Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
Verse 2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
Verse 3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Verse 4Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
Verse 5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Verse 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Verse 13For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
Verse 14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
Verse 15My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Verse 16Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
Verse 17How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
Verse 18I try to count them-they are more than the sand; I come to the end-I am still with you.
Devotion
God loves to knit!
Psalm 139 gives us a great vision of God who knits us into a people of praise.
David begins with a parade of “yous” in which God is clearly in control. This could be kind of scary when you think of all the things that God could discover. And we might feel like the old Adam who went into hiding to avoid being found out.
But we can instead be like the new Eve whom God met at a well in Samaria. And when she heard the voice of Jesus speak to her she knew she was in the presence of one who “had searched her and known her.” And the verdict? NOT GUILTY.
So what does she do? She runs back into town cleansed from her sin singing at the top of her voice, “How can I help but praise you? I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Now it’s your turn. Get free from your pity and let God knit you a garment of praise.
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for untying our knots and re-knitting us into your people of praise. Amen.