Skip to main content

You Have Searched Me, Lord

             You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 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, Lord, know it completely. (Psalm 139:1-4)

 

            I’ve written about this Psalm before, as one of the few places in Scripture in which I clearly see God as interacting with and interested in me. Most of the time, I’m only included as just another of many, if I’m included at all. I readily admit, that’s arrogance on my part. I want to be treated as important and “special.”  But in this passage, I see God pausing in doing His God-thing to listen to my thoughts. I know He doesn’t actually pause in doing His God-thing because it’s part of His God-thing to listen to my thoughts while He’s also doing whatever He's doing, but the point is that He can and does listen to my thoughts. (And yours, but that’s not quite as amazing to me.)

            As we approach 2024, this passage is one on which we would do well to meditate. God knows us. He knows us better than we know ourselves because He’s not deceived by the lies we tell ourselves. Every response on His part: searching, knowing, perceiving, and discerning is welcoming.

            Among other things, this means that when we go to Him saying, “What am I supposed to do in ’24?” He’ll listen as we jabber on in our excitement or anxiety, but more often than not, He won’t tell us because that would just make life more difficult for us.

            My parents didn’t like to tell me their plans because I’d push to act on them. When I was in college, I generally got the books for the next semester half way through “this” semester. I was no longer interested in studying for the classes I had. I wanted to study for the class I hadn’t started yet. My other response to knowledge about a future event or process is, “No, no, no, no, no…” God knows this, too. The only way I’ll walk with Him is if He doesn’t give me a lot of information about the journey. This is also in today’s passage. While He searches, knows, perceives, and discerns, it doesn’t mention His saying anything. Most of the time, I suspect we wouldn’t listen unless it was something we wanted to hear. But He listens. He knows. He waits.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more