Thoughts for the Day

The Inescapable God. To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you.

O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Today we come to an end for the moment of looking at the Book of Psalms, and it's fitting to finish with a psalm that reminds us that God is with us every moment of our life. For some of us this might seem scary, but it shouldn't be, for one of the joys of the psalms is that we see those who wrote them, warts and all, just as God sees them, which is how he sees us. So it is that I have included David's outburst at his "enemies", near the end of the psalm.

The word "know" occurs frequently in Psalm 139. David is content that God has known him from before his birth to the present time, but his contemplation of God leads him to an outburst of anger that God has enemies, who are therefore his enemies, and he cries out to him to kill them. As swift as this thought comes, he is left wondering if this action is sinful, and he finishes by demanding that Yahweh "Search me ...and see if there is any wicked way in me."

What lies behind this psalm is the problem of why good people suffer and bad people often flourish. Why do the wicked get away with their actions, if God knows everything? But God's children are not puppets and they are not immune from pain, and indeed such testing is what builds character as well as Saints! We should remember that at such times God is very close to us - leading, guiding, even carrying us. Our task is to get to know God, to open our hearts to Him, and to offer Him all our unworthy thoughts and outbursts.

Lord God,
search me and know me
that I may be open to Your promptings,
and learn to hear Your call.
May I not be judgemental
but seek to do Your will,
and live in peace.
Where You go I would go
seeking to do Your work,
and drawing closer to You each day.
Amen.