Tag Archive for Psalm 139

Creator

2019-08-16 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

You created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
your works are wonderful.
(Psalm 139:13-14, NIV)

Creator,
Father,
I am Yours—
life, breath, mind, energy,
spirit and body, past and future,
I am entirely Yours.
Conceived by Your love,
knit together by Your infinite wisdom,
born and cradled by Your power,
I am the child of Your very being,
O Lord of all.

You love me.
Father God,
before the mountains could witness it,
You invested yourself in me.
You devoted yourself to my needs.
Driven by love, You held nothing back—
now, then, always.
I don’t understand it, but
everything around me says it is so—
the air, my food and water, every pattern and color,
every conversation with a friend.
Reminders flood my senses from birth through death.

Creator,
Father,
Your glory invites me to come and know You,
and prodded by my needs,
my failures and anxieties,
I look up to You.
I hunger for You.
Father, fulfill in me that unhindered relationship
that Your love has always craved,
that Your wisdom would patiently teach,
that Your power can provide.
Draw my life energies into yourself,
the Source and Goal of all I am.
Enable me to become all I can become,
to grow, to learn, to discover and aspire,
but all in You and unto You.

Creator,
Father,
nurture that trust within me.
Nurture that love.

True wealth is not possessing, but
being possessed by
almighty
all-loving,
all-wise God.

Hymn: God of the Universe

Our Single-minded Father

2015-02-17 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Father, this morning You helped my heart to grasp
what my mind had dimly known:

Everything You have allowed me to go through in my life,
everything I am going through even now,
is to build my relationship with You:
all the years of frustration,
all the loneliness,
all the financial struggles,
all the endless waiting,
all those disappointments.

You have isolated me to Yourself.
You have hemmed me in.
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me (Psalm 139:5, NASB).
By my circumstances and by Your Spirit within me
You have turned me repeatedly, persistently toward You.
You have made Yourself
my only comfort,
my only hope,
my only unchanging Rock of truth,
my only refuge.

Father, the unfailing faithfulness of Your eternal love swamps
my tiny attention span,
my childish self-centeredness,
my meager, stumbling faith.
I am a child learning to walk.
Like any eager parent, You call me,
lift me,
point me,
hold my hands, and
draw me toward Yourself.

Sometimes we wonder whether faith is entirely a gift of Your sovereign choice,
or whether it is our doing.
But You are like one building a campfire.
You work to create a tiny spark,
then patiently blow it into flame by Your mighty but gentle breath.
I have to respond,
but all the doing is Yours, my loving Father.

Continue to patiently, persistently draw me.
And when I am tempted to despair or complain,
help me to remember and look to You again.
You are my Father, and I am
gladly,
proudly,
humbly Your child.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Simply Seeing You
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Enjoying His Presence

2014-03-04 Devotional 2 comments

It was a Thursday evening, with most of a long week behind me. My wife was out for the evening, and I felt the urge to take a long drive, just to relax with a change of scenery. I had planned to drive north or west, toward a store of somewhere with people, but instead I felt led to drive south, into more open country.

On a back road I was stopped by a train, and while waiting, I looked up at the sky. It was so clear. The moon, just past half full, was sparkling and bright. It was one of those beautiful scenes that just makes you smile all over.

And in those moments, I realized God had brought me out there just to sense and enjoy His presence. He just wanted me to know He was there.

I am discovering that God makes a wonderful companion. When I was dating, I had to save up topics to talk about—plan them ahead of time—in order to keep a conversation going. But in God’s presence, you don’t have to talk all the time, and you don’t have to strain to listen for His voice. Listening for God to speak doesn’t necessitate sitting in a dark room, emptying your mind of all thoughts, and contemplating your navel. When you know that He will speak when He’s ready, you can relax.

I don’t imagine God wants us to feel ill-at-ease in His presence. I don’t like it when people feel uncomfortable around me. It usually indicates they don’t know me, don’t like me, or don’t trust me. Like any good Friend, God wants us to feel relaxed in His presence, sharing our words or our silence, whichever our need may be.

The writer of Psalm 73 must have had a similar experience with God. Through most of the Psalm, he complains because the wicked prosper and seem to “get away with murder,” while the righteous scrimp to survive. He was beginning to wonder if living a righteous life was worth it, when he entered the sanctuary. There, after experiencing God’s presence, he understood how swift and certain the destruction of the wicked would be, as they would be cut off completely and forever from the goodness of the Creator. (I suspect that some of our concerns are more effectively answered by realizing the presence of the True and Living God, rather than by mere information or logic.)

The Psalmist then ends his Psalm. Note the warm, personal tone of one who knows he is with God at that very moment:

I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
(Psalm 73:23-28, NIV)

Perhaps what God most wants you to know is that He is right there with you, as a real, living being. Knowing that, and treating Him accordingly, can transform your entire life.

O Lord…you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar…
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord…
you have laid your hand on me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
(Psalm 139:1-6, NIV)