Daily Meditations

Psalm 139:14 Fearfully and wonderfully made We could be forgiven for wondering if David was looking in the mirror when he wrote these words! Indeed, he was, but not at his own reflection, what he saw was the handiwork of God, everything that was visible was designed and created by the Lord and it made David tremble with fear and wonder. The world spends much of its time looking in mirrors and flattering itself, a mirror can be the biggest aid to our egos or maybe the most damaging. What if we could all stop looking at ourselves and instead see the stamp of our Maker, the mark of His genius, the ultimate reflection of His careful planning and creative energies! What do we see when we look at ourselves, a beautiful reflection or a repugnant image? The true view is neither of these, we are made in God’s image and everyone of us is the product of careful and intricate design, we are exactly as He meant us to be. In truth, none of us is able to fully comprehend the wonder and complexity of ...

Psalm 139:13 God knows everything about us The scene changes and God’s knowledge of us becomes even more bewildering! This verse reminds us that we were not simply the products of a moment of passion or the fulfilled desire of parents to have a family. No, we are part of God’s creation, it was His plan for us to be born and to have a life in this world. Notice that it is our “ innermost beings ” that He has a particular interest in. The Hebrew word here is literally “kidneys” for in ancient thought, these organs (along with the heart) were the centre of our emotions and moral character. Thus, when God searches us (v1, 23), He scrutinises our innermost organs or perhaps more accurately, He examines our deepest motives and consciences.  It is a sobering to realise that it is not just our words and actions that God knows and evaluates, it’s not just our thoughts that He scrutinises, He also has access to our motives and our conscience so that He is able to determine what lies behind t...

Psalm 139:11-12 Darkness cannot hide us It’s not possible to separate these two verses; they continue the theme of the first half of this Psalm as David explores all the possibilities for anyone who is trying to avoid the Lord God! Remember, that we began our journey through Psalm 139 by suggesting that it is an invitation for the Lord to know us intimately, to search us and expose everything about us. There’s not much left, so far we have seen that God is everywhere and in everything, in fact His knowledge of us all far surpasses what it is possible to know about ourselves!  There’s one more possibility, maybe God isn’t so good in the dark, maybe He is unable to see what goes on when the sun sets or when we hide in the shadows. Let’s face it, all humans break His laws and rules, many do it with total indifference, but others seek to cover up their actions and the best time to get away with things is when it is dark. But the Lord is even better than the CCTV cameras that are everyw...

Psalm 139:9-10 His right hand holds me tight David is still pondering the possibility that there might be some way of avoiding the searching eyes of the Lord God. But no, he cannot think of anywhere where this might be possible. In Israel the sun rises in the east, perhaps there was some location on the far eastern horizon where God did not dwell! The sea would of course be the Mediterranean, to get to the far side would mean that David would have to travel west; perhaps there was a place far beyond the western boundaries of the Great Sea where God could not be found? “Actually” says David, “It can’t be done, wherever we go on the earth, God can be found.” Consequently, there is no place where the hand of the Lord cannot guide us, there is nowhere on earth or in heaven that is beyond the reach of His mighty right hand. Some folk might find that intimidating, but for those of us who love Him and worship Him, the thought that God is omnipresent is extremely comforting.  Many children...

Psalm 139:8 God os omnipresent Ancient beliefs about worlds and kingdoms beyond our own were many and various. Every culture had its gods and its belief systems about where those gods lived and how they exerted their power over the earth. The true God had promised Himself exclusively to Israel and the other nations were overseen by lesser gods, all of them identified through sacred places, temples and shrines, through idols and sacred objects. In fact, the idea of there being no God did not sit well with anyone in western cultures until the “so-called” Age of Enlightenment in 16 th  century. What all religion had in common was this idea that the “gods” were greater than humans and that they therefore occupied and controlled worlds beyond the earth.  The one, true God does indeed dwell in a kingdom that far surpasses the constraints of this world, He reigns over the heavens and the earth, over a tangible world and also over the spiritual realms that exists within it, around it ...

Psalm 139:7 The presence of God's Holy Spirit We are all aware of the dramatic arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as recorded in the early chapters of the Book of Acts. This was a new experience for the apostles and other disciples, but one that Jesus had prepared them for. The coming of the Spirit of God, poured out from heaven, brought power, boldness, gifts and a sense of the presence of the Lord that these early believers had not expected, and it turned their lives upside down - or the right way up! As members of the body of Christ we all have access to this same Spirit and are eligible for His empowering, if we are willing to submit to Him. Many students of the Bible fail to notice that the Holy Spirit is spoken of frequently in the Old Testament.  God brought about creation through His Spirit and His Word. He equipped His servants for their appointed tasks by His Spirit. The Spirit of God inspired the prophets and directed their ministries and David himself had ear...