You're Skating on Borrowed Time! PSALM 139 Homework

According to www.loverofwords.com, logophile is the Greek word meaning lover of words. It really should not surprise anyone that this daughter of a retired, high-school, English teacher is a logophile. I wasn’t always good at it. As a kid, I’d tell people to copocerate with me – cooperate. I’d get phrases confused and would often join two together – You’re skating on borrowed time. So as I lead my girlfriends in how to study the Bible, how to dig deeper, I’m going through Psalm 139 as part of the homework, and I’m labeling the qualities or characteristics of God:

·         Omnipotent – all powerful

·         Omnipresent – present everywhere

·         Omniscient – all knowing

·         Immanent – fully present and accessible

But then I get to verse 11…

I’m struggling with vs 11, “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night – even the darkness is not dark to You. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you.” I am at a loss for the word. So you know what I do? I ask. I ask my mom. Then I text my nurse friend and a nursing student. I FB message a doctor friend of mine. I get them all searching. I’ve got to have a word to describe my God’s ability to see in the night as if it were day. Surely there is a word. Surely. (See my Bible studies are not confined to me. I spread my curiosity. I figure if I’m going to be perplexed and frustrated and wonder about something, someone else should be too! LOL) This ability of God’s is not like Superman’s who’s eyesight was laser sharp because God’s ability to see means He knows no night. He knows no darkness. He really has no use for darkness. This creation of darkness is strictly for those living on this earth that need to rest including the land.

I have studied this chapter many times. As a matter of fact before Erin was born God gave me vs 13-14 for her life verses. I quote v 5 -- hemming us in the front and the back -- when I pray for someone. But each time God has me focus on a different scripture, and it’s killing me. I want to know what it means. What is He trying to say to me?

·         I AM… UNFATHOMABLE yet personally interested in His children

·         I AM… INDESCRIBABLE in one mere, human term

·         I AM… INCOMPREHENSIBLE yet provides glimpses into who He is so we are not overwhelmed by His Majesty, His grandeur and so we can have a relationship with Him

·         I AM… not in a box, not in a word, not an event

·         I AM… much, much, much more

I AM… I AM. Deal with it.

It’s when I realize just how unfathomable, indescribable, incomprehensible my God is that I become humbled that He is even mindful of me. He’s not only mindful of each of us, but He takes the time to hand-make, one-of-a-kind individuals since the beginning of time. He is so mindful of us that He keeps an eye on us wherever we are. Regardless of how BiG He is and how small I am, He has taken such an interest to set out my days before I took my first breath. He finds us worthy of His attention and affection. He finds us wonderfully made. He finds us as we are and loves us anyway. Once I understand these things, I can’t help but pray verses 23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Amen.