Year 2, Day 278: Psalms 139-140

Psalm 139

Psalm 139 is a really cool psalm.  And I know that I’m not the only person who thinks that it is a cool psalm.  Almost every other line was a quote from one Christian rock song or another.  Clearly many people have been inspired by this psalm.  And oh, what an inspiring psalm it is!

First of all, David begins with a query into the vastness of God.  God knows everything about David.  He knows David’s thoughts.  He’s everywhere that David goes.  He goes before Him and He goes behind David.  He knows everything David does.  He even knows what David is going to speak before David knows what he is going to speak!  What an incredible God.

But, let’s pan that out a second.  God knows that about me, too.  And you, too.  He knows that about everyone.  Stop for a second and really let that thought sink in.  God doesn’t just know everything that happens.  He knows everything that everyone does, everything that everyone thinks, and everything that everyone will say.  That’s mind-numbingly incredible if you ask me.

As if that wasn’t enough, David moves on to talk about the fact that God made David from moment one.  Even when David was in his mother’s womb, God was weaving David together.  God was desperately at work combining cells and neurons and muscle tissue and bones and doing it all in a way that would work out to be David.  This really makes me stop for a moment and think just how precious life is.  We aren’t simply a random collection of cells.  We aren’t a serious of genetic mutations as some scientists would have us believe.  We are knitted together by the very hand of God.  Even in the mother’s womb, God is at work knitting life together.  What a precious thing life is in the hands of God!

The amazing thing here is that an impressive God who knows everything would stoop so low as to knit us together.  Is God not the master of the universe?  How cool is it that this master of the universe has chosen to knit you together.  The master of the universe spent time treasuring your creation.  Now that’s a God worth loving!

Psalm 140

In an interesting twist, David takes us from the greatness of Psalm 139 and brings us to the depravity of humanity in one simple stroke of the pen.  What is it that humanity does with our time?  We plot evil in our hearts.  We stir up one another.  We make our tongues sharp.  We lace our words with venom.  We plan to trip up one another.  We set traps for one another. 

I’ll be honest.  I’m almost sickened right now.  It feels horrible to go from the incredible high of Psalm 139 to the incredible low that is the beginning of Psalm 140.  It such a shame that David can speak truth in having such flowing words of glory about God and also speak truth in having such dark and depraved words when he speaks about humankind.

But there is something cool about reading this psalm.  If humanity is truly degenerate, then it should be clear to whom we must turn!  There is no hope for one corrupt person turning to another corrupt person.  The only hope is for one corrupt person turning to a most righteous God.  This is exactly what we see David doing in this psalm.  He knows the evil that rests in the hearts of human beings so he turns straight to God.  He puts his trust in a salvation that can only come from God!

He is a great God.  He is righteous in His judgment.  In the end, He will vindicate His people.  There is no better place to trust than God.

<><