Always before me

“I have set the Lord always before me” (Psalm 16:8)

What do you have in front of you right now?

Most likely you are reading this on a computer, tablet or mobile phone of some kind. As I write this we are in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and it can seem as if we have a computer or device of some description in front of us continually at present. Technology can be very helpful and it has been wonderful to stay connected with others through video calls and the like during this time.

Yet at the same time, having a device before us isn’t always the most helpful. If we thought that we had too much screen time before the pandemic my guess is that hasn’t improved during the recent months! Quite apart from the health of looking at an electronic screen for long periods of time, there are other concerns about having a device in front of you. What do we use our devices to look at? Distraction and entertainment? News feeds continually updated and continually feeding our worries and anxieties? Technology can be useful but it can also drive many unhelpful aspects too.

In Psalm 16, David outlines an attitude that it would be wise for us to follow. “I have set the Lord always before me” writes King David. Whether we have a device or something else in front of us, it is God who we place deliberately before us. It is God who we put before our eyes, our ears, our minds and our hearts.

If the Lord is always before us, he is the first thing we see. Indeed, if the Lord is always before us, he is the lens through which we see everything else, including what comes out of our electronic devices. We read the news through the perspective of our eternal God. We watch entertainment through the eyes of our Lord and Saviour. We set the Lord before us before we set a computer in front of us. That is not only a good and healthy attitude in the midst of a global pandemic, it’s the right and proper response to life in general.