Daily devotional · September 26
Known Through and Through
“O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, O LORD. You hem me in behind and before; You have laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle by the farthest sea, even there Your hand will guide me; Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me”— even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.”
David marvels that God knows him completely: when he sits and when he rises, what he thinks before he speaks, where he goes and where he lies down. For some this is unsettling, like being watched. For David it is deeply comforting, because the God who searches him is also the God who holds him. Then he asks where he could flee from that presence, and he answers his own question: not to the heights, not to the depths, not to the farthest sea. Even darkness is not dark to God, as Psalms 139:12 declares. Loneliness can feel like being invisible, but this psalm insists that you are known, fully and without disguise, and still held. Today, sit quietly and let that sink in. If you struggle with a sense of being unseen or unloved, tell a pastor, a counselor or a friend, and remember that you are not hiding from a God who already knows.
Also read
“even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.”
Psalms 139:12
Prayer
Lord, you know me completely and still you hold me. Help me rest in being fully known and loved.