Numbers 26-28

Mark 8

“How precious to me are Your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with You.” —Psalm 139:17-18

We could imagine David communing with God into the dark, quiet hours of night until sleep overcame him. When he awakened in the morning, his soul was consumed with the presence of God. It was the first thought of his day. Perhaps, “when I awake” may also suggest the sphere of God’s presence beyond the gates of death, but either way, David was never out of the presence of God. There was no separation; no time where they were not one in spirit, and he was full of praise and love for God.

David was a man after God’s own heart—one who loved Him, trusted Him, obeyed Him and stepped out on a limb for Him. Again and again, he experienced what God had said is true: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5). God spoke those words to Joshua when he was about to lead an entire nation across the Jordan River into hostile territory. God had called Joshua

to a task in which there was only one way of completing it successfully—by divine intervention. The Jordan River parted for the Israelites, the walls of Jericho came crumbling down and Israel received the victory.

The vast majority of us, if not all of us, have “walls of Jericho” in our own lives that we want to come crumbling down, but they are still standing. It is not until we have stepped out on a limb, trusting God to direct our way that we receive the victory. This makes intimate communion with God essential, like what Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David and many others had. They were not passive, by any means, but obedient to God’s Word and His instructions. David was given victory after victory, becoming the plumb line for the kings of Israel; in fact, it was in his tribe, Judah, that Jesus Christ was born.

When David wrote, “How precious to me are Your thoughts, God!” he was basking in God’s presence, cherishing everything he knew about Him. In intimate communion, God revealed more and more to David, including prophesies of Christ. Many of the 150 Psalms we have in Scripture were attributed to David’s writing, a mere fraction of the countless thoughts God shared with Him. No wonder the praise, the adoration, the closeness, the bond and the love David had!

Communing with God until we fall asleep at night and waking to a conscious awareness of His presence, which starts us talking all over again, may seem a little over the top for some, but it is actually a way to the top of all that God would reveal to us during intimate communion with Him.

Lord, I pray for that kind of intimacy with You. May I always have a conscious awareness of Your presence and be in constant communion with You. Thank You, Lord.