Tag: psalm 139

God’s Got This

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Plans. We all attempt to make them. We feel guilty if they go unfulfilled. We struggle to know what they should be. We race the clock to complete them. We envy those of others. Plans. They excite us and they haunt us. And in the end, we know they are ultimately out of our control.

That’s a synopsis of plans from the inside out. What about pondering plans from the outside in?

Before I was ever born, the plans were already laid for the significance of my life. Fundamentally, I had nothing to do with the blueprint of my reality. I did not yet exist when my God wrote my days in His book. Listen to the poetry of Psalm 139:16b (ESV):

    “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Understanding the sovereignty of God and, therefore, the finality of His designing efforts is quite a comfort. Our Lord is not constrained by time and circumstance. He does not work the plan of my life from the inside out. He works it out from eternity! Time cannot thwart His projects. Confusion does not enter the scene of God’s working.

God has hand-written a book about that critical intersection of my life and the days I endure. When I wake each morning, I can know that my all-powerful Lord is central at the meeting place of each day and my existence.

I will not live an earthly day that I am not supposed to live, and I will not miss an earthly day that is planned for me. From God’s plan for my life, not one speck can be stolen.

Thrive, my friend, in the knowledge of God’s strategy. Rather than wonder in frustration about so many plans – old and new – talk to the One who is in real control. Your days were etched in His book before you were a part of this world. God’s got this.

God of the Means and the Extremes

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Did you realize that the God who created the earth also created the ends of the earth? Isaiah 40:28 (NASB) says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.”

If you are just an “average” person in “average” circumstances of life, God’s presence and sovereignty at and over the extremes may not matter much to you. But if, like me, you find yourself at least at times needing God in the extreme and difficult places, His identification as the “Creator of the ends of the earth” bears comforting significance.

God understands the extremes of existence. He is not shocked by problems and sins of all depth and descriptions. No remote or hopeless case exists as far as God is concerned. He fashioned with His own hands not only the earth, but the ends of the earth. The Hebrew root for “ends” means extremity or end. It comes from another word which includes the notion of the border, the outskirts, or the margin. Do you ever feel you are on the margin of the page, instead of inside the story? No fears! God is present even there, for no location exists – physically or emotionally – where the Creator is not the moment-by-moment Sustainer. He is there at the margin.

When I think of the Ark of the Covenant*, that powerful image of the work of Jesus Christ to blot out the power of sin in our lives, I have to think of our God of the extremes. The same Hebrew word used in the aforementioned Isaiah phrase is the term used in Exodus 25:18 (NASB, emphasis mine), “You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat.” God intended the image of these magnificent, angelic creatures to loom over the mercy seat from the very edges. God does not tell us the reason, but I wonder if He is beautifully picturing for our simple minds the fact of His merciful covering from one end or extreme of existence to the other. There is no place His mercy cannot go, and even the angels are privy to this compassion and long to see all God does for pitiful humans.

Psalm 139:7-8 (NASB) affirms that God is with us at the highest height (Heaven) and the lowest depth (Sheol or the nether world). Surely, these positions are the extremes. As if to solidify the miracle of His inexhaustible, merciful presence, the Psalmist adds in verse nine, “If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me.” I have never plunged the depths of the sea, but I know it can be very dark, cold, and strange in that world, with odd creatures all about. Have you ever been in a dark and cold place, spiritually and emotionally speaking? God is not only in average situations with average people (if any truly exist!); He is in the depths.

Mathematically speaking, a mean is an average. When I take a list of numbers, add them together, and divide by the total number of numbers, I derive an average (or a mean). So, for example, the average of 0, 5, 10, 50, and 10,000 is 2,013. This seems strange, because 2,013 does not reflect well the extreme numbers of zero and ten thousand. Averages – or means – are funny things. Often, in mathematics, they give us little information. Therefore, statisticians prefer more complicated calculations such as variances and standard deviations. The point, however, is simple; average is sometimes an elusive concept and does not always represent the extremes. Do not think it strange if you do not feel average; rather thank the God of the extremes! He is with you at “0” and at “10,000”!

God accounted for the extremities in His plan for the world. I Peter 1:20 (NIV) says of Jesus, “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” Jesus agreed to come to this world and die for our sins before He ever laid the foundation of this universe (see also Revelation 13:8). The Creator of the ends of the earth knew He was coming because He “so loved the world” (John 3:16, NIV). Our God saw all the world’s best and worst. He looked down through the annals of time and recognized all the extremes of sin and difficulty, and He still came! Why? Peter boldly declares, “for your sake.”

