O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them I count them my enemies.
Search me, O 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.
This is my verse of comfort, my verse I go to when I am struggling, or feeling doubtful, or feeling grateful to have felt God's hand in mine as I walk through my day. It's a very powerful verse. A verse that to some might evoke the "free will" debate. The question, "Does God know I'm going to eat a turkey sandwhich for lunch tomorrow?" Don't get hung up there, because we won't ever know that. I think more of what it's saying is that God knows us! He knows our every thoughts, the good, the bad and still accepts and loves us through every situation. No matter where we go in life, in our choices, in our struggles, in our joys, that we are never far from His comfort.
The last couple of weeks I have been feeling very strongly about naming our baby that we just lost. We inadvertently named our second baby one night through our tears last May "Angel Baby." The act of naming our baby, now looking back, drew a distinction between just an everyday hard time (not to lessen those) like losing a job, or getting a pay cut, or having to move, and so on... Between something like that and losing a child. A living being, created by us through God. So, I've been searching for a name for our baby. A name to call him/her in my thoughts, to grieve for when I long for him/her, to look forward to meeting... Nothing was coming to me that suited how I was feeling, how I felt about this loss.
So today, I turned to my passage of comfort. When Bryan got home I shared with him my desire to name our baby, a desire that he said he had been feeling too. It's been several weeks now that I've struggled with the fact that our baby had no name. I had the Bible at the breakfast room table and began reading at dinner to him this Psalm. Halfway through as tears filled my voice when I began reading " For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb..." I glanced back up at the top of the Psalm and saw that the author, inspired by God, of this passage was David. By this point Bryan had come to sit behind me in my chair, holding me, feeling just as heartfelt about what we just read. I pointed to this author's name, and with now joyous tears, declared outloud that this would be the name of our baby. David.
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them I count them my enemies.
Search me, O 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.
This is my verse of comfort, my verse I go to when I am struggling, or feeling doubtful, or feeling grateful to have felt God's hand in mine as I walk through my day. It's a very powerful verse. A verse that to some might evoke the "free will" debate. The question, "Does God know I'm going to eat a turkey sandwhich for lunch tomorrow?" Don't get hung up there, because we won't ever know that. I think more of what it's saying is that God knows us! He knows our every thoughts, the good, the bad and still accepts and loves us through every situation. No matter where we go in life, in our choices, in our struggles, in our joys, that we are never far from His comfort.
The last couple of weeks I have been feeling very strongly about naming our baby that we just lost. We inadvertently named our second baby one night through our tears last May "Angel Baby." The act of naming our baby, now looking back, drew a distinction between just an everyday hard time (not to lessen those) like losing a job, or getting a pay cut, or having to move, and so on... Between something like that and losing a child. A living being, created by us through God. So, I've been searching for a name for our baby. A name to call him/her in my thoughts, to grieve for when I long for him/her, to look forward to meeting... Nothing was coming to me that suited how I was feeling, how I felt about this loss.
So today, I turned to my passage of comfort. When Bryan got home I shared with him my desire to name our baby, a desire that he said he had been feeling too. It's been several weeks now that I've struggled with the fact that our baby had no name. I had the Bible at the breakfast room table and began reading at dinner to him this Psalm. Halfway through as tears filled my voice when I began reading " For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb..." I glanced back up at the top of the Psalm and saw that the author, inspired by God, of this passage was David. By this point Bryan had come to sit behind me in my chair, holding me, feeling just as heartfelt about what we just read. I pointed to this author's name, and with now joyous tears, declared outloud that this would be the name of our baby. David.
1 comment:
This has long been one of my favorite verses too. I'm so glad you found some comfort in it!
Tammy Gibson
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