The Counsel of the Lord

“The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

    he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

    the plans of his heart to all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

    the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

The Lord looks down from heaven;

    he sees all the children of man;

from where he sits enthroned he looks out

    on all the inhabitants of the earth,

he who fashions the hearts of them all

    and observes all their deeds.

The king is not saved by his great army;

    a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

The war horse is a false hope for salvation,

    and by its great might it cannot rescue.” (Psalms 33:10-17 ESV)

“The nations” may refer to literal physical nations of people here, but sometimes it is used in the Scriptures as a general reference to all who are ungodly. Sometimes the term “Gentiles” is used in the same sense, depending upon the context. And so a “Gentile” today, in a spiritual sense, is not a non-Jew, but a Gentile is one who is ungodly, who is lacking in genuine God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, and who is still making sin his practice, and not obedience to the Lord, and not godly living.

Now the Lord doesn’t always bring the counsel of the nations to nothing. For he allows evil to exist. And he allows (not condones) evil people to continue on in their evil, sometimes for their entire lifespan. And he allows evil people who are heads of nations to plot evil against people of other nations, and even against their own people. But sometimes God allows this in order to get the people of the world to look to him for their salvation instead of them trusting in other humans for their support and for their rescue.

But the Lord, as he determines, and when he determines, will bring the counsel of the nations to nothing, and he will indeed frustrate the plans of the peoples. And sometimes he uses other evil nations to do this, like he did with the children of Israel multiple times in their history, I believe. And he will do the same during the time of tribulation on the earth before he judges in finality the entire world, i.e. he will use that beast and his kingdom to bring judgment upon the people of the earth (see Revelation 13:1-18).

For nothing escapes God’s notice. He is not asleep. He is not being neglectful. He knows what is going on. He sees it all! But he is patient and longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), and that is why he has not yet returned to judge the evildoers of their evil deeds, but he is giving them a chance to forsake their evil deeds and to trust him to be their Lord and Savior and to now follow him in obedience in surrender to his will and in holy living.

But now I want to focus here on the counsel of the Lord that stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. And like the Lord does sometimes with me, he put the lyrics to a secular song in my mind, and the song is “The Gambler.” And those who remain in their sin, and who keep doing evil and not the good they know to do, are gambling with their own lives. They are taking a gamble that, perhaps, God won’t do what he said he would do if they kept on in their sinful practices and not in walks of obedience to him.

Now, although obviously not an exact parallel, in the song one man is giving counsel to another, for he could read in the man’s face and in his eyes where he was headed, i.e. his destiny. And if we are very spiritually discerning people, and there are people in our lives who are still addicted to sin, we, too, can read in their eyes and in their faces and in their body language and in their words and their tone of voice where they are living, in reality, though not necessarily what they are professing that they are doing or not doing.

Anyway, the one man’s counsel to the other man was, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run… the secret to surviving is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep…” (and much more). 

And in a non-secular sense, this is God’s counsel to us, as well. We have to know and to understand the truth of God’s word that teaches us that if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin against him, and against other humans, and if we do not repent of our sins, in truth and in righteousness, and if we do not make righteousness and obedience to our Lord our practice, our eternal destiny is going to be hell, not heaven. It will not go well for us in the end, regardless of what faith we profess with our lips.

For the secret to surviving is in knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep. We need to throw off the sin which so easily entangles so that we can run the race God has marked out for us to run. We must die with Christ to sin, not just once, but daily, and we must walk in faithful obedience to his commands in holy living. Sexual immorality, lying, cheating, stealing, faithlessness, and the like, must be put out of our lives entirely, and we must now walk (in conduct, in practice) according to the will of God.

But sadly so, many professers of faith in Jesus Christ have not thrown away their sinful practices, but they have continued in them deliberately and habitually. And instead they have thrown away the word of God, and God/Christ, himself, and they have embraced the world and godlessness and their sinful practices, instead. And for many of them they have also thrown away their spouses, their marriages, and their families in order to keep on in their sinful practices, because their sin is really what they want most.

So, they continue to gamble with their lives and with their destiny, hoping that somehow God’s word will not ring true, and that they will not be judged by him for their continual deliberate and habitual sinning against him. So they put their hope and their trust in a diluted and altered and cheapened form of the true gospel which does not warn them of hell if they continue in their sin and not in walks of obedience to the Lord. But in the end, God’s word will not return empty, and he will bring the counsel of the ungodly to nothing, just like he said he will. So, please believe God and his word!

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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