Ever had something wonderful happen in your life—something so good you could hardly believe it was happening? Maybe it was a great achievement, the birth of a child, or some other fortuitous event of significance. An oft-repeated theme in movies features an ordinary person who is either notified of an obscene inheritance or identified as heir to the throne of some far-off land. These fantastic accounts hinge upon a relationship.
Well, I want to tell you that you have something that trumps all. Better than winning the lottery. Better than hitting oil in your backyard with a shovel. Better than being discovered on The Voice or America’s Got Talent. Want to know what it is? It’s a relationship without compare. Now before you say, “Oh, that,” and shrug your shoulders and walk away, let me suggest you can have something of great value or potential and be oblivious to the fact. Ever watch Antique Roadshow?
The relationship, THE relationship that should keep you in a constant state of amazement, you’ve no doubt guessed by now, is the one between you and God. Want an idea of what that relationship could look like?
Consider David, someone the Bible calls “a man after God’s own heart.” Decades before the dedication of the temple built at his direction by his son Solomon, David could be found singing to God on a lonely hillside as he watched over his father’s sheep. This least desirable, stinky grunt work was relegated to the youngest. But instead of complaining, David made the most of it as he observed and appreciated God’s creation. He never lost his fascination for the starry skies at night. (Read about it in Psalms 8 and 19.)
The human body provided David another reason for praise in Psalm 139. But he goes on from talking about the body to the wonder of God’s relationship with him. As you read through this Psalm, you perceive David’s unflagging sense of amazement that the God of the universe, the Creator of all things, would pay any attention to him, a mere human. Yet David accepted that God was intimately acquainted with him, knowing his every thought and yet unspoken word. He saw God had him benevolently surrounded for his well-being, and had laid His hand upon him.
You can picture David being almost beside himself as he wrote of this incredible arrangement, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot comprehend it (v6). He did not find it arrogant to acknowledge that he would be on God’s mind—indeed, he went so far as to say that if counted, God’s thoughts toward him would outnumber the sand! But the words that got me, as I considered them one recent morning while still lying on my pillow, were these: When I awake, I am still with You (v18).
His marvelous standing with God made David pinch himself when he awoke, “He’s still here! He’s still here with me!” Ah, beloved child of the Father, do you know He’s every bit as much with you today, and will never, ever leave?
Further reading: Psalms 8, 19, 23, and 139; Hebrews 13:5-6.
Thank you, JB – wonderful words of encouragement! He is our one and only HOPE in a world that often looks / seems hopeless. Keep sharing your insights 🙂