MONDAY September 23rd
Psalm 104:34
‘My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.’ (KJV)
At the time when I was considering the next series of devotions, a hymn had been running through my mind over a few days which I couldn’t seem to get away from. Time and time again I found myself either humming or whistling the tune or singing the words. It is a well-known hymn, or at least it used to be, maybe not so well-known now that so many of the older hymns that are rich in content are being abandoned. It is a hymn that most definitely impacted me as I was much younger and into my teenage years and impacted the way my life was shaped into becoming who I am today, because it helped me to deepen my love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Redemption Hymnal, which was the hymn book we used back then it was number 89, in Making Melody, 79.
Here are the words of the first verse, it is a prayer of Bernard of Clairvaux
Jesus, the very thought of thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far thy face to see,
And in thy presence rest.
As I have said, these words kept coming back to my mind, and so as I move into another series of devotions, I am going to use the hymn as my inspiration and give this series the title ‘Jesus, the very thought of thee,’ and spend some time taking us through some devotions concerning our wonderful Saviour and Lord.
There are many things that we can spend our time thinking about, in fact Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 what to think about, this is what he says, ‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.’
Well as we think about Jesus, he is true, he is honourable, he is just, he is pure, he is lovely, he is commendable, he is excellence, he is worthy of praise, therefore as we think of Jesus, he is the sweetest one we can think about, he is the sweetest one we can fill our lives with, and as we think about him, it should fill our hearts with sweetness. So, this is where we are heading over the next however long it may take us.