Friend, allow me to share how Psalm 139 came alive to me today. I noticed that this psalm begins describing our intimate relationship with God in verse 1, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.”
The scripture continues in verses 2-6 to describe the powerful caring intimate relationship that He has with us. What an amazing blessing to know that God knows our heart but also that He knows when we sit and when we rise. He knows our thoughts, discerns our going out and our lying down. He is familiar with all our ways.
Before a word is on our tongue, the LORD knows it completely. That is amazing and no matter how close we are with others in our lives, no one knows our thoughts or what we are going to say before we say it. God knows us intimately!
Psalm 139 continues to show that God protects us by going before us, behind us and He lays His hand upon us. Honestly, knowing this is so wonderful! This psalm reflects the deep personal relationship that we get to have with our Lord.
The psalm goes on to describe in verses 7-12 that there is nowhere that we can go to flee God's presence. The scripture describes multiple places all of which are followed up with the truth… He is there, His hand will guide us, hold us fast, and become our light in the darkness.
Honestly, I think it is amazing for us to see God as all around us, holding us tight, and lighting the darkness that may surround us.
But as if knowing He knows us intimately and protects us tenderly weren’t enough, the scripture continues to describe that He created us uniquely and wonderfully.
Verses 13-15 reveal how He created us in the secret place before our mother even knew we were there. He knit us together in our mother’s womb. God saw our unformed body, and all the days that were ordained for us were written in His book before one of them came to be. That understanding helps me to accept myself as the one fearfully and wonderfully created by God, and it also helps me to wisely spend my days because they are numbered.
Continuing in verses 16-17, the psalm describes God’s thoughts toward us as too numerous to even count. Their vastness would outnumber the grains of sand. Now that is a lot of thoughts that He has toward us individually.
So many times we think of God as far off, but this scripture tells the story of the intimate close personal relationship that God does have with us.
Not only does He
know our thoughts,
protect us,
go with us,
and know our words before we say them.
He also created us and thinks about us too many times to be numbered.
WHAT SHOULD OUR RESPONSE BE TO THIS AMAZING, INTIMATE REALTIONSHIP?
Our RESPONSE can only be to give Him our heart.
The truth is He already knows our heart and our thoughts, but today we get to JOIN Him and invite Him to know and lead us.
An intimate relationship with God starts with giving Him our heart through salvation. Then through surrender we allow him into every area of our heart. We make him Lord of our life. This is when the intimate relationship with the Lord began for me.
The end of Psalm 139 sums up our response to His great love. Because we value the intimate relationship we get to have with Him, we respond:
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139: 23,24 NIV
This is a prayer we can pray that welcomes Him into the most vulnerable places because we know and see that He is good and He is out for our good. Like the psalmist our response is to entrust our heart and life into His hands, and say, “Lead me Lord!”
The grandest blessing in this life is having a close personal relationship with the Lord. This is what I am praying for us all.
The Lord intimately knows, loves, and cares for you!
Love,
Dawn
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