Psalm Meditation 626
Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 17, 2012

Psalm 139
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
7 Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If 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.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,"
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I 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.
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.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end —I am still with you.
19 O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
20 those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil!
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
(NRSV)

When I was in high school my mother asked me about my friends; who they were and in what kinds of activities were they involved. Specifically, she asked if any of my friends did drugs of any kind. It felt as if she were prying into every detail of my life. At some point in my life it dawned on me that she was asking all these questions out of her love for me rather than because she was out to get my friends. The change in my attitude brought about a change in my perception of her questions. God wants to know us for the same reasons, out of love for us.

At some points in our lives, it may seem that the constant presence of God is a scary and intrusive thing. We begin to wish that God would leave us alone so that we could have some privacy in our lives. We want to be able to go to God when we want or need something rather than having to deal with the constant presence of God in our lives. When we are out in the world trying new and different ways of being and behaving, it is so intrusive of God to come with us on these experiences. How can we possibly try this new thing when God is standing right there next to us?

At other times, the presence of God is a great source of comfort. As we come to recognize how much God loves us we find great comfort in the knowledge that the presence of God gives us the strength to withstand the countless temptations with which we are surrounded on a daily basis. It is certainly not the case that God does not want us to have fun and try new things in our lives. It is true that the presence of God helps us redefine what is fun and what new things are worth trying and which ones are obviously dangerous to us and the folks around us.

God continually searches us and knows us. The issue for us is to figure out or decide whether God is searching and knowing in order to judge us and find the parts which need to be judged and punished, or whether God is searching and knowing out of love for us. The answer doesn’t really make God’s presence any more or less real in our lives, it does make a difference in our perception of that presence. It helps us determine whether we allow God to lead our lives or we fight tooth and toenail with God in every time and place.

© June 11, 2012