged us to get into the habit of bringing a Bible to church and reading it regularly at home, which I did at the time and have kept doing for decades.

At some point in those early years with God’s Word, I ran across a short prayer in Psalm 19:14 that’s often referred to as “David’s Prayer.” Whether King David was the actual psalmist for these particular lines, I don’t know, but I do know that the prayer became my prayer.

Since I first learned “my prayer” in the King James Version of the Bible (KJV), that’s still my first choice for praying and sharing with you:

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer,” KJV.

Today’s “Verse of the Day” on Bible Gateway featured this Bible prayer, which I then searched out in other English versions such as the Good News Translation (GNT.)

“May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you,
O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer!”

Since the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE) often counts the title or inscription of a psalm as the first verse, this version can be found as Psalm 19:15:

“Let the words of my mouth be acceptable,
the thoughts of my heart before you,
Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Regardless of the translation you prefer, my prayer can be your prayer too.

Dear Lord God, Heavenly Father,
help me to say only what’s true
and acceptable to You.

Write Your words upon my heart,
and help my thoughts to keep You
continually in mind and spirit

for You are the Rock, the Tower
to Whom I run. You are
The Spirit Who redeems
our untoward words
and fills us with Your power.

by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

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