Yes! There is Good News! December 16,2017

We began looking into a portion of the 73rd Psalm in the last article. “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.” These are two beautiful sentiments expressed by the Psalmist Asaph as he repents for his thoughts that were causing him to sin. His next line in this Psalm is very informative, “You guide me with your counsel.” What is it worth to you to be guided by the counsel of the one who has created all things, “visible and invisible?” To be guided by the one who sees the big picture of all that happens here on earth?

Perhaps we should ask the man, Job. Remember, he was the man who lost all his earthly possessions and his health and then pondered why God had left him. Near the end of the book of Job we find him very humbly replying to God, “I know that you can do all things; that no plan of yours can be thwarted.… Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know… therefore I repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:1- 6) And so Job was blessed immensely.

Or perhaps Isaiah the prophet may instruct us in the worth of God’s guidance. “Behold your God! Behold the Sovereign LORD comes with power and His arm rules for Him… He tends His flock like a shepherd… He gently leads those who have young…. For who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed Him as His counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the right way? Who was it that taught Him knowledge or showed Him the path of understanding?” (Isaiah 40:9-14)

Yes, God is the one to guide us by His counsel! But will we listen? Down through the ages people have spurned the counsel of God.

Our very first “parents” Adam and Eve had but one commandment that God told them to obey and they failed – they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God brought Abraham into the land of promise and yet when adversity came, he packed up and moved into Egypt for a while. Israel, time and time again, forsook the counsel of God – they halted from going into the land that God had brought them to, they grumbled and complained afterward as they wandered in the wilderness.

I could go on with example after example, but the question remains: will we listen to the counsel of God? Let us not forget that in his statement, Asaph doesn’t pray that God will guide him by His counsel but, in faith, he acknowledges that God does guide him. So how do we realize that God will guide us? Solomon, in Proverbs 3:4 says this, “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” Let me put two and two together: if we acknowledge God in all our ways, He will guide us and thus make our paths straight.

Do you acknowledge God in all your ways? Do you listen for His counsel in your life?

Oh, there still is a lot more to come concerning this 73rd Psalm. Stay tuned!!