The Company We Keep

“Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:11)

David knew he had grieved the Holy Spirit. His action with Bathsheba had caused a separation in his fellowship with God. He dreaded this more than anything. He realized his powerlessness without the Spirit working within him. God has no fellowship with sin and had to remove Himself from David’s activities. David pleads for forgiveness and restoration of the fellowship, the friendship, the intimacy with God.

God knows the company we keep. Do we desire to be in fellowship with Him, or the world? Whom we hang out with has a definite effect upon our lives and of those we love. God and sin have no fellowship. A friend of God is the enemy, the counterpart of the world. Why then, do we look so much like the world and why are we so comfortable with that look? We study His Word, worship His holiness, and call on His name to bless and protect us, yet we expect Him to join us while we yet hang out with sin.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord.”
(Psalm 1:1-2)

My interpretation…? Happy (blessed) is the Christian who does not listen to the advice of the ungodly, stand around with blatant sinners, nor sit around with haughty and egotistical folks. The happy and blessed Christian is one who desires intimate fellowship with the Holy Spirit of God! Our walk with the Lord requires some hard decisions in life: Whom do I associate with? What and who do I listen to? Where do I go? Whom am I trying to please? The choice is up to each individual: How close doe we want to be with God? We’re known by the company we keep!