Psalm 144: Think

 

I’ve counseled married couples that over the years and through trials and triumphs have forgotten why they first chose each other. I’ve seen friends feel worn out, even beaten down and forget why they chose the career or direction that they have taken. Sometimes we get so far from our beginning that we forget why we made that initial decision. We might not feel those same feelings, we’ve seen behind the curtain, we’ve suffered disappointment, we’ve lost a bit of our zeal, it’s hard to remember, not just where, but why we started. This is just another reason why it’s so important to regularly remember, to remind ourselves of what we know to be true and to do the work of consistency so that we can reap the reward of endurance. In Psalm 144 David begins by remembering all God is to him but then he, seemingly suddenly, realizes what he is to God. 

If this psalm seems familiar it’s because it is. The first 11 verses are found, almost word for word within II Samuel 22, under the heading, “David spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day when the LORD delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.” There are also small pieces of Psalms 3, 8, 18 and 33 found here in Psalm 144. It’s not that David had run out of things to say, but that there are some things that are so important they need to be said often. 

David reminded himself that God was his rock, his steadfast love, his fortress, stronghold, deliverer and shield. In other words, God was his place of safety, his place to hide from those things that would seek to harm him and be protected from the things with which he might harm himself. Whatever question David had; God would be his answer. Whatever accusation was raised, God would be His defense. Whatever need he felt he lacked, God would be is provision. There are unlimited ways to finish the sentence, but the beginning is what must always be remembered, as Rev. James Cleveland sang, “God is . . .”

The psalmist then asked, “O LORD, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?” A clear and right view of God leads to questions about ourselves, if God is all that He says He is, all that He has proved Himself to be, then who am I? These are not questions of fear or condemnation, quite the opposite. David was realizing and revealing that if the great God not only takes notice of but is concerned with us, we might be more than the sum of our parts. God has no need of us but desires us. He has no insecurity but abides in our praises. He needs nothing but loves those who give to Him cheerfully. God’s love for us is about His character, but it also reveals our value. 

I’m not sure there is anything that we talk about more than God’s love. We tell people that they are loved by God, that Jesus loves them, but I’m not sure we do a good job of explaining what that means. 1 John 4 twice says “God is love”. Love is not something that God feels, it’s not even something that God does, it is who He is. God loves us because it is His character to love. We don’t earn His love or  grab His attention and we can’t gain his affection. His love for us comes from within Him, and it’s His love that establishes our value. Our worth does not come from our talents, gifts, abilities or potential. Our accomplishments do not define us which also means that our failures will not diminish us; not when it comes to love. 

God told Israel, in Isaiah 43:1, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” The only reason that Israel existed and continues to exist is the love of God. There was no Israel. God chose Abraham and Sarah, a couple with no children to be the father and mother of a nation that He was creating. When they were finally too old to bear children, God miraculously formed Isaac both from and for them. From Isaac came Jacob, from Jacob the 12 tribes, from the 12 tribes, the nation, from the nation, Jesus the Messiah, from Jesus, salvation for all nations. All from God’s love. Israel didn’t earn a place in God’s heart; she was born from God’s heart. God didn’t look down upon the earth to see which nation He could use; He looked within His own heart and birthed the nation that would be His. But never lose sight of this, God created Israel to benefit all the nations that He had created. The promise to Abraham, actually to Abram, before his name was changed, was that through him, through the nation that God would birth from him all the nations of the earth would be saved. When God was forming Israel He was loving all the nations, when he was choosing Israel it was so that He could win all the nations. He sustained her so that He could save us. The love of God is not for one over the other, it is for one for the sake of the other. 

We talk often about John 3:16, that God loved the world so much that He gave Jesus for us. But sometimes I think we overlook that God loved Jesus so much that He gave Him for the world. God’s love is not greater for one than another. He’s not like us (Psalm 50:21), His love isn’t tied to an emotion, a desire or a need, it’s from His character. God created Israel to give the Messiah, He gave the Messiah to win the nations, He has called the nations (the Gentile church) to provoke jealousy in Israel that would win them to the Messiah. Do we see what God did? Not only does it all work together, each works for each other, God’s love is being shed abroad upon all, through all and by all, but most of all, for all. I am loved by God because God is love, but because God is love you are loved by God, all are loved by God which means I must learn to love all for and like God. 

I believe this was the realization that David was coming to when he asked, “O LORD, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?” The Hebrew word that has been translated “think” is “hasab”, it’s literal meaning is “to interpenetrate, literally to weave, generally to fabricate; to plot or contrive (think up)”. David was not expressing that God sits in heaven thinking about us but that we were born in the thoughts of God. This is how God could tell Jeremiah that He knew him before he was formed in his mother’s womb or how David could write that we are each and all “fearfully and wonderfully made”, because we are not conceived in the flesh until after we’ve been born of the mind of God. 

And that is our value: it’s yours, it’s mine, but it’s also the value of everyone ever conceived. We’ve been thought of by God. Just consider the implications of that truth for a moment. If we were born in the thoughts of God, then how could we ever at any point in our lives, under any stress, in any loss, feeling any disappointment, believe that God has overlooked us, turned from us or held out on us? We were born in His thoughts, and we were born of His love, our lives, all lives are never outside of either. The One who knit me together won’t ever let me fall apart. How much pain, how many fears, doubts, anxieties and disappointments could this truth keep me from? It’s not that I won’t face them, but how can I be taken in and sometimes under by them when I know that God doesn’t only love me and know me, but He thought of me long before anyone ever saw me. But it’s not just me, it’s all. He knows each of us, He loves each of us because each of us were born in His thoughts, and each of us were born for His glory and so each of us were born for each other. Israel for the Messiah, the Messiah for the nations, the nations for Israel. Everything we are is because God is; trust Him. He formed you in His thoughts, He will perfect you with His love.