The Everlasting Way

DEVOTION

PSALMS

THE EVERLASTING WAY

Ps 139

139:1 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.  5 You hem me in — behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

NIV

It might serve us well if we were to take this psalm in smaller sections, but it is a whole idea, one thought, and one expression of our relationship with the Lord. How can we ever forget the Lord searches us from afar? Well, actually he is not that far, as David understood afar, for the Spirit had not yet been given. The Lord is not that far from us, as the Spirit dwells within us. However, even that thought or knowledge is too lofty for us to attain. How can the Spirit dwell in hundreds of thousands believers all at the same time? Far beyond our understanding. Yet the Lord does hem us in, he goes before us and behind us, he is all around us and there is no place we can ever go that he will not be there. Even in the times of our failures, our filling our sinful desires, he is there. If we do nothing in disobedience, living without sinful deeds, which is sort of far-fetched, to think that is possible, our thoughts are enough to be sinful. He knows our thoughts, every word that proceeds from our lips he knows before, even before we speak them. Again way too lofty for us to understand. As we write these words, he already knows what we are going to write, whew! He knows every aspect of our body, for he knit us together in that secret place. He knows everything about us, nothing about us is hidden from him. We would think knowing that would keep us from ever thinking anything sinful, but alas, we are weak and maybe just a tad too self-centered and want what we want and we think what we want to think about what we want. It seems we spend a lot of time thinking about ourselves, even though we know he is there knowing our thoughts. How can that be? Did he wire us that way? It would seem not, as we know he wired us for him. He is the one who formed us and he would not form us for sin, but for him. That is why we should also be asking him to search us, to search our thoughts and see if there is any offensive way in us. We need to ask him to search and know our anxious thoughts. They would be defined as thoughts about what is going to happen in our life. Anxious about our future, will we be alright, we will have enough to get by, to enjoy what we want? Anxious thoughts about how long will we live in this body and how will it be, will we be healthy or sickly? Will we get some dreadful disease or will we be able to remain of sound mind? Anxious thoughts about our loved ones, will they all accept Jesus and get to go to heaven or will some of them reject him and be lost forever? So many thoughts can contain anxiety we could become consumed with being anxious. Know our thoughts, O Lord, comfort us in our hour of need. Keep us in the palm of your hand. We know you have given us your peace, let us remain in your peace and your love. Guide our lives, which is our heart and mind. Guard our lives, our heart and mind so they will be fixed on your thoughts, your ways, and your will.  Lead us in the way everlasting.