Psalm 16:7-8 “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” This episode reminds us that God is for us. He guides us; if we come to Him and listen to Him, He will instruct us. It talks about how nice it was when we all had some time to quiet our schedules and spend some time with the Lord. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Praise Series #14 I Keep My Eyes Always On The Lord
Psalm 16:7-8 “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
When I read this, my first thought was, I wish my eyes were always on the Lord. I wonder if sometimes, in the Psalms and actually in any part of the Bible, they are saying what they know they should do instead of what they are actually doing. The person writing this Psalm, were their eyes always on the Lord, or were they saying this as a reminder to themselves of what works best? The beginning of this verse says I will praise the Lord, and you guys know that is one of my favorite things to do. Praising the Lord is something I tend not to forget to do too often. Luckily, I am in a prayer group that knows how important praise is, so even if I didn’t do it regularly on my own, we praise God every Thursday for an hour. That is one of the great things about surrounding yourself with other people who love God; they help you remember what is truly important.
“I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.” This is a great verse because it reminds us who is leading us through this crazy thing we call life. The Lord is there to counsel us. Are we seeking His guidance? Are we stopping to ask Him what He thinks of all the plans we are making in our heads? When is the last time you slowed yourself down long enough to run something by God before you did it? Has it been a while? Have you been running into a lot of dead ends lately? Have you noticed that things aren’t bad, but they aren’t great either? Maybe that’s because you are going so fast, you haven’t had time to listen to God's counsel. He really does have some pretty great advice if we slow down and listen to it.
Things just go more smoothly with the counsel of the almighty one. You can tell just from His name that He knows what He is talking about. He has seen your entire life, He knows what turns you will make, and He knows how to help you get to the life you want faster than you could ever do on your own. So, why don’t we listen to His counsel then? We don’t listen because we are too busy. One luxury that Covid afforded us was the gift of slowing down. There was so much bad that came from COVID, and I am not disputing that. However, COVID also allowed us to clear our calendars. To just stay home and be with our family for a little while. The amount of time we were all home with family varies by person, but we all had some time when our schedules were completely clear. No one was going to work or school; grocery stores and other stores weren’t open for a bit. The whole world slowed almost to a stop.
This was not good for many reasons, but the fact that it allowed many people to stop and consciously choose what to add back into their schedules was a benefit. Some people found out they liked the less busy schedule. Some people decided they liked spending more time with their kids. Some families were so busy they went from one activity to the next without any time to even eat a meal together. However, with the forced time to slow down, they were able to spend that time together. People were able to spend more time in quiet with God because they no longer had a long commute to work each day. There was a brief period in time when life slowed down, and we all had the chance to check in with God and ask for His counsel. I am sure not everyone used this time to check in with God, but they had the chance.
When I read the second half of that first line, “even at night my heart instructs me,” I thought of how it was dark at night. I am not sure if this verse is talking about at night, meaning, even when I am asleep, my heart instructs me, or even through the dark parts of my life, my heart instructs me. However, I think, regardless of what the Psalm is saying, both of these are true. God doesn’t guide us sometimes, and then other times leaves us on our own to fend for ourselves. He is always there, guiding us. He is always there in that “still small voice” down deep inside of us. However, we can’t always hear him because we aren’t always listening. If you are going through a difficult time right now and you feel like you could really use some direction, take some time and sit with the Lord. Ask Him for direction, then wait and listen until you receive it. We tend to ask God a lot, but we don’t really ask expecting a reply. God wants to talk with you; He wants to guide you. If you ask Him a question, sit expectantly, and He will answer you.
The last line in this verse is awesome, if we can remember it. It says, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” There is so much anxiety in the world, and I think there wouldn’t be if we could remember this verse. If we kept our eyes on the Lord instead of on the news, our friends' Facebook pages, celebrity tabloids, politics, and all the other things we keep our attention on, we would not be so anxious. It says with the Lord at our right hand, we will not be shaken! The Lord is our shield and our refuge. We do not need to be afraid, and yet we often lose sight of this fact. We take our eyes off the Lord, and we forget He is there for us; we forget He promises to always be there for us.
This is why when I read this verse, I instantly thought, “I wish I kept my eyes always on the Lord.” It is so easy to take our eyes off the Lord. It is so easy to get wrapped up in what we're doing and forget to stop and ask the Lord what He thinks about it. It is easy to turn to the news, our friends, and other things in the world for answers. We expect answers from these things, but for some reason, we don’t expect answers from God. Maybe we think He is too busy to talk to us. Perhaps we feel we aren’t good enough for God to speak to us. Whatever the reason is, we take our eyes off the Lord because we don’t expect Him to talk to us. If you notice you are getting anxious or feeling scared by the things around you, it is time to turn your eyes back to the Lord. It is time to let Him guide your steps. It is time to ask the Lord what you should do and then wait with an expectant faith that He will give you an answer.
In episode #13 of this praise series, I talked about how to have a conversation with God. I talked about how I started journaling with the Lord and how it changed my life. The problem is not that God is not talking to us; the problem is that we are not listening when He does. We are too busy to listen. Think about your week this week. When could you find time to listen to the Lord? Schedule it into your day or your week. I am sure if you started doing this, scheduling in time to sit and listen to the Lord, you will be amazed at what you hear Him say. Give it a try this week and let me know how it goes.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I ask for you to help us listen to you. Please show us where in our schedules we can take the time to sit with you. Put it upon our hearts, Lord, so that we take this ever-important time with you. Lord, we want to keep our eyes on you. We don’t want to be shaken by the things we encounter. We want to know and trust that you have everything under control. Lord, we trust in you! You are amazing, and we are so grateful for all you do for us. We are amazed that you would talk to each of us individually, and we thank you, Lord. We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you back here tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Love is the only one true weapon that heals, converts, and ministers. It is all you need with your friends. It is all you need with your enemies. It is what the world desires, even if it can't identify it. My love will fall upon you, and you will love with my love.”