Replies

Sorry Bob, but I was not been on FR all day yesterday after I posted my Proverb. I just noticed your comment and question this morning.

You seem to almost answer the question yourself.

One thing you may not realize about the statement in this Psalm 66;

If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear. (66:18)

Is that David is speaking of the sins of the heart. The unspoken sins that we all battle with. A sin that Jesus eluded to in Matthew 5 where in His famous Sermon on the Mount where he points out that both murder and adultery in the heart are just as sinful as if you did them for real.

The Pharisees were famous for their hypocrisy as you know. They would do things to be recognized by men for their praise, while ignoring the fact that god could read their hearts. So they would go to God expecting their show in public of their good deeds and open righteousness to be accepted by God.

Yet God read their hearts, and thus Jesus called them whitewashed tombs. Thus when they gave offerings at the Temple and came to God in prayer, they believed their actions in public were enough for God as it was for men who could not read their hearts. However, like the bodies in the tombs were dead, so to were their hearts, and God rejected their offerings and their prayers fell a deaf ear.

So when you take the whole purpose of Psalm 66 into context you see in verse 13 he sets up that portion by starting with;

I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;
I will pay You my vows. (66:13)

He is going to God with an offering, an action that is taken when one is asking for forgiveness or when one is thankful for a blessing. In this case he says,

If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear. (66:18)

In this case David understands that God can read the hearts of men, and unless he is honest and asks forgiveness for his unspoken sins that lay in his heart, his offering and his presence before God is useless, and God would reject his prayer and him. Something the Pharisees and Sadducee's, in their arrogance and self righteousness, refused to see. So God not only rejected their offerings and prayers, but He also rejected them.

In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus corrected that error about the matters of the heart. A lesson we needed lest we, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, would be lost eternally. It is of utmost importance that we are honest with God at all times.

I pray my response was of assistance. God bless you brother.