Psalm 139 (God our biographer)

I am an open book to God

The man in this psalm has experienced the scrutiny of God. God knows everything about him, down to the most trivial of details.

He knows when the man sits down to dinner and when he gets up to go to work.

Even when the man isn’t thinking about God, God is thinking about him and knows what he is thinking about.

Before the man comes out with an original statement on a new subject, God has anticipated it and knows it.

When he walks forward, he discovers that God is already ahead of him. When he goes backward, God is there, too. God has not only an infinite knowledge of him, but an intimate knowledge. Yes, God is my biographer, knowing every little bit about me, even more than I know myself.

The central item in this religious life isn’t my knowledge of God but his knowledge of me. Not my faltering search for God but his search for me. God’s aggressive search for us and his exhaustive knowledge of us have resulted in an existence in which there is no place where we can go where God is absent.

Whatever we do, we cannot erase God in our lives. We can deny him, we can curse him, we can ignore him, and he is still intimately acquainted with all our ways, still holding us in his love, still faithfully extending his mercy to us, and still offering us his grace.

Some thoughts to reflect on:

When a person has lost all physical strength and ability to communicate, it may be said: “Why is God prolonging his/her life as the quality of life is just isn’t what it used to be?” Take note: such attitudes reflect a view of the value of life based on people’s abilities rather than God’s ability. Assigning value to human life based on mental or physical capacity can lead to the foreboding conclusion that maybe there is life, not worthy of life.

Not so! A life is worthy of life, because God made it so. He created us with his hands. We have handmade value. God redeemed life with his outstretched hands. We have been bought with a price! God’s power is at work in those he calls his own. We are children of God and instruments of his power. Thank God for the gift of life. Thank God for the value he gives to every life.

My response is LHS 377: Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee. Let us sing it together.

About the Author

Jill Schefe

Jill is a Wimmera-ite growing up on a sheep and wheat farm. As a Lutheran deacon, Jill has been richly blessed supporting pastor husband Clarrie, mother to three adult children and six grandchildren. She was a recipient of the 2022 Servant of Christ award and has served on LWV and LWQ executives and various zone executives. Jill enjoys engaging Christ’s love with others. As formed in Christ, in retirement, Jill enjoys reading, Christian spirituality, music, gardening, travelling, and their recently sold farm, breeding cattle and horses. Jill is active in her local congregation as lay worker. She has a passion for an understanding of the Gospel in the life of everyday Christians.