"How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!"
Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him - I will set him on high, because he has known My name. Psalms 91:14
Here we have the prodigal looking and longing for a father's welcome - the prisoner striving to break his chains and set himself free - the wounded bird struggling in the furrow, and wailing out its plaintive note, "Oh that I might flee away, and be at rest!"
"I will deliver him," is the gracious thought and declaration of an unseen but gracious God. "No, not only will I deliver him - save him from wrath and condemnation - but I will 'set him on high' - I will bestow upon him exalted honors - I will adopt him as My child, and finally glorify him."
Most frequently, indeed, He delivers independently and irrespectively of any antecedent love on our part. "For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable." His grace often triumphs in the case of those who have never cast one look of love towards Him - He "sets on high" those to whom for a whole lifetime His name has been unknown. Nevertheless, to any who may be seeking after Him, if haply they may find Him - to those who feel their chains, and are longing for emancipation - who, by reason of permitted sin or omitted duty, may be in spiritual darkness, exclaiming, in the bitterness of their estrangement, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat!" - it is an encouraging thought to such, that they have His own promise of deliverance.
The Believer, in Solomon's Song, is beautifully likened to a dove in the clefts of the rock. The timid, fluttering, trembling wanderer is welcomed into the crevices of the Rock of Ages. He can fold his weary wing under the shadow of the Almighty; he can find rest and peace in the very Being whom he has offended. Yes, desponding one, He is waiting to be gracious. If you are now casting one fond, ardent, loving look towards your God - if you are cherishing one longing desire for His returning favor - "He will deliver you." This will be your testimony, as it has been of many - "I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along."
"What have I to do any more with idols?" was the soliloquy and resolve of penitent Ephraim, when, divorcing himself from all sinful attachments, all rival claimants for the throne of his affections, he turned his face towards his God. "I have heard him and observed him," says the great Being who was watching the penitent's tears, counting the throbs of his anguished spirit. And He adds the assurance of supporting grace and strength - "I am like a green fir-tree; from Me is your fruit found."
Do I "know His name?" Acquainting myself with God, am I now at peace? Do I feel that His loving-kindness is better than life? Amid the brokenness of nature's cisterns, am I turning with earnest longing to the infinite and only satisfying fountain-head, like the deer panting for the waterbrooks? All other objects of earthly love and enjoyment are perishable. But "the name of the Lord is a strong tower - the righteous runs into it, and is safe." "Great is the blessing," says one who knew well that name, "that the anchor of our love is firmly fixed beneath the cross of Christ. The silver cord of life may be snapped in a moment; but this is embedded in the cleft of the Rock forever."
Those who know Your name trust in You, for You, O Lord, have never abandoned anyone who searches for You. Psalms 9:10
__________________ Love In Christ
Colossians 3:15-17 KJV And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
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"How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!"
But now thus says the Lord that created you, O Jacob, and He that formed you, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Isaiah 43:1-3
What a library of "precious thoughts!" What an unlocking of the full heart of God do these verses contain! In reading them, we may say indeed with the Psalmist, "Many, O Lord my God, are Your thoughts which are to us." Each clause is in itself a volume. Well may the Divine speaker begin with the words, "Do not be afraid!" These tender thoughts and tender assertions remind us of the gush of parental affection when a child is in danger or is afraid, and when its most loving earthly friend heaps assurance on assurance to quiet and lull its misgivings.
"I have redeemed you," seems to be the foundation-thought of comfort in this cluster of exceeding great and precious promises. No other blessing could have been ours but for "Redeeming love." And as Christ is the Alpha, so is He the Omega of all consolation. Hence this inspired register of spiritual privileges is terminated by the assurance, "I am your Savior." The pendant chain of "precious thoughts" has these two words for its support, "Redeemer," "Savior;" and each separate link in the intermediate line of blessings is connected with Him who is the"Beginner" and "Finisher" of our faith.
God, indeed, forewarns us in the diversified symbols here employed, that the trials of His people are to be varied in kind, as well as severe in degree; "waters," "rivers," "fires," "flames." Yet we may well rise above them all, under the sublime consciousness, that the chain from first to last is in the hands of Him who died for us.
We are here further assured, not only that God is the Author of our troubles, but that He himself is in them all; that His 'thoughts' are upon us as we "pass" through the waters, and "walk" through the fires. He is minutely cognizant of all that befalls us; and is alike able and willing to grant us assistance and support. Others cannot do so. It is in their case like watching the bursting of the distant thunderstorm, or the vessel plunging in the distant sea, without the ability to render assistance. But "You know my thoughts afar off." God is not only our "refuge and strength," but "a present help in trouble." "We went through the flood on foot, there did we rejoice in Him."
More than this - He has set bounds to our trials. The rivers and streams will purify, but not overflow or overwhelm. The fires will refine, but not scorch or burn. He has too deep an interest in those of whom He says, "I have called you by your name, you are Mine," to allow our afflictions to go further than He sees to be absolutely needful. Never are His "thoughts" more fondly centered upon us than in a time of trouble. His loving presence tempers the fury of the fiercest furnace-flames - His everlasting arms are underneath the deepest and darkest waves.
O Lord God Almighty! Where is there anyone as mighty as You, Lord? Faithfulness is Your very character. You are the one who rules the oceans. When their waves rise in fearful storms, You subdue them. Psalms 89:8-9
__________________ Love In Christ
Colossians 3:15-17 KJV And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
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"How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!"
And I will betroth you unto Me forever; yes, I will betroth you unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. Hosea 2:19
The most endearing as well as the most exalted relationships of earth are employed to illustrate and symbolize God's love to His people. He is represented comforting as a mother, pitying as a father, sympathizing as a friend, healing as a physician, bestowing as a king. Here He is described as entering into everlasting espousals with His Church, and with every redeemed member of it - in the depths of a past eternity, pledging His vow to His betrothed Bride - putting the espousal-ring on her finger; summoning Righteousness, Judgment, Loving-kindness, and Mercies, as witnesses of the magnificent ceremony, to sign and ratify the marriage-contract.
How uncertain are earth's apparently securest ties! Brother may be severed from brother, husband from wife, child from parent, friend from friend. But, in our union with God - linked to Him in the bonds of the everlasting covenant - the pang of separation can neither be felt nor feared. Age can never plough its furrows on the brow. Sickness can never blanch the cheek. Death can never unlock the fountain of tears. The grave can never close over our "loved and lost." "I will betroth you unto Me forever!"
As in the human union which here, as in other passages, is made the type and symbol of the nobler covenant, that Divine espousal is reared on the twofold basis of HONOR and of LOVE. Righteousness and Judgment, the two representatives of God's honor, come first; Loving-kindness and Mercy follow. It is a union founded on everlasting truth, justice, and rectitude. These attesting witnesses sign the contract around the Cross of Calvary. There "mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." "Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." What an endless dowry did that mighty Sacrifice purchase and secure for the Bride of heaven!
Soon the festal-day shall be here; when the betrothed spouse shall be presented to the heavenly Bridegroom - ushered into the blest pavilion of His own presence. The marriage-procession is even now on foot. The train is sweeping along to the hall of the King's palace. Righteousness, Judgment, Loving-kindness, Mercy, these are the four torch-bearers lighting the way to the gladsome scene. Have we heard and obeyed the midnight summons, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes; go out to meet Him?"
Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know Me and understand that I am the Lord who is just and righteous, whose love is unfailing, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken! Jeremiah 9:24
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__________________ Love In Christ
Colossians 3:15-17 KJV And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
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"How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!"
"I, even I, am the one who comforts you." Isaiah 51:12
How soothing the thought for the weary head to lean upon, that in the midst of our bitterest trials, we have the great God of heaven for our comforter! 'Dry your tears,' He seems to say, 'I am by your side, you poor afflicted one - other comforts may fail you - other comforters may prove utterly powerless to gauge the depths of your sorrow and to heal your aching wounds - but I, as God, infinite in Wisdom, Omniscience, Love, know all the peculiarities of your case - I will be to you better than the best and tenderest of human friends. My delight is to "uphold all who fall, and to raise up all those who are bowed down." I have 'precious thoughts' reserved for the day of calamity - thoughts that are whispered and confided into the ear only of the sorrowful. "I, even I" - the same hand that has wounded will bind up; the same hand that is strong to smite will be strong to save. I will give you solaces undreamt of in the day of prosperity; songs in the night, and wells of refreshing in the valley of weeping.'
