No Use Pretending
OPENING PRAYER:
Almighty God, how excellent is Your name in all the earth. Your steadfast love is the mainstay of my restless heart.
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
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, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay 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,[a] 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, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, 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. Psalm 139
REFLECT:
‘Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts’ (v 23). Sit with these words, in the presence of God. What might God be saying to you as you reflect on them?
The pressure that we sometimes feel to project an image or pretend to be someone who, deep down, we know ourselves not to be, is relieved by this wonderful psalm. God knows us exactly as we are: our actions (vs 2a,3), our thoughts and desires (v 2b), and every word we speak before we speak it (v 4). We are fully known and loved since conception (v 13), through each day (v 16), and beyond death (v 8b).
Such intimate knowledge of all that we are and do can be worrying. What if God doesn’t like what he sees? Like the psalmist, that thought may make us want to run away (v 7). But there is nowhere to hide (vs 8–12)! God never gives up on us despite knowing us so well (v 10).
It’s impossible to outrun God, so praise him for such reckless, passionate love (v 14). There is no freedom like that which comes from knowing oneself to be fully wanted, loved, and valued by someone who knows you inside-out. Cherish it (v 17). Celebrate it (v 14). Welcome more of it (vs 23,24).
APPLY:
Knowing God’s relentless love is one thing. Passing it on can be another! Do you know someone who would be blessed by the realization that you love them despite what you know? How might you express this?
CLOSING PRAYER:
Ever-present Lord, thank You for Your presence with me. Unlike me, You never sleep on the job.
WORSHIP:
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