Psalm 139 (English Standard Version)
1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
God knows everything. God is everywhere. God is in charge of everything. It is hard to imagine how some believers can still read this Psalm and hold so tenaciously to concepts of God that maintain He does not know everything, cannot be in all places at all times and, most of all, is not in sovereign control of absolutely everything, down to the smallest detail.
But the point of this Psalm is not just to point out to us that God is the undisputed champion of all that takes place in the world. It is to cause us to wonder. Verse 17 – “How precious to me are your thoughts O God.” There is not, and there cannot be, anything more comforting to the believer’s heart than this – God is involved in the details of your life and God is on your side.
The combination of the sovereignty of God and love for all His children is the most satisfying and comforting and holiness inspiring concept there is, in the mind of this writer. The sovereign Ruler of all things, who can do whatever He pleases, has been pleased to send His Son into the world to die for you so that you can live. The God who reigns over all things for the praise of His own glory, sees fit to bend an ear to hear your prayers and alter things to answer them.
This is beyond wonder. And the glory of it is lost if we have less than an absolutely reigning God who has principalities and powers bowing before Him. The whole creation cannot stand before this God and He calls us His heirs and our inheritance is eternal, reserved in heaven for us and cannot fade away.
The next time you begin a prayer with the words “Our Father”, stop to consider what a mind numbing privilege it is. Stop to remember that what it took to give you the privilege of calling God Father was the death and resurrection of the Son of God for you. Get a proper view of the unmeasurable greatness of God and then bow down in worship, for it is a veritable wonder that He allows you to worship Him.
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