Here stands my little fan club
I have an entourage.
Crowds follow me from place to place. People scream with excitement when they see me, and cry when I leave. I walk out onto my porch, and someone grabs my shirt from behind.
“Mom where are you going??? Can I go too?” they say.
A trip to the mailbox, to the pantry, to my pajama drawer, and to the bathroom are all causes for a glorious uprising from the masses and the scurrying of small feet chasing me down the hallway. They haunt me in the midnight hours, crawling up the foot of my bed, whispering their wish for a drink of water, and then sliding their warm little bodies into the comfort of my pillow.
Their eyes dance as the front door creaks open and they peer around the corner, dusty faces smiling at the sight of me.
“Mommy, can you come outside and play with me? Come see me hit this ball! Watch me do a flip on the trampoline! Look at the flowers I picked for you!”
I’m so loved by these little people that never leave me alone.
Sometimes I feel stifled by their attention, but always, always, I’m reminded of how blessed I am, and how amazing it is to be showered in loving hugs and sweet kisses.
Psalm 139 springs to mind as I breathe in the constant proximity of my clingy children.
Read it one way, and you’ll feel smothered by the ever-present sovereignty of God.
Read it another, and you will be overwhelmed by the faithfulness of a God who understands every single intricacy of our lives, created us uniquely, and adores the flawed creation that we so often are.
So today, let’s read this Psalm together piece by piece, and meditate on the beautiful, all encompassing presence of God in our lives.
Psalm 139
1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
The intensity and depth of the Lord’s knowledge of me is on display in this first section. Words that leap off the page at first glance are, “searched, know, understand, comprehend, acquainted”.
A veritable dictionary of descriptive language depicting the careful and thoughtful way the Lord knows me. Do you feel the Lord’s loving gaze in your life? Can you bask in the knowledge that God knows you like no one else? Do you revel in the incomprehensible idea that the Lord Himself understands your tendencies, your rebellions, the thoughts of your heart and the burdens you carry? Meditate for a moment on the ways the Lord knows you and list a few.
5 You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
Now that our hearts have begun to unravel over all the ways the Lord knows us, breathe in the relief that we will never, ever understand the incomprehensible ways the Lord is always present. This knowledge is “too high”, it’s too far above our humble human brain matter to delve out the mystery of the Eternal One. It’s okay for us to live in the moment and not the future; to realize that the paths where God hedges us and hems us in are manifestations of his good thoughts for us. (Jeremiah 29:11) It’s mystifying, in the sweetest way possible. This knowledge simply invokes awe over how great God is!
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
Have you ever reached a place that you thought was too far for the Lord to reach you?
Perhaps it was by choice, with the rebellion of a thousand prodigal sons on your lips. Perhaps you were dragged kicking and screaming into the darkness, ravaged, and then left to lie there on the floor, devastated by the idea that you were too far down for God to still see and care for you.
I’ve got good news for you today my dear friends.
God is everywhere. Even when you’re trapped in a cesspool of sin, He’s there. If you’re overwhelmed by terror from this pandemic, God is right beside you. He doesn’t need light to grope His way about in the darkness where you feel so trapped……no, no, no.
God IS light.(1 John 1:5) Darkness is exactly the same as light to our majestic Savior, and no matter how far down you are, He’s still calling your name. He’s yearning for you to turn and be embraced by the light and love of His glorious redemption through Christ Jesus.
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
Have you ever considered the intricacy of pregnancy? In this day and age we peek into the complexity of it through sonograms, pre-birth surgeries, and incredible videos of babies developing right in the womb.
Yet for all our knowledge, we will still never replicate the precise detail God imbues into each beautiful, new, innocent, precious life.
“But what about babies born with deficiencies or with pain,” you cry. “How was God working out good in THAT?” Sin has despoiled the good that God first planted in this world and the hardship that they endure is under the same sin-curse that dogs all of our steps.
But can God work for good, even in those situations?
Can God still say, “Yes, my dear, precious child, you were created as a masterpiece for my glory and for good works prepared for you long ago”?(Ephesians 2:10 NLT)
Yes, oh emphatically YES!!!
Consider with me if you will, 1 Corinthians 1:27, “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty”. There is a special beauty alive in the people that are uniquely different. Whereas the world might deem them “foolish” or “weak” God calls them a masterpiece of original design.
Yet, the precious, precious thoughts of God toward ALL His children are so numerous that if every thought was a grain of sand, all the beaches and oceans of the world still would not measure the number of His thoughts.
And these Everest-high sand piles are just the thoughts He thinks towards me! Imagine GALAXIES of sand mountains, light years deep, and we still haven’t counted the vast number of His precious thoughts! He cares for us. He cares for you. Trust in His loving care.
19Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
20For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
21Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
22I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Have you ever felt the sting of hurt when someone speaks ill of the one you love?
I have. I can still remember the emotional response I had at age 11 when someone unkindly jabbed at my dear mother. There’s still a tinge of anger that rises up in my heart twenty years later, over the young girl’s hurtful words. But I was defensive because I love my mom. I’m sure you would feel the same way if someone attacked your loved ones.
Here in this Psalm, we see David rising up to defend the Name of the Lord in the same manner. His enemies take God’s name in vain. They spill derogatory remarks and defame the Holy Lord and David takes offense at their cutting words. Their evil statements prompt him to say, “I hate them, I loathe them, they are my enemies because they are the enemies of my Lord”.
Can you sit quietly when someone around you begins to curse Jesus or do you feel the urge to rise up and say, “Jesus is my savior and He’s not like what you say, for I KNOW Him, and He KNOWS me. He’s my faithful friend, my Redeemer, and the love of my heart.”
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
In closing, after knowing the depth and knowledge of God towards himself, David invites the Lord to do what He already does…search him and know him.
The same open invitation, the release of our will towards One who knows and cares so deeply should be our awestruck response too.
This is a prayer for the Lord to freely make His home in our hearts, to do what He wishes with our lives, and to lead us in the path that brings us closer to Jesus and to eternity.
If I could sum these last verses up in one word, I would use the word, “SURRENDER”.
Let’s surrender to the High King of heaven who is piling up universes filled with precious thoughts toward us, and who loves us, loves us, LOVES US.
As you consider all this, please take a moment to scroll back to the top, and recite Psalm 139 out loud to the Lord.
He’s incredible. Simply and perfectly incredible.
This is MY GOD.
If you have an extra few minutes, listen to Shane and Shane and The Worship Initiative sing “SOVEREIGN OVER US”.
