June 23 – Outnumbers

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” Psalm 139:17-18 (NASB)

This isn’t our first visit to these verses. Just a week ago we considered verse 17. Psalm 139 is a gold mine of promises God has given to us in this song by David. What brings such praise and adoration to our mind and so our lips express the joy of God’s thoughts comes forth? Let’s consider these truths through some comments by C.H. Spurgeon. The comfort in these verses is not shared and provides no such comfort to the unregenerate ungodly mind, but to us faith believers in God it overflows with consolation. God is always thinking about us, never turns His mind from us, always has us before His eyes; and this is precisely how we would want it, because it would be dreadful to exist for a moment outside the observation of our heavenly Father. We are never for a single moment left out of God’s thoughts and consciousness. Remember, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world was made. So we can know that our election and the covenant of grace which secures our salvation results in our final perseverance from now to our final rest. 

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June 15 – Precious and Vast

“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” – Psalm 139:17 (NASB)

For those who have not surrendered to the sovereignty of God but still claim to know Him and belong to him, there is a danger of missing the truth. The resistant, hesitant, people who delay fully acknowledging their belief in God generally do so because their minds have not yet given in to His truth. Therefor they are not enjoying the benefits of a life fully given to God. “Divine omniscience provides no comfort to the ungodly mind, but to the child of God it overflows with consolation. God is always thinking about us, never turns His mind from us, always has us before His eyes; and this is precisely how we would want it, because it would be dreadful to exist for a moment outside the observation of our heavenly Father. Friend, is this precious to you? Then hold to it.[1]" Reject the broad skepticism, subjectivism, and postmodern rationalism of today’s influencers. "Do not be led astray by those philosophical fools who preach an impersonal God and talk of self-existent, self-governing matters. The Lord lives and thinks upon us; this is a far too precious truth for us toss aside and consequently be easily robbed of it.[1]”

1.- Taken in part from: C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: April 30, Daily Readings, (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).

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November 17 – Uncountable Wonders

“Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.” Psalm 40:5 (NASB) 

“As the host of heaven cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My servant…” Jeremiah 33:22 (NASB)

Let’s think about the times we have been outside at night looking up at the stars. Ever tried to count the ones you can see? Most of us have at least once. Men like Brahe, Kepler and Galileo in the seventeenth century gave birth to modern astronomy. Up to that point Hippocrates had said there were 1,022 stars. Ptolemy said, “No, there are 1,056.” Kepler said, “You’re both wrong.  There are 1,055.” If they had read Jeremiah 33:22 and Psalm 40:5, our verses today, they would know that the stars and other wonders of God can’t be counted. Those of us who are true followers of God can remember times when God has shown his greatness as He takes care of our needs. We know of His greatness for others who believe His words. As David wrote the words in today's verse and He was thinking of what God had done⸺already now many centuries ago. God has never ceased to show Himself in the same way and does so all the time throughout the centuries. The promise we carry today is that no other person or entity can compare to Our God, He is the only One.

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November 8 – Being Known

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me. ” – Psalm 139:1 (NASB)

David, who was King of Israel for 40 years wrote many of the songs we have in the book of Songs which we call Psalms. These Psalms were sung in worship. The Psalm we look at today was titled “For the choir director. A Psalm  of David.” Like many other psalms written by David, this one is intensely personal. It expresses David’s awe that God knew him down to the minutest intimate detail. He begins with his wonder and confession of God’s omniscience (all-knowing). The promise here is that nothing about us can be hidden from God. In the first six verses, we can know that whatever we do at any time in every 24 hours, God knows. NOTHING is hidden from God not even the thoughts that form the words we contemplate saying. “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.” (v. 5) Such a promise might be intimidating for us if we are trying to sneak something past God. But more likely, if we will, it is a wonderful blessing and truth that we are not alone in this world. God know everything about everything.

