The fact that God intended for human beings’ scope of existence to be vast, thrilling and free (to a degree), is a wonderful thought. But as I said, this thought goes still deeper. I said in part 15 that Psalm 16 has some serious clues regarding this theme I am now developing, I hope you have found them.
See something thrilling in this Psalm. Notice the personal emphasis in this psalm. David sees the blessings lavished upon him as intensely personal. David’s devotion to the LORD is deeply personal. In verse 1 he speaks to God, the one and only, directly by name, and asks that Person to keep him personally safe. The reason he gives is that he (David) has looked upon God, the Person, and has seen in Him the only Person who can keep him safe in this volatile situation. He is abandoning Himself to the Person of God and His kind intentions toward him. David sees a principle in operation in the heart of God that intends to bless him personally. This is a deep interaction between persons.
See how he continues in this thought in verse 2. The relationship is personal and final. If the heart of God is not moved by a personal desire to keep this man safe, the man has no hope, he will be swept away by disaster forever. Yet he has this one hope, God will look upon him as you or I look upon that young boy dying in the car crash and do something about it because He is moved to do something. There are deep, wonderful intentions in the heart of God toward His dear people that cannot be documented more perfectly than in Scripture. The Psalms are especially vivid.
Verse 5 is a statement of how unspeakable the experience is to know that the Person of God has taken special note of His dear child, lost in misery without His kind intentions, and showers upon him rich blessings beyond number. The knowledge that God intends to bless you personally is beyond description. It is a personal transaction between two persons that defies the ability of words to capture.
What we are doing here is coming back to the very first part of this Eternal pleasures series, and we are seeing this psalm again with new eyes. One of our early observations was that of the theme of beauty that permeates this psalm. It is my conviction that the beauty is found in the kind, personal intentions of God toward otherwise hopeless human beings.
While these hopeless people of whom we speak do exist en masse, and have no perception of the beauty of the intentions in the mind of God, others, have been snatched by God, in a rescue of unparalleled beauty at Calvary, into the full riches of God’s thrilling intentions. The simple experience of the knowledge of these intentions while here on this earth, as we see in this psalm, is life-changing. As we saw in Hebrews, this vision of beauty has the power to drive a saint to any level of devotion to God because his life is simply reflecting the kind intention of God toward him.
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