Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Rev. Dr Linda Stargel for writing this devotional.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
PSALM 139
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT
In Psalm 139, David celebrates the objective reality of God’s inescapable presence. He confesses that there is no place outside of God’s knowledge and care. Time and again, he has seen God protect, guide, and deliver him.
In Job 23:8-9, however, Job laments God’s apparent absence, saying:
8 “But if I go to the east, he is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find him.
9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
Job expresses the subjective reality often felt by faithful sufferers who cannot perceive God’s presence even after sincerely seeking him. A deep theological conversation takes place between these two passages. There is tension, but they do not contradict one another. Instead, they invite hearers to hold together these two aspects of biblical faith: the confession that God is always present and the honest lament that God seems painfully hidden. Genuine faith often includes both confident praise and unresolved searching.
PRAYER: Father God, strengthen us today with an assurance of your knowledge and care. May this assurance sustain us when we cannot perceive you, and may you extend mercy and comfort to all who suffer in faith. In Christ’s name. AMEN