Daily Devotion – January 15, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
139:1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
139:2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
139:3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
139:4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.
139:5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
139:13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
139:14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
139:15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
139:16 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.
139:17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
139:18 I try to count them — they are more than the sand; I come to the end — I am still with you.
The psalmist is convinced God is keeping God’s eye on us, and has been since before we were even made.
That God knows our actions before we do them, our inmost parts and how they work – this seems like too much for anyone to know, and surely more than we can comprehend.
Indeed , it may be a way for the psalmist to profess that this God we worship is beyond all comprehension. What do we want with a God that is beyond all comprehension?
Well, I can think of one sort of time when I want a God big and complete enough to know all things. When I feel I know nothing and can do nothing. Then I want someone who loves me to know everything and trustworthily lead me.
Human beings like to have control over things, to be sure. But we don’t actually have control, and in those moments when the world seems to be spinning out of control, a big big God who loves us is a great comfort. Rest in the palm of God’s hand and be comforted. God is very very big.
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Relieve our fears and calm us with the knowledge that you love us. Then remind us to comfort others in the same way. Amen.
