God Is With You (Psalm 138-139)
Feel like God is distant? Psalm 139 reminds us He sees you knows you and never leaves you even when you feel alone His presence is already there
Psalm 138-139
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
Do you ever feel like God is a million miles away?
You pray but hear nothing. You do your best to be faithful, but it’s like he doesn’t even care. Sometimes, you wonder if he’s actually real or if you’ve just bought into a cultural lie to cope with your sorry existence. Such are countless Christians’ thoughts, questions, and doubts throughout the centuries.
As if anticipating this struggle, Psalm 139 serves as a wonderful refresher in the total knowledge, presence, and power of God. The psalm is divided into four stanzas of six verses. The first six deal with the omniscience of God, verses 7-12 with his omnipresence, verses 13-18 with his omnipotence, and verses 19-24 containing a supplication.[1]
In verses 1-2, the psalmist David says, 1 “Lord, you have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away.” As Willem VanGemeren writes, “The presence of God is everywhere; hence he perceives all things in all places.”[2]
David adds in verses 7-10, 7 “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 9 If I fly on the wings of the dawn and settle down on the western horizon, 10 even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me.” Thinking on these words, the fourth-century Bishop Hilary of Poitiers wrote,
My mind, intent on the study of truth, took delight in these most pious teachings about God. For it did not consider any other thing worthy of God than that he is so far beyond the power of comprehension that the more the infinite spirit would endeavor to encompass him to any degree, even though it be by an arbitrary assumption, the more the infinity of a measureless eternity would surpass the entire infinity of the nature that pursues it.[3]
In other words, God’s nature is so infinite and beyond human understanding that no matter how much we try to comprehend him, he always exceeds our ability to grasp him. His knowledge of us is so great that he knows us better than we know ourselves.
As David writes in verses 13-14, 13 “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.”
A Meditation to PRAY
Praise | Lord, I praise you for your infinite knowledge and presence. You know me completely—every thought, every action, every desire—and still, you love me. Thank you for creating me fearfully and wonderfully, for knitting me together with care, and for never leaving my side, even when I feel distant from you.
Release | I release the doubts and feelings of isolation that make you seem so far away. I let go of the lie that you are absent in my struggles and confess the times I have run from you instead of to you. Help me surrender the barriers I’ve built that keep me from sensing your presence.
Ask | Open my eyes, Lord, to see your hand at work in my life. Help me to recognize your presence, even in the darkest moments, and remind me that you are near. Teach me to trust your faithful love, and let my heart be filled with the assurance that you know me and are always with me.
Yield | I yield my longing for control and my desire to fully understand you, trusting that your ways are beyond my comprehension. I commit to seeking you daily, walking in faith even when I cannot feel you, and resting in the truth that you pursue me with unfailing love.
A Challenge to Act Like Christ
Psalm 139’s declaration that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" points to Christ as the one through whom all things were created (John 1:3), underscoring our worth in God's design. It also highlights God’s constant presence, which Christ fulfills by promising to be with his followers always (Matthew 28:20).
When we are in Christ, we are fully known, and the greatest craving of our souls is satisfied. Tara Beth Leech writes, “One of the greatest gifts of the Christian life is that God is a God who can be known. God is not a distant unknowable God, but one that reveals his heart, character, mind, and love to his very good creation.”[1] He is personal. The problem is that too often, we run from him rather than to him. We echo Francis Thompson’s Hound of Heaven, where he writes:
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
If this is how you feel sometimes, the good news is that God sees you, and he wants you. His faithful love pursues you, even to the darkest places. He’s with you when your health goes, your relationships suffer, and your hope is gone. So rather than ask God to be with you, thank him that he already is and ask him to open your eyes so you become more aware of his activity.
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[1]The Pulpit Commentary (Psalms-Malachi), eds. H.D.M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell, Accordance electronic ed. (Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 2017), paragraph 16711.
[2]Willem VanGemeren, Psalms, eds. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, vol. 5 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Revised Edition. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 961.
[3] R. J. Deferrari, ed., Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, 86 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1947–), 7–8.
[4] Tara Beth Leech, Live in the Light: Radiating the Hope of the Letters of John—A 6-Week Bible Study (Nashville: Abingdon Press, n.d.), 38.
