March 11, 2024 -- Psalm 73:23-28 -- How are you training your thoughts?

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
    you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
    I have made the Lord God my refuge,
    that I may tell of all your works.
Psalm 73 ESV

After almost twenty where the Psalmist complains about the wicked, the prideful, the rich, and those who seem to sin with no consequences, it is as if he suddenly shakes himself awake. He goes in to God’s sanctuary and realizes the they will all be swept away in God’s judgment. Now in these concluding verses the Psalmist rejoices in the hope he has in God His strength.

The world congratulates itself with vacuous events celebrating forgettable achievements. Contrast this with those who declare what the Lord their God is doing. They focus their attention on His works that will last forever. His rewards are sure in the heavens for all those who trust in Him.

What are you rehearsing in your thoughts? Is it resentment? Is it anxiety? Is it covetous thought about what others have and you seem to lack? Such thoughts are fed and trained by the world. Think about commercials which create a sense you are failing in some way and how this (miracle) product will fix you—something which until you saw the commercial you didn’t realize needed fixing.

Look at the passage, how the Psalmist is training his thoughts in righteousness. God is his refuge. In Jesus Christ believers run from the silliness of the world and find the Captain of Salvation. In Jesus you find Him Who despised the things of the world, in loving obedience to His Father walking in deep communion with Him, He became the perfect Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. In Jesus you have a friend who sticks closer than a brother. In Jesus believers have the forgiveness of sins and access to the Father. In Jesus you have the gift of the Holy Spirit Who counsels you so that your thoughts are fixed on all that is noble, excellent, lasting and True.

GOD THE ALL

O God Whose will conquers all,
There is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying You 
and being engaged in Your service;
You are All in all, and all enjoyments are
what to me You make them, and no more.
I am well pleased with Your will,
whatever it is, or should be in all respects,
And if You offer me decide for myself in any affair,
I would choose to refer all to You,
for You are infinitely wise and cannot do amiss,
as I am in danger of doing.
I rejoice to think that all things are at Your disposal,
and it delights me to leave them there.
Then prayer turns wholly into praise,
and all I can do is to adore and bless You.
What shall I give You for all Your benefits?
I am in caught between two,
knowing not what to do;
I long to make some return, but have nothing to offer,
and can only rejoice that You do all
that none in heaven or on earth shares Your honour;
I can of myself do nothing to glorify Your blessed name,
but I can through grace cheerfully surrender soul and body to You.
I know that You are the author and finisher of faith,
that the whole work of redemption is Yours alone
that every good work or thought found in me is the effect of
Your power and grace,
that Your sole motive in working in me
to will and to do is for Your good pleasure.
O God, it is amazing that men can talk so much about man’s
creaturely power and goodness, when,
if You did not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate.
This, by bitter experience, You have taught me concerning myself. Amen.
Valley of Vision.

https://youtu.be/zhMFifugZ8o?si=XeyNoIddMzQndY2q "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"

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