You Can't Program Intent

Psalm 78

My Dad had a saying, "Take a (man) by what he means, not what he says". However, the longest single employment I had was as a software engineer, a programmer. And our saying was, "You can't program intent." If clear precise expectations aren't written down it is very rare that you can get the answer you anticipated. Very often we would hear, "But I was expecting this (answer)." Our reply would be, "But this is what you said how you do it We can't program what you hope for, we can only program what you tell us."

The story has been told of a programmer whose wife's instructions were, "Would you please go to the store and buy a gallon of milk, and if they have eggs, buy a dozen." Later the man programmer walks into the house with twelve gallons of milk. She asks, "Why all the milk?" The programmer answers,"Because they had eggs." She had failed to say, "If they have eggs, then buy a dozen eggs."

One of the greatest concerns in Scripture is the "intents of the heart". "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life " (Proverbs 4:23), "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it " (Jeremiah 17:9), "Out of the heart proceeds... (many evil things) These defile a man.." (Matthew 15:18-20), "(God’s Word) is like a two edged sword… dividing ...even to the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12 ).

Psalm 78 isn't a history lesson recalling what the children of Israel had seen in Egypt and done, but rather a history lesson of their hearts.

And they remembred that God was their strength, and the most high God their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouth, and dissembled with him with their tongue. For their heart was not upright with him: neither were they faithful in his covenant.

Psalms 78:35 - 37 GNV

How important it is to bear this in mind thinking back to how this psalm is opened.

Psalm to give instruction committed to Asaph.

Hear my doctrine, O my people: incline your ears unto the words of my mouth.

Psalms 78:1 GNV

The heading begins "Psalm to give instruction". And word written here as 'doctrine' is the Hebrew word 'torah'. Instruction. Torah. The children of Israel needed instruction with a reminder not of the last nearly four hundred years of descending into doing what was "right in their own eyes as told in the book of Judges, but they needed to go further back to the greater deliverance they had as a nation being miraculously rescued through a series of unheard of events that weakened and destroyed the Egyptian government, people, and lands. It was a time when the Lord God tested them.‬‬

And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee this forty year in the wilderness, for to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandements or no.

Deuteronomy 8:2 GNV

In so many areas of life what is most remembered is the beginnings and the endings. In flight school it was the take offs and landings. In college it's why you went and how it ended. In a speech it's your opening that captures (or doesn't) the attention and your ending, your solution, your call to action. Israel these hundreds of years later are often called to their beginning as a nation. In that beginning was given miracles time and again. They experienced who God is and what He can do. After one of the most notable miracles, the crossing through the Red Sea, God gives them His full intent for them in His Law, His doctrine, His Torah. And then He proved their hearts. Even many years later long after this psalm when the land was taken and the people were relocated so the land could have its Sabbaths because they had failed to honor the Lord in honoring the Sabbaths God's prophet gave once again gave His word, His intent:

For I know the thoughts, that I have thought towards you, saith the Lord, even the thoughts of peace, and not of trouble, to give you an end, and your hope.

Jeremiah 29:11 GNV

And while the end hasn't come for Israel, and hasn't come for us life is full of beginnings and endings. In this psalm we see God's dealing with His people, but doesn't leave them there. Long before Jeremiah's day this psalm of instruction ends with how He dealt with the intents He had found in their hearts and the desired end He had for His people at that time.

[56] Yet they tempted, and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies,

[61] And (He) delivered his power into captivity, and his beauty into the enemies hand.

[65] But the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and as a strong man that after his wine crieth out,

[68] (He) chose the tribe of Judah, and mount Zion which he loved. [69] And he built his Sanctuary as an high palace, like the earth, which he stablished for ever.

[72] So he fed them according to the simplicity of his heart, and guided them by the discretion of his hands.

Psalms 78:56, 61, 65, 68, 69, 72 GNV

Oh to let the Lord search out the intents of our hearts that He may feed us in simplicity, and guide us by the discretion of His hands. His intent is for us is clear and so much more than our intent for Him.