Is there a more reassuring passage in the Word of God than Psalm 139? Funny that I would be reading this while traveling so far away from home. I love traveling but not so much when it separates me from my wife and children. Being away without them makes me feel that part of me is missing. But some people travel without going anywhere.
Some people allowing situations, difficulties, trials and hardships to separate them from people. It may not be a separation of distance but it becomes a separation nonetheless. What foolish people we are not to take God at his word. If God said it our only response should be to believe it and if we don't we should never claim to have faith because we are a liar. Paul stated that nothing can separate us from Jesus' love and this Psalm demonstrates why.
First of all, God knows you intimately:
O Lord, you have searched me 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 know it completely, O Lord (Psalm 139:1-4)
That is intimacy. No one else knows us like our God and this is a good thing because he understands everything about us. He understands our loneliness, emptiness, lostness, our ups, downs, ins and outs. He understands our mood swings, our reactions, our plotting and our sin. He knows without excusing and he forgives with our asking. You are not far from him, not for a moment. Do not think your sin hides you because he sees right through it. We can't run anywhere witbout him already being there. Just ask Elijah or Jonah.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens , you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast. (Psalm 139:7-10)
Don't think your moods, emotions or even the dark pity of depression can keep you from him. He is always there to rescue you even with the slight whisper of a desperate prayer. No form of any darkness, emotions, drugs or sin can hide you from his love.
If I say "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:11-12)
So here I sit in a motel room hundreds of kilometers from my family but I am far from alone; I am never alone. There you sit, separated from people, lost in the darkness, cut off my your emotions, actions, sin. But you are not alone either. Jesus sees you. He knows you intimately. Even though you may feel hidden from him he sees you by his love for you. He's just waiting for you to say the word and he will whisk you away to make you whole again. Go on, just say it, even just a whisper and he will show you just how close he is.
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