Psalm 139 – God has a will and purpose for our life

Psalm 139 is a wonderful Psalm written by David who set out to show how powerful God has been and always will be. However, He is not only all powerful, but He is also all knowing. This Psalm 139 led us to know God through knowing about ourselves. David didn’t even study biology, anatomy, physiology or philosophy and etc., yet his knowledge demonstrated in this Psalm baffles us. They are not only profound but also very accurate. In this Psalm, we learn more about Theology through “Me-ology”

David began by telling us that God knows everything about us. God knows when we sit down and when we rise up. This is a way of saying He knows our character. Furthermore He knows our thoughts from afar i.e. our contemplation. He also knows our conduct because he closely scrutinize our path and are acquainted with all our ways. Besides, He also knows our conversation, long before the word is formed in our mouth, He knows everything we will be saying. God knows our character, our contemplation, our conduct and our conversation.

Not only does God know everything about us, He is with us everywhere that we may be. That’s what David was saying in verses 5-12. There is nowhere we can go to that God is not there. It is so wonderful to know that God will not forsake us and will never leave us alone. His eyes are ever upon us. David tells us that there is nowhere that God’s presence won’t be there. He tells us death cannot keep God away from us. In His words, David said, even if he should be in Sheol, the place of the departed spirits, God would also be there. Next he tells us that distance cannot keep God away from us. There is not a remote place in this whole earth that we can flee to that God could not possibly reach us. Then he also tells us that darkness cannot keep God away from us. To God light and darkness are the same. He can see through light and he can also see through darkness.

In verses 13-16, David tells us that we are wonderfully created by God. He formed every part of our intricate anatomy. We cannot even explain the physiology of our body but we know that God had every organ so perfectly wired up. Every organ just works in perfect symmetry and co-ordination. He saw all the raw substances and chemicals that He had used to form and compose our body. In fact in verse 16, David also tells us that God has a plan for each of us. He even knows the duration we should have on earth, even before He made us.

Besides making us, God thinks about us all the time. How do we know?  Verses 17-18 tell us so. We are forever in God’s mind. David tells us that He thinks about us more times than the millions and trillions grain of sands on the seashore. David is saying that God thinks about us more times than we can count. How wonderful to know that God thinks about us so many times each day. Doesn’t this thought keep us humble and keep us walking right? Hence David would chose his side with God. He refused to have anything to do with evil men or their evil deeds. He would rather live to please God. What about us? Would we take our side with God and walk with Him?

Living in the world where many things are constantly vying for our attention, we may be distracted and led astray. Verses 23-24 is a timely reminder and a call for us to take time to check our direction and journey in life. We need to take time to realign and adjust our life and be sure that we are in conformity with our Lord. We need to connect with Him perpetually. God has created us for Himself. The Westminster shorter catechism say, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”   We can never be fully satisfied in life outside of God. Remember, He has created us for Himself, and our heart will forever be restless until we find our rest in Him!