How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

  

PSALM 139:17-24

 

DECEMBER 9,2022

 

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  If I would count them, they are more than the sand.  I awake, and I am still with you.  Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!  O men of blood, depart from me!  They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain.   Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?  And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?  I hate them with complete hatred; I count them, my enemies.  Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!   And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

 

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  If I would count them, they are more than the sand.  I awake, and I am still with you.  As a follower of Christ, we need to put God’s Word in our hearts so that we will not sin against Him.  Psalm 119, is all about us applying God’s written word to the way we live life. Verse 105, gives this insight, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  Many years back I was teaching a class and a young man said, “It is not a spotlight so that we see the road ahead, it gives us the light for the next step.”   We and I do use the word "we" and would prefer the spotlight so that we would not have to depend on the Lord, and many who go by the title Christian are trying to negotiate life on their terms, not God’s lamp to our feet.

 

Our finite minds cannot grasp nor understand the vastness of our Father's thoughts, or His ways.  Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  We who are in Christ, and the sum of that statement is we have by faith and grace of God, bow our knee to God, and agreed with Him that we have sinned and in confession and repentance to Him, have asked His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to come into our hearts and forgive all our sins.  

 

When that takes place we have the indwelling of His Spirit, Galatians 4:4-7, gives us an understanding of what has taken place in the life of one who by grace and faith has a personal relationship with Christ.   ^“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

One must remember that King David did not have the Holy Spirit living in Him, for He was living under the Law.  Jesus fulfilled the Law and gave us this freedom David did not enjoy.  It is not freedom the flesh enjoys for our flesh prefers David’s thoughts about our enemies.  But Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-48,  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  You do not have the ability to do this, but Christ in you can and will.

David is showing God that his desire is to obey His will and to walk in His way in the final verses of Psalm 139.  Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!   And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.  All who have Christ living in them must do the same, in fact, the Apostle Paul tells the people of Corinth the following; 2 Corinthians 13:5, ^“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test, yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice