Skip to main content

El Roi



You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

You are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

You know it completely, O LORD. (Psalm 139:2-4) 

     

     One of the reasons I love this psalm so much is because it somehow seems more personal than most of the rest of Scripture. It seems to me that often, Scripture is God's Word to us. We're just the big herd of sheep, and this ewe is just one of millions, unknown otherwise. We matter. I don't.  This psalm not only doesn't suggest that idea; it rejects the idea forcefully.  
      One day as I meditated on this passage, an image came to mind of God sitting on His throne, going about His business, doing whatever it is God does on His throne (Have you ever considered what God does on His throne?) when suddenly, He raises a finger and says, "Wait! Karen is thinking a thought. I want to hear it." Of course, God being God, being omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, doesn't have to stop to hear what I'm thinking. He is capable of perceiving everyone's thoughts from afar all at once. I am certainly not the center of His universe. But it says, "You perceive my thoughts from afar." He hears them, individually, not merely as part of a cacophony of voices.
       It says that God knows when I sit and when I stand, when you sit and when you stand. He discerns our comings and goings. He is familiar with all our way. He knows that I usually get up around 6 and walk and pray. He knows lunch is at 11 and dinner at 4. Before I say anything, He knows what I'm going to say, and He listens anyway! (Those of us who have been told the same story - whatever our version of "When I was your age, I walked 7 miles to school through 5 feet of snow, uphill both ways" is - can understand how gracious this is.)

        This God who knows, this is Hagar's El Roi, the "God who sees." Hagar was a poor slave girl of a rich master in a foreign land, forced to act as surrogate mother for Sarai. Whether she got haughty, or Sarai just perceived her as being haughty, Hagar fled to escape the abuse (Genesis 16). She met God, and this was her impression of Him. He was the God who saw her. He is the God who sees you, too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more