Happy New Year to you. We have entered the year 2024. Life sometimes takes us on a path that sometimes takes us off the path we were traveling. Sometimes that can be a good thing, but then again, as for me, not so good. Over the last 18 months, I have had many different life change events happen, but never did my faith waver, but I did find myself wanting to slip into self-isolation.
With the help of other Christian ministries, I have been able to work my way out a funk that I was in. Over the last few months, I had a few people who I know bring up the fact that I have not written anything on this blog page. I had thought about writing but I always put on the back burner of life and was convincing myself that if I let this page expire and not renew no one would even notice.
As I was thinking about not renewing this page was when I started getting the question when, not if, I was going to begin posting again. So, I am excited to say I did renew for 2-years, and I plan on continuing this ministry.
During my time of not writing and talking to someone who is very active in a different ministry but had also experience so of the same down feelings due to similar life experience. He told me to read Psalm 139.
Psalm 139 is a wisdom psalm, intensely personal, written by David. It reveals the awe and astonishment he felt towards God, who created the heavens and the earth yet who actually knew him and was intimately involved in the minute details of his life. This beautiful poetic song describes some of the most incomparable attributes of God – his omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, and vengeance. David sees them not as mere theological abstractions but as dynamic realities that deeply impacted his life. Here is a personal testimony by this beloved man of God that surveys four great divine attributes which should influence every believer’s life. The occasion of this psalm is unknown, but its message is unmistakable.
139 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.
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.
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.
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.
19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
20 For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
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.
As mentioned, this psalm has four attributes. Versus 1 – 6 is that God is all-knowing. David is overwhelmed that God knows all about him. Nothing in life is hidden from God. Others may see our actions, but God can see into our heart. In verse 5 when it says you hedged me, it is talking about God if familiar with our circumstances and uses this to help us. So never feel that you are too far gone to seek God’s forgiveness. God knows all our circumstances and is still loving us.
The second section, verses 7 – 12, is that God is all-present, and David is overcome that God is always with him. That he could never escape God’s divine presence. Even when you are in complete darkness, God is there. This darkness David is referring to is not about the night, but when our soul is dark, when we are facing our trials in life.
The third section in verses 13 – 18 is about God being all-powerful. David is in awe that God precisely created him and ordained the number of his days. God created our inmost being, his vital organs: heart, liver, lungs, kidneys as well as our emotions and moral sensitivities. God skillfully knit us as individuals 9 months before we were even born.
And in this final section in verses 19 – 24, about God being all-holy, David appeals to God to destroy his wicked adversaries and to search him for any hurtful way. David said that he hates those who hate God. David will reject those who rises up against God. But David was just as equally hard on himself about sin. He asked God to search and explore his own heart. He wanted God to know his heart so God could make it known to him. David knows that he cannot fully know his own heart because of the self-deceptiveness of sin.
In this psalm, David’s response to God should be how we also respond to God. We should be asking God to show us our own heart. We need to yield our life to God, knowing that God, who already knows us the best also loves us the most. God is with us wherever we go. May you all grow to know God more deeply each day He has given us.