Our scripture reading this evening is found in the book of Psalms, Psalm 139, a psalm of David. We'll read the whole of that psalm, Psalm 139. O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me, yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God, Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men, for they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee, and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me. and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. We'll read God's Word thus far, and may God bless unto us the reading of His holy and His inspired Word. The text that we consider is found in verses 17 and 18. These words How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. The Psalm, beloved, Psalm 139, is a very striking and a very remarkable psalm of David David in this psalm mentions three crucial and profound truths concerning God, three truths that we know and understand well also. The first truth concerning God that David mentions is found in verses 1 through 5 where he speaks about God's omniscience, God knowing all things. And then he follows that with a consideration of the truth of God's omnipresence in verses 7 through 12. The fact that God is everywhere and that wherever we go in this creation or wherever we go in this universe, God is there. And then thirdly, He considers and speaks about God's omnipotence, the fact that God is all-powerful, and describes that in verses 13 through 16. And what is significant about that is that David does not speak abstractly about these truths concerning God, but speaks about them very personally. He confesses this, the all-knowing God knows me, and he knows everything about me. And the everywhere present God is with me in my life. Wherever I go, he is there. He is always at my side. And the all-powerful God uses His power in my life. For example, I am fearfully and wonderfully made by Him. And what you notice In the midst of all that, in verse six, is that David is filled with wonder at all of this. Such knowledge, that is the knowledge that God is everywhere present, that God knows all things, and that God is all powerful, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. It's as though David says, I cannot fathom the fact that this great God knows and sees and does all these things for me personally. Not just doing all things and knowing all things in general, but for me personally. What a marvelous thing that is. And it's with that same sense of wonder that David speaks about the thoughts of God in the words of our text. He is amazed that God has thought about him personally. And that leads to his confession in the words of our text, how precious to me are the thoughts of my God. May that be true of all of us as well, beloved, so that that is also your confession. Consider with me then the precious thoughts of God. Well, notice what God's thoughts are, why they are precious, and our confession of this. David states that God's thoughts are precious to him. Literally, that word precious means very high in value. Now, David, as you know, certainly had many other things that he might consider to be precious to him in his life. He could have spoken of how valuable to him was his kingdom and the victories that he gained with his armies against the enemies of that kingdom and the enemies, therefore, of God and of his church. There were also the riches that David possessed, and the many successes that David had in his life as a king, and the possessions that he had, and the great armies that God had provided for him, and the mighty men that God had given him, men for the times, And he could have also considered his family and his children. And he could have said concerning any one of those, or even concerning all of those other things, these are the things that are high in value to me. These are the things that are very precious to me. but he doesn't say that. Instead, David says, as I consider my whole life, I don't consider something that is earthly to be what's most precious to me, but this is what I consider to be most precious, the thoughts of my God. That's what's valuable to me, he says, and that's what is dear to my heart. That raises the question then, what are those thoughts of God that David is speaking of? Well, obviously, God's thoughts are the things that God has in His mind, the things that God is thinking. And that could refer, first of all, to God's current thoughts, in which case David would be speaking about how precious it is that God is thinking about me right now. Divine thoughts of God, not fleeting thoughts, not just thinking about David, about us for a few moments here and there throughout the day, but constant thinking of God. Never a moment that we are not on the mind of God. That's a remarkable thing. God never forgets us. and remarkable that God has, in all His busyness, you would say, as He controls the whole universe in which we live, all men, angels, and devils, and everything in the creation, that He has time to be thinking about each one of us all the time. But the text, you must understand, is not referring to that. But rather, the text is referring to God's eternal thoughts, not God's thoughts in time, not what God is thinking now, but to what God eternally thought, namely, God's counsel, God's eternal thoughts. Now there are many names given in Scripture to that counsel of God. The Bible refers to it as His will, His plan, His purposes, His decrees, His counsel, His good pleasure, and then also a few times, just a few instances in Scripture. where that eternal counsel of God is referred to as God's thoughts. One of those instances is in our text, of course, but then Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9, again a reference to God's eternal counsel but using the word thoughts, where God says, Isaiah 55 verse 8, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. And then again in Jeremiah 29 verse 11. