Psalm 139 “The Inescapable God”: vv 1-18 (NRSV)
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you.
19 O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
20 those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil!
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
As I am wont to do, I am taking a little “clergy license” today in selecting this psalm for my reflection (I remember the warning we received in seminary to be neither “stupid or heretical” in our selections of scripture for preaching or reflection. I hope I am being neither. I will ask forgiveness rather than permission about this decision.). Psalm 139 is not part of the daily office lectionary for either this Friday or Saturday. It is, however, listed as a reading in celebration of C.S. Lewis for Sunday, November 22nd. C.S. Lewis had a lot to do with my own spiritual formation, and I will have something to say about him in my sermon this Sunday, when I will again use some clergy license in selecting the gospel reading from John, which is the reading suggested in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2018 for C.S. Lewis. This is in lieu of the reading from Matthew where Jesus on the final day of judgment separates the sheep from the goats (Matt 25:31-46), the traditional teaching on Christ the King Sunday. Again, I will plead for forgiveness if necessary!
Enough said. Let’s get to Psalm 139. And what a beautiful prayer it is. As with most scripture, we don’t know the name of the psalmist, and we don’t know when he or she wrote it. The psalm is timeless in that it speaks for all of us today. It affirms the omnipresence of God, the omniscience of God, that God is the Creator, and that God knows our hearts. It is especially personal because God knows “me,” that is you and me (verse 1). In the wonderful and comforting words of Schmidt (“Die Psalmen, p. 245) it is “prayer in a stillness in which the soul and God are alone.” In the words of Richard Rohr and others, our true selves—the part of us and the place within us where God resides, in the words of others our “souls”—are at rest in the stillness of God’s presence. We can be alone with God. This is very contemplative. You know the expression “comfort food”? I see this psalm as a “comfort prayer.” It warms the heart. It reflects a very personal “from the heart” confidence that God is there with us and for us, present and active in our lives. It is a petition to God, who knows all, for protection from all things evil. It enables us to lift our spirits in the midst of sorrows, to endure through hardships, and to pray with confidence in the love of God when all else fails. It expresses our need for union with God, much as does Psalm 42: “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” And yet, it also reveals what we all so frequently do, that being to flee and hide from God’s presence. Francis Thompson in his poem The Hound of Heaven puts it well: “I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the midst of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter.” Yet God the hound of heaven is persistent, and as Psalm 139 affirms God will find us regardless of where we go: “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.”
Yes it will, but we still have the freedom, day by day, to embrace this offer, or to turn away, resisting that love which we know is there. It is our choice to make. What is it that holds us back, that closes our eyes and hearts to God’s invitation? That is for each of us to prayerfully discern. Perhaps the prayer of this psalm can help.
Before going further, I want to address one part of this psalm which is troublesome. Verses 19-22 seem oddly out of place in this otherwise beautiful prayer, and liturgical use of this psalm often omits these verses. They introduce another party besides the psalmist and God, that being “the wicked,” not found elsewhere in the psalm. They also interrupt the close connection between verses 18 and 23, and express sentiments at odds with the general tone of the rest of the psalm. For these reasons some have concluded that verses 19-22 are not an integral part of the psalm, perhaps added by another author. Others disagree, and see these verses as the psalmist’s expression of outrage at those opposed to God. The request for revenge can be interpreted as a request for righteousness, for God to set things right in the world, that God’s “will be done.” Similarly, the hatred in verses 21-22 can be seen not as a personal hatred of others but rather the psalmist’s way of saying that he or she opposes those who oppose God.
In the midst of the many societal struggles of today, and the times when it is difficult to see God’s loving action in the world, I find this psalm comforting. We are in need of joy, and there is joy to be found here, found in the knowledge that God is indeed in our midst, always and in all things. The psalmist reaches that understanding as well, and in the end in verses 23 and 24 expresses the willingness to surrender to that knowledge, in trust and faith: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.”
From what I know about C.S. Lewis, about the struggles he had in his own spiritual formation, his personal discernment in his progression from an atheist to one of our greatest Christian theologians, I see psalm 139 as an appropriate selection for the celebration of his life. I pray this psalm in thanksgiving for him, and also in thanksgiving for God’s presence and action in my own life and in the world.
Rev. Bob Donnell
Collect (Clive Staples Lewis, 1963, Rite Two)
O God of searing truth and surpassing beauty, we give you thanks for Clive Staples Lewis, whose sanctified imagination lights fires of faith in young and old alike. Surprise us also with your joy and draw us into that new and abundant life which is ours in Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
