Faith Forum ~ He Knows and Loves Me SO WELL….By Gloria Wessner

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Today's Faith Forum was written by King David (the same one of 'David and Goliath' fame). Here he has an open dialog with God, and we learn a great deal of how to be open with God while at the same time realizing how well he actually knows us already. After you read this psalm, it's great to know that we are so loved!
It is very tempting to break this passage up and discuss it as it goes; but it says so much in a single read that I would encourage you to do that. At the end I will give you more thoughts on it.

"1) God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful
I can't take it all in!
2) Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you're there!
If I go underground, you're there!
If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon,
You'd find me in a minute
you're already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I'm immersed in the light!"
It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
3) Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration what a creation!
You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.
4) Your thoughts how rare, how beautiful!
God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers out of here!
all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations
See how I hate those who hate you, God, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!
5) Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about;
See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong then guide me on the road to eternal life." Psalm 139 (From The Message, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.)

We're an 'open book' to God because as this first part of the psalm says, he created us. If I make a pottery piece or fashion a work of art, I know my work, inside and out, because I created it. This is the way it is between me and God, because he formed and fashioned me.

The second part talks about how God is literally everywhere, never leaving me alone anywhere - even in the dark. It's the same as light to him; and therefore very safe for me.

My favorite part of this psalm, though I love all of it, is the third part because of its exceptional intimate picture of how God created me, and every single one of us as an individual. The scripture here makes no secret about when life starts for each individual - at conception. It talks in detail of when a person is in the womb and how God is there with them, overseeing and watching each stage of development. God has each day of our life set and equipped, and he knows how we're going to live it - even before we actually do!

When I get up in the morning, my prayer should be that I'll live that day with God, whatever he brings my way that day. I believe that David was so enthralled and in love with God, and excited about living with God each day; that he was expressing his feelings about those who didn't love God like he did. Instead, those people (as they do today) chose to do evil and belittle the God he adores and substitute cheap 'god-imitations' (anything that takes the place of God), instead of living with and for the real deal - God Himself.

In the last part of the psalm, David seems to be inviting God to 'check him out'  to see how pure he is so that he is as free as he can be from wrongdoings so that nothing hinders him from following God down that path to eternal life.

Perhaps you find your own heart longing to know God as intimately as David does. Nothing needs to keep you from this relationship except your own willingness to let him in. He's “already there waiting” as our psalm says. Feel free to write me at gloriawes@hotmail.com, and I'll be glad to discuss with you how you, too, can have this intimate relationship with God.