Psalm 16:7-8, February 11, 2009

Ps 16:7-8 "I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. 8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." NIV

Lifting up a thankful heart brings peace! Living a life of praise brings joy! One of the values of praise is that it causes us to reflect on the good things that God has done for us. It causes us to consider his goodness in our lives. David is finding thankfulness in this psalm for the Lord’s counsel and direction in his life. As we develop a listening ear we grow in our ability to receive the counsels of God. Jesus himself is called the “Wonderful Counselor” … and “Everlasting Father” in Is. 9:6. Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Counselor who will come in Jn. 14:16 and later in verse 26 he instructs us that one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to teach us and to remind us of the words of Jesus.
This passage is clearly an exhortation to each one of us to develop our listening skills. To all who have received the Holy Spirit through salvation in Christ the counselor has come and is abiding within us, speaking, teaching, but are we listening? David identifies the nature of the Lord’s counsel as he tells of how his own heart instructs him in the night. In that quiet place, in the night season, David is listening to an internal voice of counsel and reflection. This is one of the many ways that the Holy Spirit will speak to those who would hear. Impressions upon the heart, gently, sometimes insistently reminding us and/or confronting us with truth are the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the sensitive soul.
David enlightens us about the nature of his attentiveness to the Holy Spirit. He speaks of the constant place of remembrance that he lives in before the Lord, “The Lord is always before me.” It is this place of consistently giving place to the knowledge of God’s abiding presence that secures David’s heart in a confident relationship with God. Jesus taught us in Jn. 14:26 that the Holy Spirit will abide with us forever. His presence is not transient, but rather consistent and it is this knowledge that is the beginning of an abiding relationship. It is the fact that he has chosen to abide with us consistently that empowers us to abide with him consistently. Jesus continues in Jn. 15 to teach us the nature of this abiding and the fruitful life that flows from this consistent experience of the presence of God. Today, consider meditating on John 15 and the nature of an abiding relationship with Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.