A Spiritual Pick Me Up

Psalm 139:1-18

This is one of my favorite Psalms, for many reasons.  Just about every verse is filled with a love message from God to us.  When I am feeling down and depressed, feeling like there is no one who truly cares about me, reading Psalm 139 is sure to pick me up.

Have you ever felt like no one really understands you?  Teenagers and young adults frequently say that, but no matter the age, we all do at some time, and it can be very frustrating.  There is One, though, who knows everything about us, all of our thoughts, words, and everything we do.  We read that in verse 1-6.  God is the Omniscient One.  For some of us, the thought that God knows everything about us might be frightening or embarrassing.  There are some things about myself I don’t want anyone to know - things I’ve said, things I’ve done when I thought no one was looking, and certainly things I’ve thought!  We never want others to know those!  God knows them all, and the wondrous thing of all is, knowing all of that about each of us, He still loves us so much!

Do you ever feel really lonely?  For many of us, loneliness is a chronic problem.  We can feel so alone even when there are people around us.  God, the one who knows everything about us and still loves us, is always with us.  Always.  There is no place we can ever go to escape from His presence, as verses 7-12 tell us.  The highest mountain - He’s there.  The lowest parts of the ocean - He’s there, too.  I think of those Chilean miners who were trapped deep in a mine for over 2 months back in 2010.  Even down there the Lord was present with them.  God is the Omnipresent One, always, everywhere with us.  If we are His children, we are never truly alone.

Another part of my depression can center around feelings of low self-esteem.  Verses 13-16 tell how God especially fashioned each of us.  We are not merely a chance of nature or an accidental coming together of certain molecules.  During the nine months while we are in our mother’s womb, God is specifically fashioning us into a unique person.  Even if we were not planned by our parents, even if they were not looking forward to our birth, we are not an accident in God’s eyes.  I sure may not look like much, but as verse 14 says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”.  That’s God’s Word talking, not my own.  And if He says that about me, then why should I care what anyone else says about my looks or abilities!

Psalm 139:1-18

Lastly, I’d like to focus a moment on verses 17 and 18.  These two verses are very special.  Have you ever worked with a young woman who is in love?  She can’t keep her mind on her work at all!  Constantly thinking of her boyfriend.  He’s all she talks about, too!  Even so, I doubt that she is thinking of him literally every second.  That would be 3,600 times an hour.  For a full day it would be 86,400.  It’s not likely she thinks of him that much, no matter how much she loves him.   God, though, has said that He thinks of us more times than the number of grains of sand on the earth.  It has been estimated that there are approximately seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains of sand on the earth.  God loves each of His children so much that He thinks of us more than that!  Now that should lift anyone’s spirits!