A nationally prominent minister recently revealed the fact that he and his wife had made Psalm 40:5 the theme of their prayers for this upcoming year.  The verse expresses a theme worthy of all our prayers, thoughts, meditations, and devotion.  "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned  in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."  We will briefly consider this portion of the vast truth contained in this verse: "thy thoughts which are to us-ward...are more than can be numbered."

            First of all, we must disabuse ourselves of the idea that the psalmist is engaging in hyperbole with this statement.  The truth is that we cannot properly conceive of the attention that God in His infinite love focuses on His own.  As self-absorbed, selfish, and ego-centric as we sometimes (often?) are, the attention we devote to ourselves pales in comparison with that which the Lord bestows on us.  The biblical examples are so numerous and pervasive as to stymie collection and organization.  Consider these, chosen more or less at random.

            His thoughts include our physical being.  The “very hairs” of our head are numbered (Matt. 10:30).  How significant is a single hair?  We lose many every day without noticing or caring, but God is aware of each one.  And if He is aware of such seemingly insignificant minutiae, how much thought does He give to things of eternal import?  Psalm 139 tells us that God’s thoughts encompassed our formation from conception (vv. 13-16).  We are not the product merely of some biological confluence; rather, we come personally and individually from the careful purpose and plan of God.  Genetics is a secondary factor in determining who we are; God is the primary Causation.  The corrupting influence of sin aside, we are the design and formation of God.

            His thoughts encompass our activities.  The Lord Jesus astonished Nathaniel by telling him at their first meeting:  “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee” (John 1:48).  On the road to Damascus, He revealed to Saul the fact that He was aware of Saul’s persecution of believers:  “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts 9:5).  He had seen, known, and considered the activities of His soon-to-be apostle to the Gentiles.

            His thoughts embrace our spiritual well-being.  The entire thrust of Scripture points inevitably to this truth:  the Lord has considered our eternal souls, personally and individually. Can there be a more blessed truth than the thought that believers have been “chosen . . . in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).  And what of the fact that “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). 

            It boggles the mind to even attempt to consider the scope of Scriptural teaching on this truth.  He chose us individually, created us individually, saves us individually, sanctifies us individually, instructs us individually, chastens us individually, and blesses us individually.  Each and every part of that process involves the mind of God thinking upon us in love.  He knows all there is to know about us—things we do not know and things we can not know.  How safe and blessed we are in His hands.  And how we should in return direct our thoughts Godward.  Joshua exhorts us to “meditate . . . day and night” on the Word of God (Josh. 1:8).  As He thinks upon us, may we think upon Him.