Search Me

The apostle Paul writes to the Church in Rome and in the 8th Chapter of that missive he says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG; WE ARE ACCOUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:35-39 NKJV). God, is with us, no matter what or where, and nothing can separate us from the one who has given His all for us. I thought of this when I read Psalm 139 this week, it was one of my devotional readings. God spoke to my heart when I read this psalm and he has given me this word for today.

King David, a man after God's own heart, a man who loved God and even though he sinned, he still knew God was present with him. He knew he could be forgiven his sin, because he could take his broken and contrite heart before his God and ask forgiveness and it would be given. David begins his love song to God with these words: “139:1-6 O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.”

David speaks of the reality of God knowing all things, that all that David thinks and says and does, God already knows. David realizes that God is always present with him, no matter where he is or what he is doing, God is with him. Not only is God with him, but David goes even further saying that God has protected him that God is his hedge, his armor both in front and in his rear. That also God holds him in His hand. David knows that God knows more about himself, than he, David, does. He says that God has searched him and known him, completely.

I wonder if Paul was thinking about the next part of this psalm when he wrote those words to the Church in Rome. 139:7-12 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.” Nothing, can separate us from God. In the midst of his darkest night, when his son Absalom was trying to kill him and steal the kingdom for himself, God held him in the palm of his hand. I don't know if you have ever read the book “Tortured for Christ” it was written by a man who had been a Pastor in eastern Europe when communism took over. He refused to renounce Christ and was thrown in prison, beaten and tortured repeatedly and yet never gave up on His God. They finally released him and his family came and brought him home. When the Iron Curtain fell he and his family praised God.

I have to admit, the enormity of the knowledge that God knows me intimately is as David said, so far above me I cannot fully comprehend it, I can only bow before the throne of grace and worship my Lord and my God.

David now goes on to state that he has been formed by God verses 13 through 15: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.” David knows that he cannot even take a breathe without the truly wonderful work of God in forming us and giving us lungs to breathe, and they work automatically, because we would be unable to remember to breathe if we had to do the mechanical realities of breathing.