Psalm 101:6 (NKJV)
⁶ My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me; He who walks in a perfect way, He shall serve me.

The promise of God’s presence is an extremely gracious one. The compassion, love, and long-suffering of God is inherent in such a promise. David once spoke of his amazement at God’s level of care for man.

Psalm 8:3-4 (ESV)
³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, ⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

It was the indescribable power of God that caused David to be amazed that God is so mindful of man. This should amaze us too, but it is one thing to know that God is mindful of us, and something else to know that we have the blessing of His favor. While God is mindful of every living creature (Hebrews 4:13), only a minority of people enjoy His favor.

What does it mean to be in favor with God? It means to be in fellowship with Him. God promises that those in His favor will dwell in Him. Favor with God, however, is not automatic. His promise to us is contingent upon us being faithful to Him. His eyes, that is, His watchful care, is upon the faithful. In this dispensation that begins with one obeying the gospel of Christ.

Do not allow any man to deceive you. It is easy to go with the popular consensus among biblical scholars when it comes to God’s plan of salvation. Most will tell you to just believe and you will be saved, but obeying the gospel involves specific instructions. Read passages like Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Romans 10: and Galatians 3:21). Read them without prejudice or preconceived ideas, and you will see that there are steps that you must take in addition to believing. You must repent of your sins, confess Christ with your mouth, and be baptized into Him. Just read the Bible, and you will find these things to be so. If you comply, like the three thousand souls on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41), you will become a faithful child of God.

Obeying the gospel is the beginning of faithfulness, not the end. According to the promise God made in Psalms 101:6, faithfulness includes walking in a perfect way. The Hebrew word for perfect (tāmîm) is most often translated “without blemish.” It does not mean to be sinless, but to live without unrepentant sin in our lives as we strive to serve God. In the New Testament, John spoke of this in terms of walking in the light (1 John 1:5-7).

Are you living faithfully before God? As long as we live faithfully, having obeyed the gospel and now walking in the light, the eyes of God are upon us. That is God’s promise to us, and God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18). Not too many things can be more comforting than to know that the almighty God, who is not only all powerful, but also possesses the highest degree of love possible, is in our lives every day. That seems to me to be all the motivation we should need to serve God by walking perfectly before Him in all faithfulness. The rewards for doing so are beyond measure.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.