I’d like to share one of my favorite Psalms- Psalm 139. These words are a reminder of how well God knows us, and yet how much He loves us. He formed each of us in our mother’s womb, and He has a plan for our lives.

As I read the first half of Psalm 139, keep in mind that the LORD who King David is talking about is the mighty Creator, the God who created all of the galaxies, the earth, and every person down to all the details of each living cell.

Psalm 139:1-12 “Oh LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, 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 from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the 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 will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

These verses tell us that God knows us so well that not only does He see everything we do, but He knows our thoughts, and He knows what we are going to say before we even speak it. He is totally familiar with all our ways. You could relate it to the way a mother interacts with her young baby. When a baby is communicating his needs by crying or with a facial expression, his mother usually knows what those signify. Even if we don’t put our thoughts into words, God knows what we’re feeling. And just as an alert mother knows what her young children are doing at all times- you know the saying, “Mothers have eyes in the back of their heads”- God sees what’s going on with us and He cares for us, knowing what is best for us even when we don’t understand. God looks on each of us just as tenderly as we look on our babies.

These verses go on to say that God’s Spirit is everywhere. No matter where we travel throughout the world, no matter how our situation in life changes, He is with us to guide us and securely keep us. If you trust in His Son, Jesus, to be your Savior, His Spirit lives IN you, and you belong to Him. You can talk to Him about anything, and He will help you. Our Creator God is more powerful than any scary, painful trial we could go through.

Psalm 139:13-18 goes like this: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.”

In this passage, the “secret place” where we were made is of course referring to a mother’s womb. It’s a place so dark and secret that not even the mother realizes for some time that she is carrying a new life. And God watches over this whole process.

God is our Creator, and the Creator of each of our babies. Each life is precious to Him. These verses say that God oversees each baby’s development as he or she is growing in the womb. He knits every intricate detail of each individual together. This is an awesome truth: we are not here by chance, but we are alive by the design of our Creator. He has already planned the number of days each of us will live on earth.

Isn’t it amazing that this all-powerful God cares to be with us and watches over the details of our lives?

Rebecca St. James (Christian singer) has written a song based on Psalm 139. Her poem expresses how God knows each of us intimately, including our rebellious nature and how we all blow it and mess up sometimes. And yet He loves us anyway. I’d like to share it with you in closing.

You search me
You know me
You see my every move
There’s nothing I could ever do
To hide myself from You
You know my thoughts
My fears and hurts
My weaknesses and pride
You know what I am going through
And what I feel inside
But even though You know
You will always love me
Even though You know
You’ll never let me go
I don’t deserve Your love
But You give it freely
You will always love me
Even though You know…