Even There

 

Psalm 139

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,' even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

There is a laminated copy of Psalm 139 hanging in my shower. It's been there for about a year as I was meditating on this passage in preparation for our women's retreat at church last October. The two words that I've repeated to myself many times over the past months are ... even there.

In this Psalm, we see David remind his own heart that he is fully seen and known by God. David acknowledges he can't go higher than God, lower than God, further east or west than God - even there. 

By declaring this truth, David preaches to his soul that he can't get away from God's omniscience (the fact that God is all knowing), omnipresence (the fact that God is everywhere), and omnipotence (the fact that God is all powerful). And we do need to remind our souls of this from time to time - or all the time perhaps. 

When we think that we can hide something from God ... even there.

When we feel invisible and forgotten by God ... even there.

When we forget God in our comfort and ease ... even there.

When we don't know what God is up to ... even there.

When we experience deep feelings of sorrow or doubt ... even there.

You can create your own sentence with a joy or burden that is on your heart and the answer will still be even there. 

Let this truth settle deep into your soul - He is with you even there.

Corrie ten Boom said it well when she said, 

"There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still."