“But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him.” (Psalm 4:3).

To “know” is to see, to perceive and to discern. We must understand (if we don’t already inherently know) that God has a chosen people. They are the Godly in every context; in spirit, thought, action, love, respect and righteousness.

We must know and discern that God has set apart or sanctified those that are His. The children of God, those who believe and have faith in Him, that confess Jesus Christ as their Savior; these He has set apart as His own.

But who are “these” people that God has “set apart” for himself, the sanctified; who are they anyway? Has it been predetermined that only certain people will be selected by God while others will be rejected by Him?

No, the sanctified are those who respond to the gospel call. These are the people that have chosen God and have elected to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and as the way, the truth and the life.

Anyone, “that is godly”, will have their very being as God in terms of thought, attributes and character.

“Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind…Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:2,5-6).

But we are flesh, bone and blood therefore susceptible and prone to every sin and temptation. The physical, fleshy man is constantly battling against the spirit “God” man.

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17).

Man, all men, every human being will succumb to sin. Whether by will or by weakness, even the most righteous shall sin.

This is part and parcel as to why God gave His only Son to the world, to take on the sin of the world and to pay the price for the sins of all those who believe on Him.

Where we fail, Jesus succeeds for us.

“The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself” and “the Lord will hear when I call unto him.”

God, “will”, not might but will hear the godly when we come to him in spirit and in truth.

“The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles” (Psalms 34:15-17).

Know that the Godly are so by choice, by responding to the Holy Ghost moving upon their own spirit. Those that are set apart by God are those that have chosen God as a part of themselves. It is a call and a relationship available to all but only a few will respond to.

Bill Hitchcock

Refining Truth