Psalm 16 speaks to me specifically about the experience of drawing closer to God. I hope it speaks to you.
“Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” God uses the trials of life to draw us into deeper fellowship with Him. This is necessary because of our tendency to run away from God.
Running to God creates in an awareness of our need for humility. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. As we draw near into His glory, we understand the basis of our humility. “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
Drawing near to God increases our love for other Christians. “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” No drawing close to God includes unforgiveness, bitterness, or mere dislike of other Christians, but a delight to meet together in community.
Drawing near also increases our compassion for the lost. “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.”
It also increases our hunger to draw even near. “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.”
So many other benefits follow. He states that God has measured out his wonderful inheritance of blessings, advises us, speaks to us, even in the night.
But a danger (warning) exists in our believing that this joy and mania is permanent, and pride sets in, telling us we will never slip away again. “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” But since we, in our celebration, stop dealing with the areas in which we need further development in our hearts, trials which shake us from our pride will truly come.
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