Several months ago I shared with you that the Holy Spirit had prompted me to begin meditating on the Psalms, focusing on a different Psalm each week beginning with the first one. As I have been faithful to do this, I have found strength, joy, encouragement, and a deeper relationship with the Lord of the Psalms. Recently I meditated on Psalm 16 and found that I was challenged to think about my relationship with the Lord in a new way.
The verses that the Holy Spirit used to capture my attention were Psalm 16: 2, 5 and 6. Let me share them with you. Verse 2 says “I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’ After I read that a few times, I asked myself whether I really believed that. Because of my times studying under the ministry of Crown Financial (www.crown.org) and learning God’s principles for money management, I truly do believe that everything I have comes from God and it all belongs to Him and Him alone. My possessions, my treasures are all on loan to me from the Lord. So, yes, apart from God I have no good thing.
And to take that one step further, apart from God I AM no good thing. I know what I was before I began following Christ wholeheartedly, and it scares me to death to think of what I could become should I cease to tenaciously work on my relationship with Christ. Apart from God I AM no good thing.
In Psalm 16: 5 and 6, we hear the Psalmist say, “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” It occurs to me that if I truly believe what verse 2 says, I should agree with verses 5 and 6. Here David is telling us that whatever circumstances God has allowed into our lives is exactly what we need at that moment. The Hebrew word for ‘lot’ means pebbles used for systematically making decisions, portion (thing assigned by casting lots). I like to think of it in this way. If God is casting lots in order to assign you and me our circumstances in life, He is always going to roll a “double” for us. Whatever He allows will be for our good and His glory.
As I told you last week, the Holy Spirit has prompted me to pray for wisdom in all things. If I am operating out of the wisdom of the Lord, then I will align my way of thinking and my decisions with that of God and whatever boundary lines God sets for me will be “in pleasant places”. God doesn’t set restrictive boundary lines just to see us squirm or be miserable. He sets boundary lines because He knows what is best for us and because He wants to see us take full advantage of the ‘delightful inheritance’ that He has for us. Our inheritance is not only in heaven, but also His marvelous presence and love here on earth.
God delights in you. God delights in me. Think about that for a moment. He loves you and likes you and delights in spending time with you. What an awesome thought!! He truly is an awesome God!!!
