A few weeks back I wrote in the post Memorizing by Heart, about challenging myself to memorize Psalm 139.
I had no idea how fantastic this self-challenge would be. The more verses I memorized by heart, the more burned into my soul was the richness and depth of the message of them.
I knew this recently as I stood among the beauty of creation, feeling a lacking in hope in an area of my day. Standing there, beneath the tall trees, hearing the birds chirp and the squirrels chatter, the message of that Psalm started to flow from my lips, as though an ‘on’ switch was pushed automatically.
“You have searched me Lord, and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.”
How comforting those words, which reminded me how intimately the Creator of these tall trees and carefree creatures knows me.
“You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.”
As those words came to my lips I sensed the communication that He is not just with me, but His presence is like a protective, fatherly embrace.
“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.”
Even when I feel that I am surrounded by doubt, by discouragement, by darkness, He is the light that I can see in the shadows.
“Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.”
He has been with me since before Creation, He knows what tomorrow, and every tomorrow after it, holds for me.
” when I awake, I am still with you.”
When the bad dreams, the nightmares of this present day, this season of life that you and I might be going through, and we awake … we will see that He is still with us. He never left our side.
But, before the nightmares end, the words hidden in our hearts can remind us of the promise of His presence … even when our eyes are too consumed by the dark.
itsawonderfilledlife 