“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17)
How amazing and precious is it that the sovereign God of this universe thinks about me? We read earlier in this chapter that God is intimately acquainted with even the apparently mundane actions of our lives. Even our downsitting and our uprising (Ps. 139:2), God’s children getting up and down, in and out of bed, God is aware of these and every action of our lives. However, God does not just have knowledge of the events of our lives, but God is actively thinking about each of his children individually! How precious to know he’s thinking about me! And he’s thinking about you!
When we consider the magnitude of God’s glory, how is it possible that he would almost waste his time (from my perspective), thinking about me at all? “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained…” (Ps. 8:3) How amazing is the glory of God in creation? The heavens declare the glory of God and there is not a single language where the testimony of creation does not declare the glory of its Creator (Ps. 19:1-4). God is very busy ruling and reigning this universe as its blessed and only Potentate. Considering his glory and all the thoughts required to run this universe, how is it possible that the Lord’s thoughts are mindful towards me at all, or any human? “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Ps. 8:4) It’s absolutely astounding that the Glorious Creator would think about us at all! But praise God we are in the thoughts of our Creator!
Not only are we in God’s thoughts, but his thoughts towards us cannot be numbered! Just a passing thought of the Lord would be more than any of us could be worthy of. However, the Lord does not just give us a passing thought every now and then, or even one thought a day. “How great is the sum” (Ps. 139:17) of God’s thoughts toward each one of his children individually! God’s thoughts toward you are so innumerable they truly cannot be reckoned up to the counted accurately! “Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” (Ps. 40:5) God’s thoughts towards me cannot be numbered!
What are God’s thoughts towards his people? God’s thoughts are always that of a loving heavenly Father, thoughts of love, and specifically thoughts of peace. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jer. 29:11) Even in the midst of God’s loving chastisement – such as God’s people were presently enduring in Babylonian captivity for their sins, when Jer. 29 was written – God’s thoughts towards his people are always thoughts of peace, and never of evil. While this verse in Jer. 29:11 is commonly taken out of its context in modern Christianity, it is beautiful to think of God’s thoughts of peace towards us and also thoughts of restoration. God’s thoughts towards the Jews in captivity is to give them “an expected end”. That expected end was after 70 years of captivity, they would be restored to their homeland. God’s thoughts towards his people are always thoughts of restoration, and then his thoughts are certainly towards the final expected end, for all of his children to live with him in heaven for all of eternity.
God has also given us the blessing of the scriptures that are the thoughts of God’s heart to all generations. “The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” (Ps. 33:11) We have a small glimpse into God’s heart and God’s thoughts as we read God’s word. That should invigorate our perspective of reading the scriptures, and how excited should we be to have the ability to read and study and know the thoughts of God’s heart unto me today!
Considering God’s thoughts towards me, how much more should I return the favor by actively and perpetually thinking about the Lord? “In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.” (Ps. 94:19) The comforts of the Lord delight my thoughts and delight my soul. We should be purposeful to actively meditate and think on the Lord and on the scriptures every day – “in his law doth he meditate day and night.” (Ps. 1:3) We need to be purposeful to bring every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), and think (meditate) on things that are honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy (Phil. 4:8).
How amazing and precious to think on the fact today that the Lord is thinking about me so much it cannot be numbered! How great and how good and how loving is our God towards his beloved children!