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Psalm 19:14 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
¹⁴Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Jehovah, my rock, and my redeemer.

Let the words of my mouth. The words that I speak; all the words that I speak.

And the meditation of my heart. The thoughts of my heart.

Be acceptable in your sight. Be such as thou wilt approve; or, be such as will be pleasing to thee; such as will give thee delight or satisfaction; such as will be agreeable to thee. Comp. Prov. 14:35; Isa. 56:7; 60:7; Jer. 6:20; Exod. 28:38; Lev. 22:20, 21; 19:5. This supposes (a) that God has such control over our thoughts and words, that he can cause us to order them aright; (b) that it is proper to pray to him to exert such an influence on our minds that our words and thoughts may be right and pure; (c) that it is one of the sincere desires and wishes of true piety that the thoughts and words may be acceptable or pleasing to God. The great purpose of the truly pious is, not to please themselves, or to please their fellowmen, (comp. Gal. 1:10), but to please God. The great object is to secure acceptance with him; to have such thoughts, and to utter such words, that He can look upon them with approbation.

O Jehovah, my rock. The idea in this expression, and in the subsequent parts of the description, is that he owed his safety entirely to God. He had been unto him as a rock, a tower, a buckler, etc.—that is, he had derived from God the protection which a rock, a tower, a citadel, a buckler furnished to those who depended on them, or which they were designed to secure. The word “rock” here has reference to the fact that in times of danger a lofty rock would be sought as a place of safety, or that men would fly to it to escape from their enemies. Such rocks abound in Palestine; and by the fact that they are elevated and difficult of access, or by the fact that those who fled to them could find shelter behind their projecting crags, or by the fact that they could find security in their deep and dark caverns, they became places of refuge in times of danger; and protection was often found there when it could not be found in the plains below. Comp. Judges 6:2; Ps. 27:5; 61:2. Also, Jos. Ant., b. xiv., ch. 15.

And my redeemer. On the word here used, see Job 19:25; comp. Isa. 41:14; 43:14; 44:6, 24; 47:4; 63:16. The two things which the psalmist here refers to in regard to God, as the appellations dear to his heart, are (a) that God is his Rock, or strength; that is, that he was his defence and refuge; and (b) that he had rescued or redeemed him from sin; or that he looked to him as alone able to redeem him from sin and death. It is not necessary to inquire here how far the psalmist was acquainted with the plan of salvation as it would be ultimately disclosed through the great Redeemer of mankind; it is sufficient to know that he had an idea of redemption, and that he looked to God as his Redeemer, and believed that he could rescue him from sin. The psalm, therefore, which begins with a contemplation of God in his works, appropriately closes with a contemplation of God in redemption; or brings before us the great thought that it is not by the knowledge of God as we can gain it from his works of creation that we are to be saved, but that the most endearing character in which he can be manifested to us is in the work of redemption, and that wherever we begin in our contemplation of God, it becomes us to end in the contemplation of his character as our Redeemer.