Psalm 139, Odds and Ends

I hope you don’t mind if I get a little personal in this post.  I read this Psalm yesterday and it just provoked so much in my thinking. 

·       139:1-6: “wonderful.”  I cannot comprehend God’s comprehension of me (Barnes Notes).  “Here we have a case which ought to instruct and sober those, who, in their shallow philosophy, demand a religion without mystery.  It would be a religion without God; for ‘who by searching can find out God?’” (James Alexander, in Spurgeon’s Treasury of David). 

I can never know you in completion, Father.  Today, may I know you more, better, deeper.  May I gaze upon Christ so that the transformation process can continue to maturity.

·       139:7: “where can I flee from you?”  There is no such place. 

Father, by your grace and your Spirit, may I rid myself of the “flight mechanism,” the tendency to want to run from issues rather than face them with courage and strength.

·       139:13-16: Even in the womb!  We have been designed by the Creator.  Certainly, some of that design relates to our ancestry.  Some of it related to the health of the womb itself.  But the point is: God knows it all.  The child that is produced is designed by God to bring Him glory. 

Sin has taken Your work, Father, and made me woefully self-centered.  By your grace and Spirit, may I know Your work, especially that of the second birth, and go with it.  May I not be jealous of others; may I not denigrate or overly exalt what You have done.

·       139:17-18: “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!”  God’s thoughts to me!  God speaks to us personally through His word.  How amazing!   

May I know your thoughts for today Lord.  May I not make them up.  May I not take my thoughts and call them “Your thoughts.”  Your will … my will!

·       139:19-22: “enemies.”  My enemies (v22) are God’s enemies (v20).  Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You (v21)? 

Father, on this day, with the decision of the Electoral College, remind me that my enemies are not the Dems or the Pols.  If they are, I have raised the wrong standard.  “We wrestle not against flesh and blood” but against Satan and his minions.  May I raise high the banner of the cross of Christ.

·       139:1,23: “search.”  You have searched me and known me, O God.  Yet, search me and know me, test me, see the wickedness in me and lead me in the way everlasting.    God does know me.  Part of my worship is to invite Him to search and know me.  May there be no resistance.