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
It's all about me. So it appears at first glance with Psalm 139. But that may not be all bad for the person who needs some affirmation about who they are. Why? Because it is not only about the individual, it is about God as well. For the person at the end of hope, here is acknowledgment of relationship. Now that God is there, the journey can proceed with confidence, even in our angst.
The human creature, "fearfully and wonderfully made," cannot be of little worth given what God has done. The nature of God is revealed in a creation where an ecosystem reigns over complete chaos; and humanity is a beloved part of it.
Not all is adrift and left to the whim of circumstance with this God. "O LORD, you have searched me and known me...." In such capable hands the future is secure even when threatened with the greatest of difficulties. "I come to the end—I am still with you."
Prayer
Grant your world vision O God that we might appreciate with joy the wonder of life and preserve it for the peace of the world. Amen.