Week 49: Psalms 139-141
Questions: Psalms 139-141
- Psalm 139 tells us how well God knows us, not only forming us but knowing every thought and every word we will speak. He knows us better than anyone else can ever know us, even better than we know ourselves, AND He loves us more than we will ever know. How do you feel about that kind of love based on deep knowledge?
- God made us, and as Psalm 139 says, “wonderful are Thy works.” Are we right to be critical of ourselves if it means criticizing God’s wonderful work?
- It can be easy to be anxious both in the present and about the future. Do we need to worry that we will ever be outside of God’s care and presence? Psalm 139:7-12
Devotion
Psalm 139 is often used, accurately, to support a pro-life position, “You wove me in my mother’s womb.” (verse 13). But what does Psalm 139 say about how God knows and loves us as fully formed adults?
He knows our every action, thought, and word, even before we speak. (verses 1-4) He not only formed us, but knows us intimately, better than we know ourselves. Truly such knowledge is too wonderful for us! (verse 6) Psalm 86:15 describes God as “abounding in love.” It is hard to fathom how a God who knows us so well, all our sin and foibles, can love us so deeply. Yet not only does he know us and love us, but he promises to be with us always. Starting in verse 7 (where can I go from Your Spirit…) we are reminded of God’s constant presence. Psalm 139 shows us why our relationship with God is indeed the ‘pearl of great price’ that is worth giving up everything else for. As Jim Elliot so famously said “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” God has promised that he knows us fully, loves us well, and is with us always.
Psalm 140 and 141 are appeals to that loving God to protect and care for the psalmist. Because of his great love for us, we can depend on God to care for us. And as the psalmist prays for that protection, it is no doubt a comfort to him to know that God is not surprised by any of the trials that assault his children because, as it says, “In thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them” (Psalm 139:16). Whatever the writer of Psalm 140 and 141 is experiencing, they, like us, can be comforted by the fact that God knew this was coming, and promised to be with them (as he is with us) in the midst of any and all circumstances.
- Stacy Tessaro