SECURE IN THE EVER PRESENT COUNSEL OF THE LORD

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalm 16:7-11

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It doesn’t take long to discover this one truth in life. It isn’t easy to make it without someone to help guide you in times of need. In fact, I haven’t met anyone in my life who hasn’t at one time or another needed counsel. We simply don’t have all the answers to the circumstances we will face.

So where do we go to get our counsel? It really does make all the difference when it comes to dealing with our life situations.

Go to the wrong person and you could make a tragic decisional mistake, one you may never recover from and one you may never forget, Indeed, people have been haunted for life by poor judgments they have made, often after the prompting of someone they trusted.

Conversely, find someone you can always trust and rely on, someone who always gives you perfect direction in any of life’s matters, and you are set to navigate life and all its potential hazards you may encounter in your journey.

This is where the end of the 16th Psalm is golden for you and me. For in it, David frames for us how to ensure we do receive perfect counsel in every circumstance. Let’s look at his words:

 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Who did David receive his counsel from? The same place we should seek it – from the Lord.

Notice that David didn’t just receive guidance while he was awake. No, the Lord spoke to him even when he was asleep at night. I can say that I have been resting and all of a sudden received a revelation from the Lord concerning a matter I was dealing with. The counsel never failed to help me effectively deal with what I was up against. Maybe He has spoken to you during the night as well.

Indeed, the Lord will and does speak to us at anytime and in any place, always making known to us the path of life and specifically the righteous-paved narrow path He wishes for all His children to walk upon. No one else can lead us like the Lord through His holy Word and Spirit, thus we should restrain from seeking our advice from anywhere else. We need to always keep our eyes on Him because He always has His eyes on us.

And so what do we gain from all this outside of knowing we will ever have perfect counsel? Look at what David found and know this is for us as well.  

First of all, we find ourselves in a spirit of praise. Our hearts, like David, are joy-filled and glad with our tongues speaking words of rejoicing when we consider what the Lord does for us. When we know we will always be able to trust the guidance of the Lord, we can’t help but be thankful and praise Him for His leadership, leadership that keeps us from trouble. And this truth leads us to the second thing we gain: confidence.

I’m sure you can relate to facing troubles and finding your world unsettled as you seek solutions to your problems. When we have the confidence that God will show us the way perfectly every time we seek Him, we, like David, cannot be shaken by life’s tribulations. We always remember the good news from the scriptures that if God is for us, no one can be against us (Romans 8:31). And with the knowledge of God’s protection which creates the refuge we can be safe in, we find ourselves at rest.

Indeed, there is a peace that transcends understanding when we lay our burdens at God’s feet and trust Him to help us deal with them (Philippians 4:6-7). Anxiety gives way to relaxation. Worry surrenders to faith. And in the eternal hope we have in our Heavenly Father, we are secure.

Friends, life can be as hard as we want to make it. Lord knows I have learned plenty of lessons regarding what happens when I don’t seek God’s counsel, whether I think I can figure things out on my own or I think someone else possesses more wisdom that the Lord. Maybe you can relate.

But thanks be to God for His patience as He has nurtured me through times that could have been so much easier had I just sought Him first. And I have learned to lean on the Lord and trust Him exclusively, even when the way might seem unclear, knowing He is always at work and at work for my good.

In sum, I, like David, choose to praise the Lord and rejoice in His goodness, grace, mercy, counsel, and, of course, love as I bask in the security of His ever present counsel.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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