The Wisdom of Psalm 139 reveals the character of a God who sees us and knows us intimately, in every circumstance of our lives, and within the eternity of God’s time.

¹O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

²You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. ³You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

The God who knows us to our very depths is the same God who created us.  This God knows our gifts and our limitations, our potential and our temptations.  Nothing about us is hidden from God.

This is a powerful statement that the psalmist is making – nothing about us is hidden from God.  Depending on what’s going on in our lives at the time, this could be the most comforting thought possible or the most intimidating.  God sees us and knows us – completely, always – in the joys of our lives, in the routine of our lives and in the deepest trouble of our lives.

God sees us and knows us – completely, always – when we are walking on the path God has set before us and when we have found another way to go.  God sees us and knows – completely, always – when our lives reflect the love and mercy of God and when our way of living denies God’s love for ourselves or for others.

The 23^rd Psalm is another greatly cherished and well-known psalm of comfort.  It speaks of God’s constant presence with and protection of us.  It lets us know that not matter what we may go through, even the valley of the shadow of death, God will be there with us, helping us through it, Even in the face of enemies, God will be our good shepherd, leading us toward the place of peace, rest and refreshment for our souls.  The 23^rd Psalm comforts us as we face the depths of danger and despair that life can throw at us by assuring that God is always with us.

Psalm 139 also speaks of God’s constant presence with us, but is this presence meant to be comforting?  Where Psalm 23 depicts God as a shepherd who is out there defending us from harm, Psalm 139 deals with the reality that we can often be the greatest cause of our own suffering.  This psalm knows that being seen for who and what we are at all times and in every circumstance may not be our first desire.  Here are 2 verses that were not in our reading for today:

⁷Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

⁸If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

Sometimes, being seen is precisely what we would like to avoid.

I remember as a very young child, maybe 3 or so, thinking I could hide from my parents under the table. Sometimes it was just playing a game, but other times it was not wanting to face them because of something I had done that I thought was wrong.  So, I would get under the dining room table, which always had a pretty cloth on it, and I would move all the way to the middle so that the cloth would block my vision.  All I could see then was legs walking toward the room to find me.  Then I would see the legs move to a chair and sit down.

I thought if I was still enough and quiet enough, the legs would eventually give up and go somewhere else and eventually forget that they had been looking for me in the first place.  Of course, what I didn’t realize was that if I could see the legs, the owner of the legs – my mother or father – could see pretty much most of me sitting under the table.  I was mistaking lack of eye contact for being completely hidden.  My parents could see me the entire time; I had only managed to hide whatever it was I was afraid of from myself.

I can still hear my name being called after some time had passed to let me know that I had been seen, which meant that I had to come out from under the table.  I remember the anxiety of coming out into full vision and having to face the consequences of whatever I had done.  Of course, looking back, I realize that the much deeper fear was that I might have done something so bad that I couldn’t be loved anymore by the people whom I loved the most.

That fear, which I am sure is a pretty normal in childhood, filled me until I was able to come out and look up into my parents’ eyes and see that the love was still there.  I was still their daughter, no matter what.  They had always been able to see me, even when I thought I was hiding, and they didn’t give up or go away, they just waited patiently until I was ready to come back into the light of truth that was first and foremost a light of love.

Today our Church is participating in the Buffalo Grove Pride Parade which was started in 2019 by a 13-year-old girl who wanted to support her friends and classmates who had been given a message that they had to hide their true selves, that they couldn’t be seen and therefore couldn’t be loved and accepted for who they were. She knew they needed to hear a different message – that they were fully seen in the light of love.

This is the kind of light by which every one of us is seen by the God who created us. A God who sees and knows all there is to know about us and who will always wait patiently for us to come out from under the table, or from wherever we have been hiding ourselves, to be seen in the light of God’s truth which is first and foremost a light of love.

⁴Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.

⁵You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

The constant presence of God with us and God’s eternally intimate knowledge of us in Psalm 139 is meant to be comforting at the deepest level.  For in its wisdom, it reveals a God who always sees us in the truth of ourselves and who also always looks upon us with unending love. May God give us the strength to receive this message for ourselves and to share it with all whom we meet.

In the name of our Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. Amen.