“Thou hast proved mine heart; Thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress” (Psa 17:3).
This should be the testimony of every true child of God who is awaiting the Coming of the Lord. The Psalmist says that God proved his heart and visited him in the night seasons and tried him (obviously in different ways), and did not find any evil intention or purpose in his heart.
The ‘night’ here shows the dark seasons of our spiritual life. Our heart may be right with God in times of prosperity; we may not let any wrong purpose or intention set in. But we should know that God will also visit us in the ‘nights’ of our life, when everything is bleak and gloomy. At such times, if our hearts are not filled with the grace of God, we can go away from the Lord by allowing evil thoughts and questions to flood our mind. The testimony of the Psalmist is indeed encouraging: “You shall find nothing – no evil purpose – in me” (Amp).
The Psalm ends with the blessed assurance of hope: “As for me, I will be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness” (vs 15). “When I awake” means, “when I am resurrected.” But now, every awakening in our spiritual life should bestow more of Christ’s likeness in us. The more we have Christ in us, the more satisfied will be. In fact, nothing in earth or heaven can satisfy a saint as much as seeing the face of the Lord. The things of the world, on the other hand, only make us more and more dissatisfied and discontented – which in turn makes us more and more fretful and anxious and worried. Let us therefore daily hunger and thirst for more and more of Him, for more of His divine character – His purity, humility, meekness, grace, etc. – so that we can be satiated more and more.
David had the confidence that he would surely see the Lord’s face. It was his pure heart that was the greatest incentive for this hope. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” There is nothing greater that a child of God can covet than the likeness of Jesus.
– Taken from Morning Manna – Thoughts for Daily Devotion
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