Posted by This is a paraphrase of one of my favourite Psalms – 139. If you need to know your worth, and how much God thinks of you, then this is the Psalm He wants you to hear.
Lord you know everything about me, not just that, but you seek to know me inside and out. You know everything – not just the things I pray to you about, but more than even I know about myself.
You know my actions – my everyday, mundane routines that seem irrelevant to me…you know them, you are familiar with them. You know what I am about to say, think and feel. You know the battles I have inside, and the desires of my heart. Thank-you for being in front of me, behind me, surrounding me – so much so, that sometimes I can feel your hand on my shoulder. A tangible presence, a very real knowledge of you. Thank-you for wanting such an intimate relationship with ME. I can’t grasp it. It is too big, too wonderful for me to comprehend. Thank-you Lord, my brother and friend!
With your hand on my shoulder, I can know that your Spirit is with me always. I can’t run from your presence or hide from it because your presence is around me and through me – it is woven into the very fabric of my being. If I try to run from it, I deny myself, I deny my Creator! You are as high as the Heavens, and deep as the deepest trench in the ocean, bigger than my perception, bigger than my fears, bigger than my dreams. The hand you place on my shoulder will always be there, gently guiding, holding me secure in place. Help me to continually seek you so that I am more aware, and can trust your hand on my shoulder. Then in the times when I may not feel your hand on my shoulder, I can be assured from times gone by that you will be a light guiding me through those dark times. All praise to You for being bigger than anything that can separate me from you.
You created ME. More than that, you designed me, arranged me together in such a perfect, unique way. You created everything about me before I was even born. Before I was autonomous or self sufficient you knew everything about ME. Thank-you for choosing to create ME, and I trust that you knew best when you created ME. All praise goes to you our great God, for I am designed and created in such a wonderful, perfect way with so many systems working together to give me breath and vitality. And to think you did that for ME. You know the unborn child, you knew me before I was born. You knew my life, my plans, my paths, my choices, my influence…all before I took my first breath. You were intimately involved in my being even before my parents knew of the blessing to come. So intimate that your plans for me were written down – sealed – thought of – before I was even a part of that plan. Thank-you that there is no way that I was an accident. How wonderful are your thoughts towards ME! I am astonished that you would think of ME so often, with so much love and intimacy. I cannot imagine it, I cannot even understand that breadth of your love for ME.
Sometimes Lord, I just wish you would bring justice to those who hurt others, there is so much pain and evil in this world. But one thing I am confident of, is you know me, you know my thoughts…you know everyone’s thoughts and you will bring justice one day. So Lord, scan my mind, filter out the unnecessary, the selfish, the evil in my own mind. Know my stress, my anxiety, depression, worries and sadness, and Lord, bring me out of the depths of darkness and lead me where you intended me to be all those years ago when you designed plans for my life. Lead me to a place where I can influence others, bless and love others just the way you love me.
Thank-you my Lord, Creator and Mighty Saviour.
Amen
Here is the full Psalm (bible gateway.com)
Psalm 139
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.
Life by the Word 