Reconnecting with God
O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your 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. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them — they are more than the sand; I come to the end — I am still with you.
O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me — those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil! Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139
We claim association with God through Christ Jesus. We claim to be His people. We claim to engage in relationship with Him, serve Him, worship Him and praise Him, and it is wonderful that He invites and encourages us to do so, but given the busyness of our lives, how often do we really do that? Today, I invite you to join me pausing from the busyness of life to simply breathe Him in, and to allow His indwelling Holy Spirit to calm our frazzled nerves and to give us His holy rest and peace as we remember who He is.
Please pray, asking God to open your spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear Him as He speaks through His holy word, slowly read Psalm 139, and mediate on His holy word. It is a beautiful prayer reminding us of God’s incomprehensible intimacy (v.1-6) combined with His infinite nature (v.7-12). The psalmist reminds us that God designed each of us, created each of us, planned for each of us and knew each of us before we were born (v.13-18), and then turns to the uncomfortable topic of hatred.
The psalmist prays to God expressing hatred of God’s enemies. As I read the prayer, I am reminded that God’s holy word tells us we are engaged in struggles against “spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Evil forces are opposed to God and the enemy is intent on stealing, killing and destroying (see John 10:10). The psalmist asks God to “kill the wicked” (v.19) and says, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?” (v.21). While the words suggest that the psalmist hates evil people, the psalm does not necessarily say that, and I believe the better interpretation is the psalmist hates evil influences causing people to think and act with evil intent. Jesus says,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. Matthew 5:43-45
We can hate evil and hate evil influences while loving and praying for people suffering under the influence of evil. In fact, if we truly love others, we will definitely pray for their deliverance from evil influences. This view also opens the door for us to realize that we too are influenced by evil, and we too need continued cleansing and deliverance.
Recognizing that we each need continuous cleansing, the prayer concludes with the all-important, but extremely uncomfortable plea: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wickedway in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). As we muck around this dark world filled with evil influences, we are tainted. We each have things in our hearts and lives separating us from God, so I read the words as a plea for God to illuminate the darkness in my heart and expose the things lurking in the shadowy places that separate me from Him. May we each have eyes to see the obstacles within our hearts, may we each hate them, and may God grant us each the courage, strength and power to remove them from our lives forever.
I invite you to take some time to convert Psalm 139 into your personal prayer. Here is mine for today.
Father, your intimacy is beyond comprehension. You know everything about me. You know everything I do. You know my thoughts. You know my words before I speak them. You encompass me. You lay your hands on me, comforting, guiding and empowering me. Your vision, your knowledge, your thoughts are too wonderful for me, so high above me I will never attain anything like them, and I am in reverent awe knowing you are almighty God, the Creator of the universe, and you know me and you are with me.
I consider the universe that you created and recall images captured by the Hubbell telescope of a galaxy 13.4 billion light years away. One light year is beyond my ability to comprehend – I mean, how incomprehensibly far will light travel in a year? But 13.4 billion light years? How far is that? Yet you created that distant galaxy, and all galaxies, and you are there. You are infinite and everywhere.
You planned me, you designed me, and you formed me in my mother’s womb. I praise your holy name. Everything you create is wonderfully made, including me. Your holy word says, “In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:16-17). And so it is. I know you made me for a reason, for many reasons, for your purposes, and I know I have failed you over and over, yet I desire you, I seek you, I need you, and I want to serve you. And you bless me with your holy word revealing you and your weighty thoughts!
Father, I realize that hate is an awful word and that you call us to love – to love you, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us – but I hate evil. Your holy word promises it is your will for everyone who sees Jesus and believes in Him to have your life forever. Please enlighten the eyes of their spirits that they may see, and open their hearts that they may believe, and guard them from evil, protect them, shield them from your enemies, from evil influences, from obstacles separating them from you.
And Father, I know that I too am influenced by evil. Help me to see the things in me and in my life separating me from you, and help me to hate those things enough to remove them from my life, and please grant me your courage and strength and commitment to actually remove them from my life forever. Through Christ Jesus, please cleanse me, purify me, forgive me, fill me with your life abundant, your wholeness. As your holy word says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
Thank you Father. Thank you for your love, your light, your life. Thank you for Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Thank you for all your blessings. I offer myself to you for your purposes. In Jesus’ holy name I pray, Amen.