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Those are references to God's counsel, and that's what is precious to the child of God. Above all things, most precious, God's eternal, unchanging thoughts, God's will, God's counsel. Psalm 139. And then those passages in Isaiah 55 and Jeremiah 29 use the word thoughts in reference to God's counsel because of what that teaches us concerning God's counsel. And the first thing that this word puts before us as far as our understanding of the counsel of God is concerned is this, that this word, this description of God's counsel as his thoughts emphasizes that God's counsel is a carefully worked out player. Sometimes parents may say to you as children, think before you act. Think it through. before you do something. Well, God's counsel as his thoughts has that idea. God has not decided and has not done anything without first thinking about it. He did not suddenly create the world without first carefully thinking it through. He did not make a quick decision after man fell into sin about what he would now do because of man's fall into sin. He did not suddenly, after Adam and Eve rebelled against him, say, I better come up with a rescue plan, and then he came up with a plan of sending Jesus Christ to save his people. And the same with our own lives. God has not made and did not make hasty, last-minute plans for you and for your life. God gave thought to all his plans. God, from all eternity, set out a carefully thought out plan concerning all things so that it would be a plan that would work, a plan for you and for me, a plan for his church, a plan for all of history that would not need to be changed because it was a plan that was perfect, a plan that could not fail. Nothing comes along that is unexpected to God. Nothing comes along that is an accident in the eyes of God or a surprise to Him. It is a plan that works, a plan that works perfectly, a plan that fits together. And it is that because these are God's thoughts. and God thought carefully about everything from all eternity. Then secondly, the name thoughts in reference to God's counsel shows that his counsel and plan and will is important to him. That's what this name emphasizes. You could compare that to you having thoughts about a close friend. Maybe a boyfriend, a girlfriend, or a spouse, or a child, or a parent. And you think about that person. And why do you think about that person? Why is that person always on your mind? Why does that person occupy your thoughts? Because that person is very important to you. You would say, it's impossible for me not to be thinking about him or her. That's true of God. as regards his counsel. His eternal thoughts are very important to him. And his eternal counsel, his eternal thoughts are very important to him because they are thoughts that God has, first of all, for himself, that is, for his own praise and glory. His counsel consists of the purposes of God that his name might be honored and his name might be praised in all things, all things that he plans and all things as they are carried out by him, by his sovereign power. That makes those thoughts precious to God. And those thoughts are precious to God and important to God, secondly, because they are God's thoughts concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is central in all of the plans of God, who must in all things have the preeminence. God having as his central purpose in his counsel for all of the world's history the sending forth of his Son and the salvation of his church through his Son. That's important to God, very important to him. His counsel is very important to him also because On account of Christ being central in the counsel of God, the elect who belong to Christ are central in God's counsel. His purpose is to redeem them and to bring them to himself. That's important to God. And with regard to His counsel, therefore, God is not a God who is distant, a God who is disinterested. He is not a God who says concerning His counsel and concerning what happens in time and history, whatever happens is fine, it doesn't really matter what happens. But these are the thoughts of God. These are the things that are important to God. And these are the things, therefore, that God has planned, and His plan and its fulfillment by Him is very important to Him so that He sees to it that that is what is carried out by Him in time and history and in your life and mine. we are therefore important to God too. How comforting that is. With all of that in mind, David says, David confesses, my chief treasure in my life is not my life itself. My chief treasure in life is not my health, not my riches, not my kingdom, not my family even. But most precious to me in life are the thoughts of God. I value His eternal plan, His will for my life. That was David's confession. And that is what the child of God, what you and I confess to. We don't often think about God's counsel as being precious, but that's what our text directs us to. The counsel of God is valuable to us. The plan of God, even as that plan unfolds in our lives, and brings into our lives things that are difficult and things that are unpleasant to us is nevertheless dear to our hearts. Precious are the thoughts of Jehovah God. But why? Why are God's thoughts precious to the believer and to the child of God, to you? Well, we could mention a number of reasons why God's thoughts are precious to us, why God's will is precious to us. We could say God's will is precious to us because it is a sovereign