Salutation
... in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. Through the prayers of our
holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King: Prayer to the Holy
Ghost
O
Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill
all things, Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and
cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
Lord,
You have searched and known me. You know
my sitting down and my rising up. You
understand my thought from a distance. You
circle my path and my lying down, and are acquainted [with] all my ways: for [there
is] not a word in my tongue, behold, Lord, You know
it altogether. You have beset me behind
and before, and laid Your hand on me.
[Such]
knowledge [is] too wonderful for
me. It is high. I cannot [attain]
it. Where shall I go from Your spirit? Where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You [are] there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, You [are there]. [If]
I take the wings of the morning, [and]
dwell in the depths of the sea; even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your
right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely
the darkness shall cover me;” even the night shall be light about me.
Yes, the darkness hides not from You. The night shines as the day. The darkness and the light [are] both alike [to You]: for You have possessed my reins. You have covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You: for I am fearfully,
wonderfully made. Marvelous [are] Your works. My soul knows right well. My substance was not hid from You, when I was
made in secret, curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, yet being imperfect.
In Your book all [my members] were written, [which]
in continuance were fashioned, when [as
yet there was] none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me,
O God! How great is the sum of them! [If]
I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.
Surely You will slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, you bloody men: for
they speak against You wickedly. Your
enemies take [Your name] in vain. Do I not hate them, Lord, who hate You? Am not I
grieved with those who rise up against You?
I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God. Know my heart. Try me. Know my thoughts. See if [there
is any] wicked way in me. Lead me in
the way everlasting.
________
If you have been
blessed or helped by any of these meditations in Psalms, please repost or share
all of them.
[1]
David begins this Psalm with a personal and practical analysis of God’s omniscience. It is easy for us to speak of a technical
issue like omniscience without understanding or applying it: this Psalm
prevents our doing that. God’s knowledge
is near and far at the same; it is all around; it is in our heads and speech;
it hunts us from the front and from the back all at once; and it unquestionably
touches us.
Now David turns his attention from God to himself; he observes
that God’s omniscience is ubiquitous and inescapable: in life and in death, in
space or in the abyss God is always there.
Then David discovers a wondrous fact; this is the outworking of God’s
great love: there is no place in the Universe where David can be without God’s
leadership and holding: these he notes are from the operation of the Holy
Ghost. God even makes the darkness
bright, which we remember is literally true: for during the plagues on Egypt
the Israelites had light when the Egyptians were overwhelmed by felt darkness;
and during the Exodus the Israelites were led by a pillar of light on their
night marches. That same light of God’s
Glory Presence was resident on the Ark of the Covenant and in the temporary
tent, where David was accustomed to seeing Him and speaking with Him regularly. So, David had intimate personal evidence of
God’s flaming capabilities: he is not merely speaking figuratively.
David returns to his observations of God and notes that God’s
flaming Glory is so powerful that it overwhelms darkness in every form. David probably does not know about mysteries
like black holes; but, he has experienced the darkness of the womb. His growth from conception was not merely a
process of his mother’s body, but also the product of God’s possession,
covering, manufacture, and work.
Moreover, within the mystery of conception, lies a deeper mystery wrought
in the depths of the earth: this is a reference to the fact that Adam was made
from mud; so that there are aspects of David’s conception, which were already
in existence from Adam’s creation. David
sees himself as being already imperfect before he was conceived.
David is overjoyed and overwhelmed by the thoughts God has
stirred inside of him. He begins to
consider their quantity, when he realizes that they are a practical infinity:
he cannot begin to count them.
David comes to realize that he is merely an observer in a
great war between good and evil. The
wars of the Israelites were not about the divinely approved seizure of other
people’s property: they were about God’s attack against Satan and demonism. Ephesians 6 notes that “we wrestle, not against
flesh and blood.” David understands that
this is a war he has been caught up in and he has to choose sides, even as an
observer.
David concludes that he cannot effectively choose sides or
even be an effective observer without God’s intimate probing of his heart (the
brain) and his thoughts. David
understands that of all the thousands he personally killed in battle, not one
of them had anything to do with his skill with bow, sling, spear, or sword: all
of them were the result of God’s direction of David’s thoughts, in the war
against Satan and his minions. The
outcome for David is the cleansing of all evil elements from his own person and
the gift of everlasting life.
In this Psalm David has led us on a very practical discussion
of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience without getting trapped in
technicalities. One thing this teaches
us is that theology is best taught by poetry and hymnology. Prose is inadequate and inappropriate for the
discussion and study of theology. Think
about that as you study your catechism, and ask yourself the question, “Is this
study causing me to sing?” If the answer
to that question is, “No,” perhaps you should consider modifying your study
habits, and include more Psalms in your study diet.
