“Let My Heart Be Sound in Thy Statutes”
David prayed one of the most important prayers a child of God can ever pray:
“Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.” — Psalm 119:80
Think about those words for a moment. David did not merely ask God to give him more information. He did not simply pray for a greater knowledge of facts. He prayed that his heart would be sound in the statutes of God.
Why?
“That I be not ashamed.”
Every one of us understands something about shame. Most of us can remember being told as children, “You should be ashamed of yourself.” We knew what those words meant. We had done something wrong. We had acted in a way that was wicked, dishonest, disobedient, or foolish, and once it was brought to our attention, we were embarrassed by what we had done.
As adults, we can look back upon things in our own lives and say, “I wish I had never done that. I wish I had never said that. I wish I had never had that attitude.”
David understood that feeling. He prayed concerning the sins of his past. Like David, there are things in our lives that we would rather our family and friends never know. We may call them mistakes, failures, misdeeds, or sins, but the fact remains that we did them.
Years may pass, but sometimes the memory returns and we still hang our heads.