JULY 14, 2025

I was born the day before my dad began Seminary, so to say I grew up in a Bible-reading family is an understatement. Someone was always reading the Bible in my home; there were translations and commentaries and sermon notes and devotional journals everywhere.  

There’s no way to know what passage of the Bible I heard first (I was probably a few hours old at the time). But Psalm 139 feels like the first. I can remember sitting in my fuzzy pajamas on our 1970s orange plaid couch, listening to my mom read these verses to me, which helped me memorize them. I cannot remember a time when I didn’t have this theological poem buried in my mind and heart.  

Psalms is a book—five books, actually—of songs and poems written over centuries of Israel’s history, used for worship liturgies. These ancient words lead us to praise, to lament, to remember, to look ahead. Whatever the theme, in the psalms we receive an invitation to stay fully present in our real, complicated lives while also fully stepping into the reality that God is good and sovereign over all.  

Psalm 139 is found in Book Five, a book focused on praising God. This song is attributed to King David and addressed to the Chief Musician. How many singers and worshippers memorized this song before I first recited it in my fuzzy pajamas?  

Take a moment today to read through Psalm 139 slowly and pay attention to what you notice. The rest of this week, we’ll be digging in.  

 

You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.  

 

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
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. 

 

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you. 

 

If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139 

 

Questions for reflection and discussion:  

  • What do you notice in this psalm? What words, phrases, or images stand out to you?  
  • What questions does this psalm raise for you?  
  • What confidence does this psalm provide for you? 
  • How do you use the psalms in your own prayer life? 

 Church Reading Plan: Joshua 20-21; Acts 1