will. It is the plan of the Almighty God. It is not the plan of a man. and therefore it is guaranteed to work for the glory of God and our salvation. That makes it precious. We could say in the second place the will of God is precious because The will of God is wise. It is a perfect plan for us. No mistakes and no accidents in and according to the will of God. All things working together for our good. All things are for our sakes as those who belong to Christ. A wise plan that makes it precious. And we could say, too, in the third place, it is precious because this is God's eternal plan, a plan that God made in eternity, and therefore a plan that is fixed, a plan that never changes because it is a plan that never needs to change. That makes it precious. And any of these, and even all of these, could be reason for God's will and counsel to be very valuable to us. But notice what the text mentions. The text says the thoughts of God are precious, first of all, because the thoughts of God are personal. That's the language that David uses. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God. And that's the context here in this psalm too. David indicates in the context beginning at the very start of this psalm that God's thoughts are personal. He speaks of some of the details of his own life. And he understands that these details in his life are all part of these eternal thoughts of God, God's plan for his life. And it includes such seemingly insignificant things as his down sitting and his uprising and the paths that he travels in life and his lying down and the words that he speaks. and many years ago, his development in his mother's womb. And what David is saying is God's thoughts are personal. God's thoughts are not just a general plan concerning what will happen in time and history, and not just a general plan concerning what will happen in my life, but his thoughts are very specific. They are thoughts that God has concerning me and concerning my life. as one of his children. Eternally he thought about me, and eternally he thought about, he planned every detail of my life. The personal character of the thoughts and plans of God stands out here in this, And that personal character of the thoughts and plans of God is reinforced in this psalm by the name of God, the name Jehovah that is used in this psalm. He is our covenant God. He is our savior God in Jesus Christ. He is the God who has chosen us and the God who in his covenant love has come near to us in Christ and has saved us in Christ. He is Jehovah who says to his people, I'm very interested in you, and always have been. It isn't that I've just become interested in you, but you have been in my counsel, in my thoughts, you personally, from all eternity when I made my plan for your life." When you think of that, you might be inclined to say, if the Spirit leads you humbly to consider it, why? Why me? Why does the eternal, all-powerful, perfect, holy, majestic God of heaven and earth bother with planning the life of a small, insignificant creature of dust like me? And why does He bother when all that I am of myself is a sinner who deserves really to be ignored by God, and who deserves even to be destroyed by God? What is man that God is mindful of him? Why does the great God of heaven and earth bother with me? But he does, and he did from all eternity, and he always will. He who is infinitely above us thought of each of us personally even before time began. Planned our lives in his covenant love for us as Jehovah and put together a perfect plan for each of his children personally. That makes the thoughts of God precious. But then secondly, and this not from the context but from the text itself, what makes the thoughts of God precious is that there are so many of them." David says, how great is the sum of them? And then he adds to that by saying in verse 18, if I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. That's what David emphasizes here. The thoughts of God, the things that he has planned, I cannot even count them all, all the things that He has planned, all the things that He has thought of, all the things that He has arranged for my life. More in number than the sand. Have you ever tried, children? to count grains of sand, maybe just one handful of sand, one cup of sand? Impossible. And God's thoughts concerning each of us, that is God's thoughts concerning just one person who is his in Christ, are more in number, infinite in number, impossible to count. And that's because God's counsel, and that's what is emphasized by this text, that's because God's counsel is all comprehensive. Everything is included. every event in our lives, as he speaks of that in this psalm in verses two through four, my down-sitting, mine uprising, my thoughts, my path, my lying down, all my ways, the words that I speak with my tongue, every one of them, every word even. is part of the eternal counsel of God. Every event in your life, every detail in the world around you in which you live, every detail of your personal life, all of the great events that happen in your life are part of God's perfect plan. Your birth, your marriage, your family, your church membership, your confession of faith in Christ. But even the small things, as Christ said, the number of hairs on your head, every movement of your body, the air that you breathe and what is contained in that air, the blood that courses its way through your body. and what it gives as far as life is concerned to every part of your body, and even germs that enter our flesh, our likes and all our dislikes. Good things. The fact that you are alive and that you are breathing and that your heart is beating And how many times your heart beats per minute, that's all