Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
Verse 2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
Verse 3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Verse 4Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
Verse 5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Verse 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Verse 13For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
Verse 14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
Verse 15My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Verse 16Your 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.
Verse 17How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
Verse 18I try to count them-they are more than the sand; I come to the end-I am still with you.
Devotion
The psalmist writes: “O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up.” (Ps. 139:1-2) Is that a word of comfort or a threat?
Today, when we go shopping, security cameras everywhere are watching us. Get stopped speeding? A police dashboard camera is watching. Do we sometimes feel that God is watching us like a security camera, too? In these days of ever-present surveillance, we need more than a “gotcha god,” don’t we? The psalmist describes an intimate God who knows us better than we know ourselves. A God who loves us so deeply, with whom we can struggle, argue, confess our darkest secrets, and be forgiven and be renewed.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, in these dark days of winter and pandemic we are struggling and in despair. We need you. Come into our hearts Lord Jesus. Come in today. Come in to stay. Amen.