I have set the Lord continually before me

Psalm 16:8 (NASB)

I have set the Lord continually before me.  Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

What does this verse really mean?  What does it really mean to “set the Lord continually before me”?  I typically read and write from either the New American Standard Bible Translation (NASB) representing a modern translation of the King James Version, or the New Living Translation (NLT) Bible that is an easier-to-understand modern paraphrase type of Bible.  For Psalm 16:8, I wanted to learn how several other Bible translations describe this verse:

·  I know that the Lord is always with me, I will not be shaken because He is right beside me. (NLT)

·  I will always look to you,
as you stand beside me
and protect me from fear. (CEV)

·  I always remember that the LORD is with me.  He is here, close by my side,
so nothing can defeat me. (ERV)

·  I am always aware of the Lord's presence; he is near, and nothing can shake me. (GNT)

·  I know that the Lord is always with me. He is at my right hand. I will always be secure. (NIRV)

·  I always keep the Lord in front of me.
When he is by my side, I cannot be moved. (GWT)

·  Day and night I'll stick with God; I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go. (Message)

·  I keep the Lord before me always. Because he is close by my side, I will not be hurt. (NCV)

In considering all these translations, what do you conclude?  I conclude two main truths---first, there is a wonderful promise and second, there is a condition to be met for that promise to be true.  The condition to be met……….you must live your day-by-day life with constant awareness of the Lord’s presence.  If you study Ostwald Chambers’ devotionals in his classic book, My Utmost for His Highest, you readily learn that Chambers emphasizes the believer truly being one with Christ.  For example it is early August as I am writing this so I quote three different sentences from Chambers on three different days (and you can read many more examples in this book):

·  “In the natural life our ambitions are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own”—Aug 3

·  “The call of God is like the call of the sea— no one hears it except the person who has the nature of the sea in him”--Aug 5

·  “The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him”—Aug 6

That is the condition that must be met in the first part of Psalm 16:8.  You must be one with God and, for the Christian, being one with God is to be one with Christ.  Note most translations use the word “always” in defining a relationship with God, not a hit and miss thing, but always, every day, every hour, every minute, the dedicated disciple of Christ maintains a strong, consistent, loving, and dependent relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

If you practice such a relationship, keeping the Lord intimately involved in your life, the result is what?  Note the words used in different translations---you will not be shaken, you will be protected and have no fear, nothing can defeat you, you have complete security, you cannot be hurt.  Wow, who would not want to live a life like this where nothing can defeat you, nothing can hurt you, nothing can cause you to be anything else but complete Christlike in character!

The apostle Peter quoted Psalm 16:8 in Acts 2:25.  Imagine the power these words had on early Christians who were persecuted and suffered for their faith.  American Christians rarely suffer for their faith and, as a consequence, the words of Psalm 16:8 have little meaning and so few Christians actually practice having an intimate hourly-daily relationship with Christ.  Yet those who choose to practice the condition of Psalm 16:8 live a life of indescribable joy and peace.  May these words be an inspiration to you right now to re-focus your life on practicing a true abiding life in Christ. 

“If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you”—John 15:7