Here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:
17And to me how precious are Your thoughts, O God. How great is the sum of them.
18[If] I count them from sand, they are many. I awaken and [I am] still with You.
These verses follow upon everything said so far in verses 1 through 16. (Note that verse 17 starts with “And”). David is here worshipping the God Who sees when he sits and when he rises, Who formed his inmost being, Who wove him together in his mother’s womb, and Who wrote down all his days before one of them came to be.
David here pauses to reflect on the incomprehensible loving parental attention that God gives to His children and specifically to David himself. “My Lord,” says David, “I am amazed at how much You think about me, care about me, watch over me, plan for me.”
Anyone who is a parent, of course, has little trouble comprehending at least the essence of this truth. One’s children fill their mind continually, do they not? Even if, as limited humans, we are called away to focus our attention on other matters, yet our minds are still filled with our children. Their happiness is our happiness. Their successes are our joys. Their pain is our sorrow. Their needs and even wants are our heart’s yearnings. Ever since I knew they were conceived, my soul has been inextricably bound up in theirs.
But from whence did I gain such a noble quality? It is in no way of my own making. It is the very image of God in me. David here turns such thoughts around and realizes he is the child here. He is the object of such parental affection, attention, and commitment; and, of course, since God Himself is the parent in view, that affection, attention, and commitment sheds even the possibility of limit or short-coming. Here it goes beyond admiration and becomes worship.
Matthew Henry said, “We cannot conceive how many God’s kind counsels have been concerning us, how many good turns He has done us, and what variety of mercies we have received from Him … [and they are] constant at all times.”
Charles Spurgeon also commented on these verses, and his thoughts are so to the point, I think they’re worth quoting here, even at length:
Verse 17. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! He is not alarmed at the fact that God knows all about him; on the contrary, he is comforted, and even feels himself to be enriched, as with a chest of precious jewels. That God should think upon him is the believer's treasure and pleasure. He cries, "How costly, how valued are Thy thoughts, how dear to me is Thy perpetual attention!" He thinks upon God's thoughts with delight; the more of them the better is he pleased. It is a joy worth worlds that the Lord should think upon us who are so poor and needy: it is a joy which fills our whole nature to think upon God; returning love for love, thought for thought, after our poor fashion. How great is the sum of them! When we remember that God thought upon us from old eternity, continues to think upon us every moment, and will think of us when time shall be no more, we may well exclaim, "How great is the sum!" Thoughts such as are natural to the Creator, the Preserver, the Redeemer, the Father, the Friend, are evermore flowing from the heart of the Lord. Thoughts of our pardon, renewal, upholding, supplying, educating, perfecting, and a thousand more kinds perpetually well up in the mind of the Most High. It should fill us with adoring wonder and reverent surprise that the infinite mind of God should turn so many thoughts towards us who are so insignificant and so unworthy! What a contrast is all this to the notion of those who deny the existence of a personal, conscious God! Imagine a world without a thinking, personal God! Conceive of a grim providence of machinery!—a fatherhood of law! Such philosophy is hard and cold. As well might a man pillow his head upon a razor edge as seek rest in such a fancy. But a God always thinking of us makes a happy world, a rich life, a heavenly hereafter.
Verse 18. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. This figure shows the thoughts of God to be altogether innumerable; for nothing can surpass in number the grains of sand which belt the main ocean and all the minor seas. The task of counting God's thoughts of love would be a never ending one. If we should attempt the reckoning we must necessarily fail, for the infinite falls not within the line of our feeble intellect. Even could we count the sands on the seashore, we should not then be able to number God's thoughts, for they are "more in number than the sand." This is not the hyperbole of poetry, but the solid fact of inspired statement: God thinks upon us infinitely: there is a limit to the act of creation, but not to the might of Divine love. When I awake, I am still with Thee. Thy thoughts of love are so many that my mind never gets away from them, they surround me at all hours. I go to my bed, and God is my last thought; and when I wake I find my mind still hovering about His palace gates; God is ever with me, and I am ever with Him. This is life indeed.
Yes, this is life indeed!
It is one thing to realize God loves me. I think it another thing to go on and realize that love means He thinks about me constantly, that His affection and attention never leave me. The very air I breathe is the love of my God. Again, I will say that I think no parent should have any trouble understanding such love. But it is another thing to turn it around and see that I am the child.
No wonder Paul prayed, “… that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, … to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that passes knowledge …” (Eph 3:17-19).
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11).
In a cold, hurtful world, such thoughts warm a Holy Spirit joy in your heart, yes?
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