Psalm 66:18

[LeftCoast]

Psalm 66:18 “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”

I really need some help with this. I have been struggling with Psalm 66:18 for a little while now and perhaps I am misunderstanding this.

I know that I have sin in my heart that I have not dealt with, I take that as I regard wickedness in my heart. If that is true then my dilema is, Does God not hear my prayer?

I am confused because I know that being saved all sin is forgiven. Yet my mind tells me that my unreconciled sin... the wickness in my heart... causes my prayer to go unheard. But I have trouble believing that also.

Perhaps I am going to deep and what it really means is that the wickedness in my heart comes between my relation with God. God hears me but maybe I don't hear him.

Some insight would be greatly appreciated

 

[Michael19]

God does hear your prayers. I think that he is trying to say that you need to be completely sincere when you are requesting a prayer from him.

Ps 66:18-19(KJV)
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

If you go on to read verse 19 it clearly says that he will hear your prayer.
God hears all prayers, but only answers the ones that he knows need to be answered.

19 But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer

I hope that this has helped you in some way.

God Bless

 

[Chad]

Michael said it nicely and in truth. That's exactly what I interpret the Scripture verses as. Sincere prayer for help with sincere repentance is what GOD hears. Those who have no care about their sins and pray are those who disregard the consequences and therefore regard their sins knowingly.

 

[LeftCoast]

Yes, now I am clear. Looking at verse 19 really drives the point home.
I recall in home fellowship a while back our discussion was that it is important to understand both the pre-text and post-text to help understand the verse in question. Sometimes we get over focused on the text and lose sight of the true meaning.