part of the detailed eternal thoughts of God. Your work, your friends, your family, the pleasures that you have in life. the good things, but also the evils, the suffering, sickness, aging, experiences that contain failures, dying, every sin, every trouble. These are all part of the innumerable thoughts of God because God's plan covers absolutely everything. There is one thought, one plan of God amongst the innumerable thoughts that he has had for your life That stands out, of course, and that is this thought of God when God says to us, I have thought from eternity, I have planned from eternity your salvation in Jesus Christ, my son. And that is central to all of my thoughts concerning you and your life. That's the controlling thought, the controlling purpose, the controlling plan that I have for your life. And not one of all of my other thoughts and plans for your life is random or haphazard, but every one of them serves this thought, this plan, your salvation. Everything is planned for it. Everything is planned around it and everything serves it. All of those thoughts of God with your salvation at the very heart of it surely makes the thoughts of God precious to you and to me. You say, there's nothing in my life that God did not plan. There's nothing that is unexpected. There's nothing that is an accident. All that I have faced, all that I do face, and all that I will face in my life is part of His plan to bring me to Himself in the end. How precious. are the thoughts of my God. That was David's confession. And that is, by the grace of God, the confession of every believer. True, it's not always so easy to make, We know that too. And it's not always so easy to make because God's thoughts, God's plans are not always easy for us. His hand is often heavy. His hand can make us struggle. We become greatly troubled by a heavy hand of God upon us at times in life and we weep. And we say, or are at least inclined to say what Jacob did, all these things are against me. It comes on account of the whole spectrum of troubles that we have in our lives, the afflictions that are personal, not only, but the afflictions that affect us because there are troubles in the church and troubles in our denomination of churches. And it's easy then to become discouraged and to become disheartened. We wish we could understand why. Why is God doing these things? We wish we could see more of God's plan and understand more of God's purpose in it all beyond what God has shown us thus far. We wish by means of that that then we could make more sense of what God is doing in our lives and doing in the lives of those around us, and why he is doing these things, and why it is necessary for these things to happen to us. We might even say sometimes, if only I could see how this is good for me, if only I could see and understand how this is good for the churches, then I could submit. Then I could accept it. But God teaches us, and God has taught you that in your life already, I'm sure, that we don't need to understand and we don't need to fathom God's thoughts and God's ways. We don't need to know why, not when by God's grace we live by faith. God says to those who are His, and God says to us as He works faith in our hearts by His Word and Spirit, isn't it enough that everything in your life has been eternally thought of, eternally planned by me? And isn't it enough that my chief and central thought in everything that I have planned is to save and to bring my church to glory? And isn't it enough that you know that I, the Almighty God, Jehovah, your Father, for the sake of Christ am doing all these things, and that I am wise, and that I know what I am doing. And by faith, the believer confesses, yes, that's enough. That's enough. Enough that God has eternally constructed an elaborate plan, a detailed plan, for my salvation, and enough that God, my Father, Jehovah, says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Glory in my presence forever. And it's enough that God is carrying out his perfect plan. And that guarantees, and that alone guarantees our salvation and our eternal glory with Him. Then we can say, I am being guided by God's counsel in order afterward to be received into glory. And so may we come back again and again in our minds and by faith to God and his eternal thoughts and plans. May Christ by this word and through his spirit give confidence and comfort and peace to our souls. Amen. Our God and Heavenly Father, we are thankful to Thee that Thou art our God, that Thou art an almighty God, that Thou art a sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast ordained all things for our good and Thy glory, that Thou art carrying out Thy eternal thoughts, Thy eternal plans and purposes in our lives. And even if we do not understand, we live by faith and we believe that by doing all things wisely and well that we might be saved and that we might dwell forever with Thee. Comfort our hearts. Strengthen our faith. In Christ's name, amen. For our final Psalter number, we sing 383, a diversification of the psalm that we considered. Notice the third stanza in reference to our text. Thy thoughts, O God, how manifold, more precious unto me than gold. I muse on their infinity. Awaking, I am still with thee. We'll sing all five stanzas of 383. I miss the Lord at last of year. I give my day her name. I, I live, see, and in my thought, I lie beyond. I will not bear him, where is he? How with him, how with me? While we let sinners turn away, mayst we again ♪ Try me for him, no song to earn ♪ ♪ And leave me there to die ♪ Praise ye the Lord, ye hosts of love, in earth and behind. And bless the Lord, ye saints below, The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. Amen.