Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the great mountains;
Your judgments are a great deep;
O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.
For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.
Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of pride come against me,
And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the workers of iniquity have fallen;
They have been cast down and are not able to rise.—Psalm 36:5-12
Beloved…If you are in need of something to meditate on this morning, you need go no further than these precious words of God. Find relief where David found relief…by thinking on the inexhaustible splendor of the wonderful attributes of our God.
Truly, we could spend a lifetime just considering His lovingkindness…His unfailing, loyal love to those that are His. David, like us, had experiential knowledge of the Lord’s lovingkindness and, therefore, took His refuge under the shadow of His wings.
God’s attributes are not only inexhaustible in their splendor but they are inexhaustible as resources to sustain and preserve us as we walk through this dark world. In Christ, every one of His wonderful qualities are ours. We are as immovable as the mighty mountains because He is our righteousness. In Him we enjoy the provisions of His house, we drink from the river of His pleasures, lose ourselves in the unfathomable heights of His mercy and faithfulness, and drown in the unplumbed depths of His perfect judgments. He is the Source of all that is good. In Him is the fountain of life. In His light we see light. We can rejoice even in difficult times because the word of the LORD is right, and all His work is done in faithfulness.
In contrast to the obedient believer’s life discussed above which is distinguished by covenant love, safety in the Lord, life, and the light of understanding that His countenance brings, the life of an unbeliever is marked by wickedness, deceit, darkness and corruption.
An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked:
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
When he finds out his iniquity and when he hates.
The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;
He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
He devises wickedness on his bed;
He sets himself in a way that is not good;
He does not abhor evil—Psalm 36:1-4
Ending with some verses from Joshua and Philippians.
"Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."—Joshua 24:14-15 (emphasis mine)
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.—Philippians 4:8-9
