Tag Archives: Psalm 139

Unalterable

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Fifteen years ago, my youngest son told me that he had enlisted in the army. Guessing my reaction, he waited to tell me until it was unalterable. When I realized there was nothing I could do to change it, I moaned that something terrible might happen. I’ll never forget his response, and I remember it every time he’s deployed. “I’m in God’s hands and He’s in control of what happens to me here and everywhere.” Although he didn’t quote Psalm 139, there were definitely echoes of it…“You hem me in behind and before, and lay your hand upon me…if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast…all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” He pulled the “spiritual card” on me, and it worked. How do you argue with that?? But, in 2005, it didn’t lessen the pain of watching him board the army bus and be taken away from me and eventually to the far side of the sea.

He was deployed to Afghanistan again this week. I’ve lost track of all of his deployments, and with every one there’s a place in me that’s uneasy and unsettled until he’s back. Yet, God meets me in that place with tender compassion, and asks me to trust His sovereign care. I can’t imagine the anxiety if I didn’t believe that God is absolutely sovereign and absolutely loving. There is an inexplicable peace that flows over the uneasiness because I know God is God, and He wrote the first day and last day of my son’s stories before they were conceived and carries them every day in between. That is unalterable Truth.

But I’m human. Sometimes it’s hard to trust. Sometimes fear wells up in my throat. Then I just lean into the great compassion and goodness of God and ask Him to help me trust Him more.

Wallowa Mountains. Photo by Pam Teschner

Becoming

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The creation of a living being hidden in secret is as mysterious as it is miraculous. And we go on our way oblivious to the miracle.

Recently, I came across a video capturing the embryonic development of the Alpine Newt from a single cell to a juvenile. Photographer and filmmaker Jan van IJken captured the four week process condensing it down to six minutes of “otherworldly beauty.” Watch it here: The Science of Becoming

The single cell quickly cleaves into two cells, then splits into four, then eight, and soon the exponential growth of cells is untrackable. At one minute into the video, the embryo tucks into itself forming the gut. At the 1:45 mark, the nervous system begins taking shape.

At about 2:20 minutes, something even more amazing and miraculous appears in the growing embryo. Cells migrate, seemingly willy-nilly, across the surface. National Geographic author, Jason Bittel wrote, “Each is taking cues from the genetic blueprints within it as well as signals from surrounding cells to determine what sort of tissue it will become.” Clearly, each of the thousands of individual cells is being directed by the Creative Hand to its assigned place and the fulfillment of its purpose. It looks as though each is moving in rhythm with the Maestro.

By minute four, a beating heart and circulatory system come into mesmerizing focus. Red blood cells are coursing single file through feathery gills and tiny toes.

You and I started exactly the same way – one cell divided into two and life and growth began. Soon millions of cells began dancing to an unheard rhythm. Each directed by the Maestro in a great symphony of movement to its assigned place to fulfill its purpose.

You were programmed with a unique genetic code written by God Himself to make you exactly as He intended you to be. Cells followed His pattern on the pads of your fingers organizing into a one-of-a-kind fingerprint. Mysteriously, somewhere within and between neurons, your personality, gifts and sense of humor were created.

There was divine purpose in the making of you…every part, every cell of you. God intends that we continue becoming more and more like the image of Christ and thus more and more our truest selves.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
Psalm 139:13-18, NLT

Secrets of Psalm 139

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To hear it: Secrets of Psalm 139

 

Lord, You have searched me and you know me.

You till and sift the soil of my soul,

And peer into the innermost secrets of my heart.

You know the raw me, and you still love me.

 

You know when I sit down and when I stand up;

You perceive my thoughts from afar

You know my thoughts before they occur to me;

You’ve known them from antiquity.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

You are intimately familiar with all my ways.

 

You see me rise in the morning and lay my head down at night

Throughout my day, even if I leave your path,

You will never leave mine

For where I am, you are.

You are closer than my skin for I am in You and You in me.

 

Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

Before I utter a sound, you’ve already heard it.

 

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.

You surround every inch of all that’s me.

You go before me with grace and behind me with mercy.

You guide me toward your heart and you redeem my past.

 

Such knowledge is wonderfully incomprehensible!

It’s too lofty for me to attain;

Too massive to wrap my mind around.

 

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens and into the very birthplace of the stars, you are there;

If I make my bed in the utter depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, and settle on the far side of the sea,

Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast

And will never ever let go.

 

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”

If a deep darkness of despair, fear and loneliness swallows my light,

Even that darkness will not be dark to you;

The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you,

And it flees from your holy light.

 

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb –

Weaving soul and spirit, bone and muscle, according to your perfect design for me

You sparked the beating of my heart and I am Your image bearer.

 

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 womb.

Your eyes saw my unformed body when I was a microscopic ball of cells.

 

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

You picked the day of my conception and You picked the day of my death

You are Sovereign over all the days between whether many or few.

 

How priceless are your thoughts toward me God! How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— On the shores of all the Seas and the deserts of all the continents.

 

You sing over me as I sleep;

When I awake, I am still with you and will always be with You

For you purchased me with your blood, and I belong to You.

 

If only You would slay the wicked and destroy evil in the world.

But search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.

See if there is anything in me that offends You and degrades Your sacrifice.

Search out any idol I value more than You and place above You.

Wash away all my inquity, cleanse me from my sin and purge every idol.

 

I surrender all I am – my heart and mind and body to You – I am Yours.

Be Lord of my thoughts, my desires, my life.

Lead me along the everlasting path, and, in your grace,

Give me more faith to trust You and follow You in obedience.