Today’s Reading: Psalm 116-118, 1 Cor. 7:1-19
Today’s Reflection: Psalms 116:6 The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.
What a comforting promise found in this precious jewel of a verse! “The LORD preserveth the simple…” The Hebrew word from which the translators derived the English word “simple” also means “naivete” which is defined by Webster as “native simplicity; unaffected plainness or ingenuousness [innocent and unsuspecting]”. Today we would say “Naïve”. Typically, in today’s culture, this word is used in a negative application; however, when it comes to trusting The Lord, the more “naïve” we are in His presence, the better off we are! It is when we become too experienced and sophisticated that we start leaning on our own understanding instead of trusting The Lord with all our hearts! Oh what JOY that The Lord rewards simplicity with preservation! This means that the vulnerabilities we expose ourselves to by being so naïve in His presence are eliminated by our vulnerable, child-like faith in Him to cover for us! It is difficult for the intellectual to “come down” to this level of simple trust in God, and yet their lives become more and more complicated when they trade their own intellect for the shielding hand of the Almighty. Think, Oh intellectual one, how much better off you would be, had you the benefits of One who does all your thinking, planning, protecting, and strategizing for you, and who has a 100% perfect success ratio in doing so! Will you insist on staying in the height of your intellectualism, or will you at last humble yourself to the low estate of simple trust in God to see you through? No doubt, if you will do the latter, you will experience the same deliverances all of God’s simple children experience when they put their entire trust in His sovereign hand at work in their lives. In conclusion, the Psalmist also said, “I was brought low, and he helped me.” Know assuredly that you will not meet Him in your height, but in your low places. Why? Because God makes no appointments with prideful men, but with men of low degree!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill