"LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walks uprightly, and works righteousness,
and speaks the truth in his heart."
Psalm 15:1-2
"Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. . ."
Psalm 51:6
The real challenge for us all is to be honest with ourselves about ourselves. Jeremiah warned us that the human heart “is deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:9), and the one person that a man’s heart most often deceives is himself. God’s grace is God’s offer to deliver us from the bondage of our own hearts; it is the offer for heavenly strength, the strength for us to tell ourselves the truth about ourselves. Without that grace, every man is a liar, and hopelessly so.
God desires truth to reign in our hearts, the truth about Him and His Son Jesus, the truth about ourselves, the truth about those whom we love the most, and the truth about everyone else in our world.
May God help us to be honest with ourselves about ourselves. His will is to deliver us from every secret thing about ourselves that is not holy. If we are honest enough to confess to Him the truth about ourselves, He is faithful and loving enough to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
David pleaded with God to “cleanse me from secret faults” (Ps. 19:12b). He did not mean that those faults of his were secrets from God. He knew better. He wanted God to cleanse him from those things that were a secret to others, and maybe even to himself, so that he could truly be the man that some people thought he was. And in the end, because David spoke the truth about himself in his own heart, he truly did become that man.
