Have you ever heard some version of this question? “There are six billion people in the world. You really think God cares about me?” People wonder if God sees their struggles and cares about their suffering. Does he offer help or guidance? They also wonder if he sees their sin. Does he care when they do something wrong? Our Psalm for the week assures them that he does.
When scholars write books on systematic theology, they will have chapters on the nature of God. In them, God is often described as omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (all-present), and omnipotent (all-powerful). Psalm 139 allows us to reflect on these attributes in a highly personal way. This is no abstract, academic treatment of God. The Psalmist prays with assurance, as someone who knows God and how he relates to humanity. Yet, this confidence is dipped in wonder at the awesome power of God and the intimacy of our relationship with him.
There is hope and promise to be found in Psalm 139. As the fifth one in our Psalms Playlist, allow Psalm 139 to provide the soundtrack to your week.
Day 1
Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
When you think about the reality that God is all-knowing, all powerful, and always present, how do you feel? Does his omnipresence and omniscience comfort you? Relieve you? Concern you? Make you feel safe? Guilty? Why?
Reflect
In Psalm 139, David marvels at God’s attention to him. In one of his commentaries, John Goldingay says of this Psalm, “God’s capacity to know all about us and reach us wherever we are can be good news or bad news. Indeed, much of the psalm can be read either way. It’s almost as if the psalm is systematically ambiguous, careful to state the facts about God’s having access to us and leaving it neutral whether this access is good news or bad news. It’s almost as if the psalm is daring us to decide.” [1]
This week, let’s decide. Why should God’s presence, focus, and intervention in our lives “good news”? Why do we sometimes want to hide ourselves from his gaze? How should Psalm 139 inspire us to think about God and our relationship to him?
[1] John Goldingay, Psalms for Everyone, Part 2: Psalms 73–150, Old Testament for Everyone (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2014), 201.
Respond
Psalm 139 ends with a plea that we should regularly ask God, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (verses 23–24). Take some time to be still before the Lord and invite the Spirit to examine your heart and convict you of sin. Seek his forgiveness and ask him to teach you a better way.
