O Lord, open my lips.

Psalm 51: 13 – 19

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
¹⁹ then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

O Lord, open my lips.

... and my mouth will declare your praise.

This rolls right off the tongue for me due to so many years in congregations with high use of liturgy. But, this morning, as I was saying it yet again, I wondered what would my life be like if every time I opened my lips I would declare His praise.

I don’t think God expects this and I don’t think this is what David was saying. Of course, we have many conversations about details in our lives,

“Honey, can you grab some milk at the store on your way home?”

or

“What movie do you want to watch?”

and they don’t involve praising God for anything. They are just things we say to get through the day. But, what if I was more intentional about my thoughts declaring God’s goodness and His provision? And what if my more frequent thoughts led to more frequent statements regarding the same?

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks….Matthew 12: 34b

What if I was encouraging instead of critical? Gave credit to God’s handiwork so other ears could hear? What if I opened my mouth and and declared His praise more often than not?