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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.

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