THE WORKS OF VAIN THOUGHTS

Psalms 119:113 I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.

The Law of God establishes the standards of good and bad and of right and wrong. In spite of the ever-changing vain opinions of man, in spite of all his attempts to redefine moral concepts, he cannot temper with these standards; they are unchangeable.

The psalmist here states vain thoughts as being whatever is in opposition to the Law of God. The opposite of the fixed and infallible, is the wavery, the unsure and the uncertain. How vain are the thoughts of the man without God. Even man’s best and highest seems to hardly lift from the ground compared to the grandeur of thought and purpose that flies in God’s heavens. And yet, man prides himself in his sense of self-security, thinking that he can be his own insurance against God. Like Nimrod, in his vain attempt to steal the control from God, he builds a high tower of confusion thinking that he can securely climb away from God’s drowning judgments.*

In his attempt to run away from God’s control and to lead his own life, man perverts, and therefore weakens through corruption the very thought foundations of his own mind. The humanist forces at work in the world seek to indoctrinate us with vain thoughts that are contrary to the Law of God.

How many of these vain thoughts surround us? Do we recognize them? Are we even aware that these vain thoughts of pride, glory, conceit, self-ordained purpose, self-trust and self-dependence seek to conquer our minds and hearts away from the spirit of true utter-dependence on the Father? Do we denounce these thoughts to our conscience? Do they even seem right to us?

Oh Lord my God. Open my eyes that I may see, Open my heart that I may feel. Open my spirit that I may discern. Let no vain thought rule over me. Take away every one, and let me know what they are; expose them with the light of the Words of your Law.

Psalms 90:8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

*The Works of Josephus.
Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1; Chapt 4; par 2.
2. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers !