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Psalm 139 (NRSV)

The Inescapable God

¹O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

²You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.

³You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.

⁵You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.

⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.

⁷Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?

⁸If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

⁹If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, ¹⁰

even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.

¹¹If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,

¹²even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

¹³For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶Your 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.

¹⁷How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you.

Over the years, one of my favorite alternative/pop kind of singers has been a guy named Ben Folds.

Like most of his fans, Ben has gotten a little older, settled down and had kids. A few years ago, he wrote a song about his daughter.

I love the way he began: "You can't fool me, I saw you when you came out."

Such is the love, and the knowledge, that a parent has for his or her child.

But imagine...God knew us even before that very "first" moment.

Psalm 139 is an amazing testament to that truth.

Here's a good way to start this day. Re-read the words of that psalm and let the full gravity of the statements settle upon you.

"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."

I will never forget the day of my youngest son's last ultrasound before his birth. We glimpsed, in grainy black and white, a clear image of his lips, nose and chin.

Although he would not be born for a few more weeks, we already knew how much he looked just like his big brothers.

In that moment, my heart leapt with joy at the life that God was knitting together.

All our days rest in the hands of the one who has already written them. Our Father loves us, and will care for us, come what may.

Prayer: Father God, you have known us before we "were." Even in our end, may we always be with you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.

Tomorrow's Scripture: Luke 14:25-33

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