In God's Confidance

The Lord confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.
Psalm 25:14

Most of us probably have verses that we have circled or underlined in our Bibles. The ones we read and say "hey this is cool. I must come back to this one." Psalm 25:14 is one of those verses circled in my Bible. I found it the other day. I couldn't remember circling it, but when I read I thought to myself all over again "wow this is cool."

The verse talks about how God will confide in those who fear him - as a friend. We often confide in God, telling him our secrets and discussing the things that are troubling us; but this verse makes it clear that God has things that he wants to confide in us about. That idea is quite exciting to me.

So who does God confide in? This verse states that it is 'those who fear him'. The fear of God is a term that Christians have struggled with for ages. I like the way that the NIV Study Bible notes describes the fear of God: "Those who honour God and order their lives in accordance with his will because of their reverence for him (1)." I like this explanation because it talks of honouring and respecting God, but also of ordering our lives according to God's will. Fear of God is more than just respecting Him, fear requires a response. If we truly fear God then we will be changing the course we plot for our life, based on His will and His values.

There are examples in the Bible where God has confided in those who feared Him. In Genesis 18, God was planning to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He chooses to share his plans with Abraham, and even allowed Abraham to argue it out with Him. This passage reads like God going to Abraham as a king might go to his advisors. To me, that is an amazing concept. The perfect infalible King of the universe was interested in the opinion of a mere human. "Then the Lord said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?'"(Gen 18:17)

God also confided in Job. "Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God's intimate friendship blessed my house" (Job 29:4.) This phrase, "God's intimate friendship blessed my house" literally means "God's council was in my tent" or "God was an intimate in my tent." (2)

I found studying these verses to be a very inspiring challenge. So, may we all "order our lives according to God's will, out of our deep reverence for Him." You never know, He might just have something that he wants to confide in us about.

(1) The NIV Study Bible. Copyright (C) 1985 by The Zondervan Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Study note on Psalm 15:4

(2) The NIV Study Bible. Copyright (C) 1985 by The Zondervan Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Study note on Job 29:4

Scripture taken from The HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION Copyright (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers