Psalm 118:27 "God is the Lord, and He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar."
In their best moments, believers that are bound to the horns of the altar would gladly spend their lives in active service to the Lord, or remain passive, to be used by Him in a martyred life. In all the other moments of believers lives the rebellion of a depraved nature wants 'my way' instead of His way.
When believers come to desire an increase in the best moments and a decrease in all the other moments (John 3:30) they begin to pray that they will be held by God to the 'horns of the altar'. They need this so that they are not permitted to leave the altar of sacrifice through the ocean of sin and its consequences that are in the world; in their own flesh, and in the onslaughts of Satan.
This is exactly why we should urge ourselves to pray with the Psalmist, bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar.
Exodus 37:25 "And he made the incense altar of shittim wood: the length of it was a cubit, and the breadth of it a cubit; it was foursquare; and two cubits was the height of it; the horns thereof were of the same." The horns of the altar were a place of refuge. (I Kings 1: 50-53)
In the new covenant (Hebrews 8:10), Jesus is our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16), His blood is the sacrifice (1 John 1:7-9). The altar is in your heart (Psalm 51:17), a sacred place for sacrifices of love (not of earning) offered up to God. To be bound to the horns of the altar is to be bound to Jesus (Psalm 18:2 'horn of my salvation'). Your heart is the place in which God keeps His covenant, providing a sacrifice the meets the demand of His law. Do you love Him? Then pray that He will bind your heart to the Jesus, to the 'horns of the altar'.
