Pleasing Thoughts
Psalm 104:34 – “May my meditation be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the LORD.”
Being a comic book geek, I love reading about superheroes and their superpowers, whether it be the Hulk with his super strength, the Flash with his super-speed, or Spider-man with his spider-like prowess. As a child, I dreamed about having these powers and what I could do with them. If I could fly, then I could go anywhere I wanted and could avoid all the traffic that I have to deal with on my drives to work. If I could teleport, I could be in Italy for dinner at six and be home in my bed by ten. And if I could read minds, Boy! Would I have a ton of fun with that! Imagine all the problems that could be solved if we could only read each other’s minds. No one would ever be able to say, “Well, I can’t read your mind,” in an argument any longer. People would know exactly what gifts to get another, how another person feels, and how to best interact with others. But I bet that when I mentioned everybody being able to read each other’s minds, you cringed a little and thought, “This can’t be good.” Why? Because it is likely that there are secret thoughts that we would hate for others to know about. Some of us might not want our bosses finding out that we hate our jobs and have been complaining about them to all our friends. Some might not want our peers to know that we struggle with purity in our minds. We certainly don’t want our enemies to play upon our weaknesses, or our secret crushes to know that we dream about the day we can get the courage to ask them out.
In reality, our minds are the playgrounds for our lives. It is in the mind that we can do anything we want to do and be anyone we would like to be. And because we know that no one else has access to it, we take the liberty to think of whatever we like, whether good or bad, for nobody can make us feel ashamed of what we think. The funny thing is that God knows everything that goes on in our minds. He knows each and every one of our thoughts, what we meditate and linger upon and what we allow to pass through quickly and forgotten. Should we not be even more careful with our thoughts knowing that the God of the universe knows them? And for disciples of Jesus Christ, even more so, for we call upon Him as Lord of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
In our passage today, the Psalmist spent most of the psalm praising God for how He provides for all Creation. He rejoices in the Lord’s love and graciousness to animals and man and reflects upon the Lord’s control of the sea, the heavens, and especially, our lives. He then closes up the psalm with this second to the last verse, praying that his meditation will be pleasing to the Lord. He must have been alluding to his praise and worship of God, for he mentions that he was rejoicing in the Lord. Like the Psalmist, we as disciples of Jesus Christ must seek to make not only our actions pleasing to the Lord but also our thoughts. What we meditate upon (what we spend time thinking about earnestly) should bring honor and glory to Him. Our thoughts should be ones that we would not be ashamed of Him knowing whether they be thoughts in passing or thoughts in reflection. In addition, we must also make sure that our thoughts are not just things we won’t be embarrassed about but also thoughts that please Him. That means we must take active action in causing our thoughts to focus on Christ. We must be proactive not just defensive. Paul recognizes the importance of this when he calls upon all of us to bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Philippians 4:8 states what our thoughts should be about, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, 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.” May we be careful to make sure that our thoughts are pleasing to our Lord, for our thoughts can easily determine our attitude and our actions.
becomingadisciple 
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