“I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.” NKJV My annual trek through the Bible has led me once again into the Psalms. This morning I was reading in Psalm 17, when my attention was caught by verse 8. I read on, but then I kept returning to verse 8. Sometimes God speaks to us through whole books in the Bible, sometimes through chapters, and then as He did to me this morning, He speaks to us through one verse. Out of all the chapters and verses that I read this morning from Luke, Exodus and Isaiah, the 8th verse of Psalm 16 captured my attention. I want to share with you what I found in this loaded verse. David wrote, “I have set the Lord always before me…” What David meant was that he had turned the leadership of his life over to the Lord. The words “before me” are reminiscent of the exodus of Israel from Egypt. The Lord did not allow them to march out of Egypt without His divine leadership. He sent before them "a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day” to lead them through their long journey to the Promised Land. God wants us to set His leadership before us each day. This is how we can stay out of trouble, because if we go our own way without God’s leadership, we will make a mess of our lives. In fact, before Jesus was crucified, resurrected and ascended to the Father, He promised His disciples that He would give them the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth, and to guide them throughout their lives. The Lord has done everything that is possible to give us His leadership, we just need to follow His leadership. We need to “set the Lord always before (us)” in our own lives and we need to do the same as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only by setting Him before us that we can be assured that we are going in the right direction. David wrote, “because He is at my right hand…” What David meant was that God was always near him. David had an acute awareness of the presence of God in his life. This is a promise that the Lord has made to all of His people. In John 4, Jesus told the sinful woman that He met at the well that “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” Because God is Spirit, He can be everywhere all at one time. That is difficult for us to understand, but that does not make it impossible to be true. God is never far away from us. Like in David’s life, He is at our right hand, and if we do not realize, or feel, his nearness, it is because we have moved away from Him. In Matthew 28, before Jesus ascended, He gave the disciples their marching orders, then He made this promise: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages.” This was not just a promise that Jesus made to His disciples, but to all of us as well. It is an open-ended promise that will last throughout the ages until the end of the ages. David wrote, “because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” Notice that David did not write, “I will not move;” rather, he wrote, “I shall not be moved.” In this way, David is telling us that he is not keeping God, but that God is keeping him. It is God who is holding us close. It doesn’t hurt if we squeeze back, but it is important to understand that it is because of the strong hand of God that we will not be moved. Read what Jesus said in John 10:27-30: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. 29. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30. I and my Father are one.” God is leading you, He is near you and He is holding you. Praise Him! Take the promise of this text as your own. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|