I Have Set the Lord Continually Before Me

“I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;

Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.

I have set the Lord continually before me;

Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;

My flesh also will dwell securely.

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;

Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

You will make known to me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” (Psalms 16:7-11 NASB1995)

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are to be in close fellowship with God, in a personal and close walk of faith in him whereby we long to be with him and to do his will and to serve him with our lives and to obey his commands. For Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross that we might die with him to sin and now live for him and for his righteousness, in obedience to his will and to his purpose for our lives. He should be our very best friend.

Having time with our Lord each day in his word, listening to him speak truth to our hearts, should not be a drudgery, and it should not be just something we do as a matter of routine or of religious practice with it having no real impact on our lives. This time spent with the Lord should be something we look forward to, like getting together with our very best friend, and it should not be something that only lasts for a few minutes per day.

For the psalmist said that he set the Lord before him continually, and we should, as well. We should think of our relationship with the Lord as a marriage, which is what it is supposed to be, but a union that is so close, and so personal, that he is always there with us throughout the day, and throughout the night, and we should have 24/7 open communication with our Lord just like he is sitting right beside us wherever we are.

And we should have open hearts and ears to hear from him anytime throughout the day or the night when he wants to teach us something, or when he has a task that he wants us to do, or something he wants us to say. And he might even get us up in the middle of the night to pray for someone or to write something or to speak to us about something going on in our lives and to give us his counsel in the matter, and we should listen to him.

Especially when we are going through difficult times we need that assurance that our Lord is always with us, if truly we are in him by genuine faith in him. And that requires that we die with him to sin and now live for him and for his righteousness in walks of surrender to him and in obedience to his commands. This is not saying that we will be absolutely perfect in every way, but that we should be growing in him, doing his will, serving his purposes.

Sin should no longer be our “go to,” i.e. our practice, our habit. For by the grace of God, by God-persuaded faith in the Lord, we should have died with him to sin, and we should now be walking in obedience to his commands. For this is the reason for which Jesus gave his life up for us on that cross. But this is not something we do in our own power and strength and wisdom, but only in the power of God as we surrender to his will and purpose.

And then we can have the assurance of our salvation from sin and of eternal life with God because our lives are surrendered to the Lord, and he has saved us by his grace, and he is now transforming us and conforming us to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, by his grace. For the Lord makes known to us the path that we must take, as his followers, and he promises us that he will empower us to do his will, if we are willing and obedient.

And that path of life that we are to take, which he has made known to us, is not a path that is determined nor ruled by self and by the flesh. For us it means full surrender to the Lord to do his will, denial of self, dying to sin, and walking in obedience to his commands – all and only by his grace, by God-persuaded faith in him, and in his power and wisdom, and not in our own fleshly strength nor by our own way of thinking. He must be KING!

And when our lives are committed to the Lord, to doing his will, to obeying his commands, and to walking in his ways and in his truth, there is no greater joy and no greater peace than that, even if it means a life of persecution and suffering for the sake of our Lord and for the sake of his gospel message. For we love our Lord, and our heart’s desire is now to serve him and to do his will. And so we want to please him in all that we do.

[Romans 8:8; 2 Corinthians 5:9; Galatians 6:8; Ephesians 5:10; Colossians 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 2 Timothy 2:4; Hebrews 11:6; Hebrews 13:6; 1 John 3:22]

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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I Have Set the Lord Continually Before Me

An Original Work / February 24, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love