HOW
PRECIOUS!
Ps
139:17-24
17
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is
the sum of them!
18
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I
am still with thee.
23
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
That
God should think of us at all is an amazing thing. The Psalmist
says that those thoughts toward us are “precious” or “rare, excellent, weighty
and noble. The word “precious” does not appear at all prior to the book of
First Samuel but afterward they are scattered throughout the Bible but just
what does this word mean?
First
yagar means precious in the sense of being rare and valuable. These are
wonderful things that are hard to find and worth keeping. “And he took their
king's crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with
the precious stones: and it was set on David's head” (2 Sam 12:30). Again, the
word means rare like something that does not happen often and,
when it does, needs some special attention. “And the word of the LORD was
precious in those days; there was no open vision” (1 Sam 3:1).
Next,
the word “precious” focuses on the value of a thing. “How excellent
is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust
under the shadow of thy wings” (Ps 36:7). The word “excellent” here is that
same Hebrew word yagar that is elsewhere translated precious. The
lovingkindness of God toward us is of great value.
A
third meaning of “precious” is that which is “weighty or noble!”
“The precious [noble] sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they
esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter” (Lam 4:2)?
Even the death of a lowly saint of God is a noble thing.
Ps 116:15
15 Precious (important and no light
matter) in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (His loving ones).
AMPLIFIED
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