(Psalms 16:7) “I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.”

This Psalm has been expounded between two thoughts of interpretation. First, they are the Words of Christ, our Representative; God in the flesh. Second, they are the words of David. The devotions in this series are presenting these words as the Words of Christ, the saint’s Representative.

The Subject of this Psalm is the Lord Jesus Christ. David records the Words of Christ as our Representative, as our Perfect Savior, and as our Forerunner to the Father. Some of His statements relate only to Christ, the Perfect Lamb of God; His Only Begotten Son; God in the flesh. Other times His statements are as our Substitute; speaking for us in His Perfection; which also applies to us because we are His Body, the Church.

Jesus is speaking as the saint’s Representative in Psalms 16:7-11. He is teaching the saints why they should praise God:

“I will bless the LORD”

Jesus – the Son of God; the God Man, yet without sin; the saint’s Representative – gives Himself, as the saint’s Example of Praising the Father. Jesus, as God, need not praise the Father; for He and the Father are one.

The question is, ‘Why should the saints praise the LORD?’ Note the following reasons:

“who hath given me counsel”

Again, Christ is Wisdom (Prov. 8:12). It is the saint’s Representative, the saint’s Example, that speaks in this text. According to (Isa. 9:6), Christ, the Messiah, is “The Counsellor.”  Yet as the God-Man, that is God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16), “He received counsel from God, and the spirit of counsel rested on him (Isa. 11:2); and fitted Him for and directed Him in the execution of his prophetic office; for the doctrine He taught was not his own, but his Father’s; and he said nothing of Himself but what his Father taught him, and instructed him to speak, (Joh. 6:16). And He also gave him counsel about the execution of his priestly office, or about His sufferings and death, and drinking of the cup, which He, with submission to the divine will, desired might pass from Him; but having advice in this matter, most cheerfully and courageously yielded to take it, see (Mat. 26:39).”

Therefore, Jesus Christ set the Pattern for all the saints; for the saints need and must have Divine Wisdom, or Divine Counsel, from above or from the Father. The saints cannot see or know the future events that God has ordained for their steps. The saint must seek daily counsel from God to be prepared, and to act according to God’s Word, honor, and glory. The present and hindsight is all the saints have without the Wisdom of God. Thank God for His Written Word that He has preserved for the saints to read, study, digest, and to have as the Light in the dark and unknowns of this earthly life.

“… my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.”

The Hebrew word translated as “reins” means figuratively, the heart or the mind, or the spirit of man. The only thing good in man is when Christ regenerates a man and comes to abide in that person; thus, the Good Thing is Christ, living in, and controlling the man. When God regenerates a man; that man is made a “new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17); God’s love is shed abroad in his spirit (Rom. 5:5c); he is made a “new man” (Eph. 4:24), wherein the “old man” is crucified, and the “new man” is installed in the control center. This causes the man to have a new will; a new desire to please Christ in his attitude, actions, and attire. His goal is to walk as Christ walked; and this is to walk in holiness, righteousness, peace, joy, love, and power. His flesh is no longer in control of the man; but, Christ is. The man is no longer a servant of unrighteousness; but a servant of Righteousness.

Therefore, Christ is the Instructor in the night seasons (or when a man is not at work and is still in his bed). Many times, the saints, like Elijah, must be separated from all things, to hear the “still small” voice of God (1 Kings 19:12); the saints also must be separated from all things to hear from God. It is a sad commentary on the saints that are too busy to hear God. Someone said, ‘I have never heard God speak.’ The author of the book of Hebrews records for us, (Heb. 1:1-2) “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,  (2)  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” If the child of God wants to hear God; then, read and study and assimilate the Written Word of God, called the Bible. One of the reasons that the child of God’s mind does not instruct him is because his ear is tuned to the wrong voice. The voice of the world comes from man. The voice of God that dwells within the believer comes from The Faith, Who is Christ, Who abides in the mind of the believer and gives the ability to hear what God says in His Word.

Application:

The inability to hear and understand what God is saying to the believer comes not because the ability is not within the believer; for Christ lives in the Believer and Christ is the Ability Himself. But, the problem is the believer is not single-minded to Christ; rather, his mind is double-minded (Jas 1:8) “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

When a believer is double-minded, his loyalty, his motive, and his perception are clouded; and he walks by sight and not by faith. When walking by sight, the attitude of praise is not foremost in the believer’s mind.

But, when the believer is walking by faith, or by Christ; he is walking in the “fear of the LORD” (Prov. 1:7; 8:13; 9:10). When one walks in the “fear of the LORD”; he walks in the Wisdom of God. When he walks in the Wisdom of God; his primary goal is to Praise the LORD.

Praise is a matter of Attitude and a matter of Action; an Attitude of Surrender to the Sovereignty of God; an Attitude of Submission to the Will of God; an Action of Obedience to the Word of God; and an Action of Endurance in the same. Praise for the Counsel of God flows from the believer’s understanding of his own insufficiency, and a proper perception of the Sufficiency of God (2 Cor. 3:5) by experience.