Intimately Acquainted

I made a decision not long ago – well, about a month ago – without my journal in hand, I can’t give you the exact date – about a month ago, I found myself dumbfounded with awe as I read through Psalm 139. Who knows how many times I’ve read that Psalm. I have read the Book of Psalms over and over through the years. I’ve often used a plan of sorts that I heard Billy Graham share a few years ago. Read 5 Psalms a day: the one that is today’s date and 4 more adding 30 to the original one you read.  So, it goes like this. If today is the 27^th, I’d read the 27^th Psalm, 57^th, 87^th, 117^th and 147^th. Using this system, one would make it through all the psalms in a month. In addition, he recommended reading the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with today’s date, so that would be Proverbs 27. Seeing as there are 31 chapters in Proverbs, you’d get in all of them in a 31-day month. Isn’t that a neat system? I implemented it for years and may come back to it again.

I find that it helps to have a system or plan of some sort when it comes to Bible reading. Just picking up and reading randomly is so … random. That would be like picking up a novel and starting anywhere. It would make no sense. The Bible isn’t chronologically assembled, but the books give context and history and flow. Many of the new testament books are actually letters written to congregations, so they make the most sense read beginning to end. Just a thought for you.

At any rate, I’ve read Psalm 139 a few times to say the least.  I’ve also heard a couple of verses quoted frequently as an argument to the value of life in the womb. I buy into that, but that’s not really what the Psalm is about. The Psalm speaks to God’s detailed awareness of us, how well He knows us and of how is with us all the time. It’s beautiful!

About a month ago, as I was saying, I was deeply moved reading Psalm 139. I could feel the emotion, the intensity, the wonder of it. I was moved to memorize it. I felt I would be well-served to have this in my heart, accessible at all times. I haven’t finished but I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned thus far and though I may make mistakes, the gist of it is there, right there in my heart, in my soul.

Oh Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before and laid Your hand upon my path. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.  It is too high, I cannot attain to it. 

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to the heavens, You are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn or dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will take hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me and the light around be will be dark,” even the darkness is not dark to You and the night is as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to You. 

For You have formed my inward parts and wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in Your book were all written the days ordained for me when there was yet not one of them.

This is as far as my memorization goes. 3 weeks of work. 3 weeks of meditating on this lovely, intimate work. 3 weeks of feeling these truths in the depths of my soul. There is no room for bragging here. No desire to shame in any way. There’s just a woman who wants to grow. And so I am.