All of us who have feared that the extremities of our life are too “out of bounds” for God’s help need to pray today and call on the Creator of the ends of the earth.

* For more understanding of the Ark of the Covenant, please visit: www.hopeandpassion.org/?p=759/

Electrons and Questions of the Heart

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Do you ever feel like even you cannot figure out what you’re really thinking? Have you ever wished you could express to someone the deepest ponderings of your heart? Does your mind get tired as you try to decipher the meaning of circumstances? Is the rush and demanding pace of the culture overwhelming your brain?

The good news is this: there is an answer. Preceding a recent time of prayer, all of the above noted feelings swirled about me. As I prayed, God brought me back to foundational truth.

Please do not allow the mention of science to dissuade your continued reading. After all, if God is real, He is the Maker of all things scientific. The alignment of scientific fact with the ways of God is most heartening.

Our foolish childhood inattentiveness in physical science class notwithstanding; protons, neutrons, and electrons are core components of atoms. The material world consists largely of electrons spinning around nuclei of protons and neutrons.

More amazing than even the seemingly ubiquitous existence of these unseen particles is the precision of their weights. The mass of an electron is 9.11 X 10-31 kilograms. Now, that is the number 911 with thirty zeros in front of it! What a tiny, tiny particle! The electrons whirl about the nucleus of each atom. Of what is the nucleus made? It is made of protons and neutrons.

Though the electron’s mass is so miniscule it seems immeasurable, the mass of a proton is 1,836 times greater at a diminutive 1.6726 X 10-27 kg. Amazingly, though we are dealing in masses so small they stagger the mind, the neutron weighs just slightly more than the proton and electron combined. By how much, you ask? By the number 1,389 with 29 zeros before it! Yes, a neutron outweighs the combination of a proton and electron by 1.389 X 10-30!

Why are we amazed? (You should be amazed, by the way.) Here are the mind-boggling facts:

    “If the combined mass of electrons and protons was not slightly less than that of the neutron, the two would unite to form neutrons, leaving the world devoid of electrons and protons. If the combined mass was more than the neutron, then neutrons would decay into protons and electrons, leaving the world devoid of neutrons. Neither scenario results in a life-sustaining universe.” (Meister, 74)

Do we get it? The numbers and differences in weights are so small they seem almost meaningless to us. Yet, at a level that deep, everything must be right on for life to exist. The Creator is that meticulous, that overwhelmingly exact and involved in what He has made.

Similarly, the Creator is that meticulously involved in our hearts. Following are two passages from God’s Word to consider:

    “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.” (Psalm 139:4-6, ESV)
    “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thought and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV)

As I prayed the other day, thoughts of the precision of the mass of atomic particles spurred me to ponder the amazing accuracy of God’s understanding of every part of my mind and heart. He is not confused by the ongoing collision of memories, hopes, analysis, disappointments, encouragement, emotions, and strivings happening in me. He sees and measures each one.

Though the thought of God’s immense knowledge is “too wonderful for me” (Psalm 139:6), I rest in it. I cannot figure myself out, but He can. I need that assurance, for what point is there if nothing makes sense to anyone?

God’s Word is able to divide soul and spirit and discerns the intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Oh, thank you, dear Jesus, for I am unable to know my own intentions at times.

What joy came when God impressed on me His ability to know it all, His care to hold my heart and mind together – down to the tiniest detail – just as He holds the atoms together with marked precision.

There exists no physical life without God’s grand assessment, precision, and power to guide each detail. There is no life at all without His power to know us. And since He knows us like that, how should we respond? The answer is found in Part II, yet to come.

Reference: Meister, Chad V., Building Belief (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2006)

How Will We Rest?

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How will we rest?
These racing thoughts do so entangle.

How will we rest?
These racing hearts do so encumber.

How will we rest?
Counseled to work it out, think it through, and make it happen.

How will we rest?
Striving hopelessly to look from every angle.
Striving nervously to prevail o’er every detail.

How will we rest?
Foolish, frail humanity.
Exasperated, tired humanity.
Our vanity stifles rest.

How will we rest?
We will look up.

We will see the glorious, downward flow of God’s innumerable and precious thoughts toward us.

We will stand at the base of the waterfall.

We will be washed in the reality of His immeasurably deep plans for us as they pour over our racing minds and racing hearts.

We will be covered with the infinite purposes of our infinite God.

How will we rest?
Not in our own striving.
Not in our own doing.
Not even in our own planning.

We will rest in the thoughts of God toward us.

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! – Psalm 139:17