'Is it sickness that has blanched your cheek, and chained you down for weeks and months - it may be years - to a couch of pain and languishing? - "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you!" Is it your worldly schemes that have been blighted - moth and rust corrupting the earthly treasure? - I will give you compensating riches, beyond the spoiler's touch and the throw of capricious fortune! Is it bereavement that has traced lines of sadness on your brow, created vacant chairs in your household, left stripped and desolate your heart of hearts? Be still. I will take the place of the mourned. I will come and fill up these aching voids - that yawning chasm with My own loving presence. The rill is gone, but you will have in exchange the Infinite Fountainhead! Is it sin that is making sad your countenance? the bitter thought of estrangement from Me whose favor alone is life? Wearied with the successive failure of all worldly sources of satisfaction and happiness, are you turning with longing, wistful gaze, like the battered flower to the sunlight, towards Myself, "the living God," wondering if there can be peace and forgiveness for such as you? "I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions." I will heal your backsliding, I will love you freely; for My anger is turned away from you.'
"I, even I." Do not doubt His ability or willingness to comfort; God is beautifully spoken of as "the God of all consolation," "the comforter of all who are cast down." Wide as the family of the afflicted are, He has consolations commensurate with every diversity of experience. He has a thought of comfort for every thought of sorrow. "In the multitude of the sorrows I have in my heart," says the Psalmist, "your comforts delight my soul." His message to the Church of old, after burden on burden of reluctantly-spoken woe, was, "Comfort, comfort my people," - (repeating the word is the usual Hebrew method of intensifying) as if He wished to tell, with what delight He passed from the gloomy prophetic utterances of judgment, to the joyous promises of mercy and love.
"He does not afflict willingly," [or, as this may be rendered literally from the Hebrew - 'He does not afflict with the heart'] "nor grieve the children of men." As if affliction in itself were alien to the heart and the 'thoughts of God!'
And let the thought of God the Comforter be all the more precious to me, since that God is Immanuel - our Brother on the throne of heaven. Himself once the Prince of Sufferers, He is supremely qualified, by the exquisite sensibilities of His human nature, to enter into every pang that rends the heart. "I, even I," the God-Man who shed tears over the bereaved of Bethany - I, who welcomed weeping penitence to My feet - I, who myself struggled with temptation, grappled with superhuman anguish, lived a life of sorrow, and died a death of shame - I, even I - that same Jesus - "am He that comforts you."
Though You have made me see troubles, many and bitter, You will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth You will again bring me up. Psalm 71:20
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__________________ Love In Christ
Colossians 3:15-17 KJV And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
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"How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!"
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:12
No thought can be morel precious than this - God's thought of mercy to the unrighteous and undeserving. The consciousness of past sin lies like a cold avalanche on many a heart. "How can man be just with God?" "If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" "What then shall I do when God rises up? and when he confronts me, what shall I answer him?" These are the solemn questions which, despite of all efforts to silence or evade them, are ever and anon confronting the most indifferent and unconcerned. Blessed be God, He has not left them unanswered. He can bestow pardon on the unrighteous, and bury the remembrance of sin in the depths of oblivion.
"There is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared." "With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." By a precious, peerless thought of infinite love, He has "devised ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from Him." He "spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." The true anti-typical scape-goat has borne away the burden of imputed sin into a land of forgetfulness - so that on that Great day "when God rises up," "the iniquity of Judah shall be sought for, and shall not be found."
May I be enabled joyfully to accept this glorious method of salvation, by which, in strict accordance with every attribute of the Divine nature, and every requirement of the Divine law, forgiveness may be dispensed to the chief of sinners. Nothing I could do, or that others could do for me, would prove in any way availing to purchase that salvation. Lebanon itself, with all its cedars piled up for altar and for fuel, and all its flocks for the sacrifice and burned-offering, would have been an insufficient propitiation.
But this 'precious thought' comes winged with love from the Cross of Calvary - "God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses." He is as able as He is willing, and as willing as He is able, to save "unto the uttermost." Is it crimson and scarlet sins - some deep, dark, foul blots on the tablet of memory - their terrible remembrance haunting me like specters from the abyss? - God says, 'I will make even these like the spotless snow and the stainless wool.' What is that great mountain of transgression before the true Zerubbabel, the storms of judgment brooding over it? It has become a plain - the work of Jesus has leveled it.
What is that great cloud, the aggregate of bypast sin, charged with condemnation, spreading itself overhead? Lo! it has melted away - "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions; and, as a cloud, your sins." The Sun of righteousness has shone upon it. His rays, like burning arrows, have dispersed the elements of wrath. There is nothing now seen but the bright azure of a radiant heaven; and a voice is heard, amid the glorious sunshine, uttering the words, "Return unto Me, for I have redeemed you!"
Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. Micah 7:18
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__________________ Love In Christ
Colossians 3:15-17 KJV And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
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Promised Deliverance 
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