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July 26 – Taking God at His Words

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:9 (ESV)

Our God has compassion on all who in faith believe in Him for forgiveness and salvation. Many people do not believe and do not understand God’s ways. We as human creatures, while created by God, use our reasoning and try to fit God into it. Such an exercise does not work at all. Our minds and our ability to reason are limited. It is what we think and say that is finite and flawed. God has no limitations. He is omniscient (knows all things) and omnipotent (all powerful). He does perfectly whatever He wills and it is all good. When we try to understand God by using our limited facilities to think and reason, we are actually trying to compel God to fit into our convenient box of understanding. God is omnipresent (everywhere present) and cannot be contained. To make God’s ways fit our reasoning, we change the definitions of God’s words giving them a different meaning – a meaning which does not exist in what God has said. We’re pretending our ways are higher than God’s ways and we’re putting our words into God’s mouth, words that He has never spoken.  Let’s not do that. Let’s take God at His word.

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November 17 – Profound and Great

“For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!” Psalm 92:4-5 (NIV)

We have chosen these verses especially because of the words where the psalmist is worshipping God for His thoughts. We don’t know God’s thoughts as a mind-reader because no one can know God that way. But the psalmist still knows that God’s thoughts are marvelous. He says, “how profound your thoughts?” What was it that made him marvel at the depth of God’s thoughts? In his first words he was happy about what God was doing. He found God’s works to be great and wonderful and it gave him joy. Sometimes we are tempted to ask why God should allow something difficult to happen in our lives. We struggle with the consequences of attacks that come at us from our enemy. “Why us O Lord? Why did this happen now?” We do not understand and we question His goodness. But God is good all the time and even though he allows some things which test our faith to happen, He never deserts us. He thinks about us and he keeps track. How much better to trust His goodness and know the His thoughts, though deep are wonderful. We trust Him.

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March 19 - Trust Who We Know

“When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.”  - Psalm 94:19 (NASB)

Anxiety and worry become our companions when the future is uncertain.  When our life is unsettled we ask what is going to happen?  The current disturbance in our lives has left the most powerful in this world stumbling around trying to find a way to manage the outcomes.  That is understandable, especially if we have put most of our security in what we know and what we have.  Our routine makes us comfortable perhaps and now we can not operate within any routine.  If we do not feel the need to avoid contact, our loved ones do and press us to use caution.  So many of our decisions these days are fueled by our uncertainty.  But we do know that, if we have trusted Jesus as our Savior that there is consolation available.  God promises consolations that will delight our soul even while our anxiety multiplies in our thoughts. Trust is the word and the action we need to replace our anxious thoughts.  Trust Who we know is faithful and Who promises to never desert us. God. He never fails his promises.

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May 3 – Finding His Way

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23-24 (NASB)

These are words of a prayer which we can all pray each day.  Our Lord does know what is going on in our hearts and minds.  He knows our thoughts from afar and before we even have them.  He knows when our thoughts are anxious and disturbed and off track.  In a prayer like this we can open ourselves for our Lord to work in our hearts to make us the way He wants us to be.  Yes our Lord does not want us to be anxious about things.  He wants us to put our complete trust in Him to work all things our for us.  When we trust Him that way this is what our verse calls the 'everlasting' way.  Let us always be open for God to show us when we are anxious about the days ahead and filled with worry.  Let us be open to allowing God to reveal those things within our heart and mind that are hurtful to others and to God as well.  If we allow God to lead each us us today we will be walking in His everlasting way. 

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September 8 – Incomparable, Immeasurable, Incomprehensible

 “Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.” Psalm 40:5 (NASB)

In this verse we have selected for today, the psalmist is praising God for two things.  He recognizes that God has done great things, many wonders He has done for all for His people.  And the psalmist is praising God for the very thoughts God has toward His creatures.  These thoughts are the why of the wonders which God has done.  It is these thoughts, which are beyond understanding and nothing else can be compared to Him. God is greater than even his wondrous thoughts and deeds. These deeds are beyond measure for there are so many they cannot be counted.  Imagine now trying to count and list all that God has done and all the deeds that have come from His thoughts.  There is no way to declare them all.  His wonders are incomparable, and the number is immeasurable for God's deeds and thoughts are incomprehensible.  But they are real and for our good and from God's love for us and and we can trust them because we trust God and His Word. 

