PSALM 139 – THE EVER-PRESENT GOD

 

PSALM 139 – THE EVER-PRESENT GOD

SUNDAY 17^TH JANUARY 2021 - First after Epiphany

The words of this psalm are still felt to be a classical testimony to what theologians intend to convey by such concepts as the omnipresence, omnipotence, and omnificence of God.

When people discuss the actions in the world of the living, we ask if God is all three then why does he allow some things to happen? The psalm is not an abstract philosophical discussion but rather and examination of the poet’s experience of God.

 

1     0 Lord you have searched me out and known me:
you know when I sit or when I stand
you comprehend my thoughts I long before.

2     You discern my path and the places where I rest:
you are acquainted with all my ways.

3     For there is not a word on my tongue:
but you Lord know it altogether.

4     You have encompassed behind and before:
and have laid your hand upon me.

5     Such knowledge is too wonderful for me:
so high that I cannot endure it.

6     Where shall I go from your spirit:
or where shall I flee from your presence?

This is a dialogue with God in that it is addressed to the object of his enquiry. It does not start with a concrete proposition but rather posits a ‘thought experiment’ in which the poet speaks to God in the hope of being able to speak well with him.

13   I will praise you for you are to be feared:
fearful are your acts and wonderful your works.

14   You knew my soul and my bones were not hidden from you:
when I was formed in secret
and woven in the depths of the earth.

15   Your eyes saw my limbs when they were yet imperfect:
and in your book were all my members written;

16   Day by day they were fashioned:
and not one was late in growing.

God knows the poet’s every movement, reads his thoughts before he thinks them, and understands the full meaning of each word he utters. God surrounds like a city wall, and his protecting hand is always near. Such perfect knowledge is quite beyond the poet’s (and our) comprehension.

17   How deep are your thoughts to me O God:
and how great is the sum of them!

18   Were I to count them
they are more in number than the sand:
were I to come to the end I would still be with you.

The poet doesn’t spend time on the vastness of creation but on the wonder of the small, like we find it fascinating to observe the activities of a weaver building a nest, he turns to looking at the wonder of our physical world and delights in the way God creates each part of us as we grow in the womb. Before the poet was born The Lord recorded the number of days given to him. This poetic statement of the comprehensive knowledge of God, incomprehensible, but precious to the poet.

The comprehensive knowledge that God has of us, depicted in this poem is because he loves us and will always be with us.

Thank you Fr Graham Alston for your weekly commentary on the appointed psalm.