Agur’s prayer here is double-sided. And this, in only considering the first phrase in vs. 8.

First, it is a prayer to be kept being deceived by false teaching of any kind. It is a prayer for discernment. It is a humble prayer. He knows he does not know all, and can still be led down a wrong path. Falsehood can be so subtle and seductive. We can never guard our hearts and minds too much in this regard.

Consider the Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day. That had the Scriptures. They studied them assiduously. They committed them to memory. They debated them, commented on them and applied themselves to living them out. Yet deceived all the while.

So it is even today, many who come in Christ’s name in and His Church preach and teach and “prophesy” false things. May my heart be like Agur’s and plead for a discerning eye to be kept from deception.

Secondly, Agur prays that he himself may be a man of truth and integrity. He knows his own weakness. He knows in times of exposure or embarrassment, he may lie to save face. Or how at times when greed may lead to shading the truth. Perhaps in a moment of self-promotion his good deeds and accomplishments are inflated and his failures mitigated. He knows how he can try to hide his sin both from himself and God and thus live a lie.

Father, make me a man of truth. Make me one who seeks out your truth as you know it, and who seeks to proclaim your truth without embellishment, embarrassment, compromise or manipulation to make it more palatable.

Father, make me honest with my own sin before you. Hiding nothing from my own eyes let alone yours. As David prayed in Ps. 51 – how it is you delight in truth in the inward being – let the Light of your Spirit search my inward being and expose all that is there that I might not live either in self-deception nor as a hypocrite before your face and in your Church.

Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me – those of others, and those of my own.