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August 23 – It's Mind Blowing

“Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. 
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!”  Psalm 139:16-17 (NASB)

We often say on this blog that we have a great God.  Some of the verses from the Bible that we read remind us that God's people have said the same thing many times.  One person who expressed this truth was David, who wrote many of the songs in the book of Psalms.  Our verses today are from Psalm 139 and David declares the truth that God new what he would be doing before he was born.  He knew every day of David's life and every event of every day.   This is true regarding everyone of us too.  It is a promise from God that He knows.  We are assured that God is watching each of us every day. He knows all our needs and He has known them since before we were born.  How can this be?   It is because He knows everything about everyone and because He doesn't live in the confines of time, He lives in eternity.  These thoughts, we might say, blew David's mind as he reflected, as we can too, on how precious and vast God's thoughts about us are. 

Note: If you find hope and encouragement in these daily blogs, please share them with your friends.  

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April 3 – More Than Can Be Numbered

“How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalm 139:17-18 (NIV)

This is part of a song written by David. When we read these words a question comes to us. It is this: How did David learn of God thoughts? How did he know that they were so infinite? We know that God did reveal His thoughts to David whenever David turned to God for His guidance. In the Old Testament of our Bible we read of many occasions when David did ask God to show him what to do. We believe that David had learned much about God’s thoughts in the sacred writings too. We realize that this is one very good way for us to know what God’s thoughts are. Yes, we can apply the truth of our verse to the way we learn of God's thoughts in the Bible. God has revealed so much of His thinking in the Bible and His thoughts are precious to us. Let’s be sure we don’t neglect making them a part of our lives. 

November 17

“For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!” Psalm 92:4-5 (NIV)

I have read these verses especially because of the words where the psalmist is worshipping God for His thoughts. He says, “how profound your thoughts?” What was it that made him marvel at the depth of God’s thoughts?  In his first words he was happy about what God was doing. He found God’s works to be great and wonderful and it gave him joy. Sometimes we are tempted to ask why God should allow something to happen in our lives. We cannot understand and we question His goodness. How much better to trust His goodness and know the His thoughts, though deep are wonderful. We trust Him. 

September 7

“How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!”  Psalm 92:5 (NIV)

Let us think of what God has done and is doing for us. There are several ways for us to know about the marvelous works of God. We can go out where we can see God’s wonderful creation in nature. Or we might go outside at night and see the planets and stars which He has made. But we can also see signs of His working in the events of our lives and of others. What we see can inspire praise to God. So, how about God’s thoughts? Some of these are revealed in what we see, others is what He has revealed in His word. The more we understand His thoughts, the deeper they are shown to be. So let us join today with the psalmist in praising God for His works and His thoughts.

August 9

“How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!” Psalm 92:5 (NIV)

This is, of course, an expression of praise to God for His great works and His profound thoughts. People might observe what God does, but how can they know His thoughts? The subtitle of Psalm 92 indicates that it is a song to be sun on the Sabbath. When it was sung, then, it was at a time when the Scriptures were read. That would be how they became aware of how great God’s thoughts were. That’s how God has revealed to us what His thoughts are – through the Scriptures – God’s Word. So when we hear God’s Word, let us pay attention so as to know His thoughts. 

June 26

“I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.”  Psalm 31:7 (NIV)

Does God really know what is going on in our lives? David was aware that when he was going through a difficult situation God was watching. God could see what was happening. His eyes were on David and so He knew where the situation was developing.  But God not only saw what was visible, He could look into the depths of David’s soul. He knew his thoughts, his emotions and his feelings. He knew his inner self. The same is true for us, too. God sees what is happening in our lives and He knows how we feel about things. He knows when we need help and He is there to help when we turn to Him. He helps us become. He loves us.

May 5

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”  Revelation 3:20 (NIV)

These words are spoken by our Lord through the apostle John. Jesus tells us in these words what He wants to happen when He comes into our lives. He wants true fellowship with each of us. Actually, is that not what it means to be eating together? It means a sharing time and that is what Jesus wants in our lives. He wants to share with us His love and His purpose for the world. And He wants us to share with Him our thoughts, our desires, and our needs. Let us let Him into our thoughts today.