Psalms 139:17
How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum!
BSB
ASV
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
KJV
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
"I will no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you." What are all these things which He heard from His Father, which He wished to make known to His servants, that He might make them His friends, except the joys of interior charity, except those festivals of the heavenly homeland, which He daily imprints on our minds through the inspiration of His love?
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! He is not alarmed at the fact that God knows all about him; on the contrary, he is comforted, and even feels himself to be enriched, as with a casket of precious jewels. That God should think upon him is the believer's treasure and pleasure. He cries, "How costly, how valued are thy thoughts, how dear to me is thy perpetual attention!" He thinks upon God's thoughts with delight; the more of them the better is he pleased.
1834–1892
[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon verses 17 and 18 is #2609, Volume 45—OUR THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD'S THOUGHTS.] IT is very comforting to us to believe in a personal God and to be able to confide in One who condescends to think lovingly of us, considers our needs and supplies them. It would not be very comforting to us to believe in a mere abstract Deity, or in what some people call, "the laws of Nature" acting by themselves apart from God, or in a fixed fate that would crush us like some colossal car of Juggernaut.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Jeremiah 29:11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
leads to
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us— none can compare to You— if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I…
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations.
But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD or understand His plan, for He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.
Through
Psalms 92:5How great are Your works, O LORD, how deep are Your thoughts!
leads to
O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
Through
Psalms 40:5Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us— none can compare to You— if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I…
leads to
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
