Psalm 139 The Inescapable God
To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day,
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.
O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me— those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil! Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Greetings Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Friends of our children recently received weighted blankets as gifts. These blankets are filled with tiny glass beads, which make the blanket heavy. For about a 60 lbs. kid a 7lbs. blanket is enough. It is supposed to help them sleep better, like being swaddled as a baby. It is kind of like being hugged while you sleep. Children who have sensory processing disorder tend to benefit from these blankets.
Our sleep is when our bodies heal and yet so many of us find sleep lacking. We’re either stressed from work or school, taking care of more things than there is time in the day, worried about our or our loved one’s health, our children, our financial security, our relationships, our church, our country, our safety, our grief, or just wanting to avoid slowing down and having that time to think before we go to sleep. For some who have served in the military, sleep is where we are reminded of the horrors of a broken world. For others, the time before is an accounting of the events of the day.
Like the weighted blankets, our baptism is a gift to us from God in Christ Jesus. Like a weighted blanket, it embraces us and gives us feedback that God is hugging us, even when we have failed God or feel alone. With all the communication feeding into our minds throughout the day, we can have a sense of a processing disorder. In other words, we can process the abundance of information we receive each day through the filter of the world which tells us we are not good enough. Yet, on account of our faith in the grace of Jesus Christ crucified and risen, we can rest assured that in baptism, Jesus claims us as God’s beloved forgiven children and washes us clean of our sin and raises us to new life in him. In him through faith in his grace, we are good and are enough. He anoints us with the Holy Spirit in baptism and fills us with faith when we worship, study the scriptures, receive the sacraments, and proclaim Christ crucified and risen through word and deed, when we love and serve our neighbor as Jesus loves and serves us.
Before we lay down to sleep, we can confess our sin and remember that in baptism, we are enveloped by God’s love and grace and have been forgiven by the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We can trust Jesus to be present with us, promising never to leave nor forsake us, to pro- vide for our every need when we pray, and to help us in the valleys, and lead us into paths of righteousness, where goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives (Ps 23). Rather than fighting our sleep we can rest enveloped by God’s love and presence, knowing that tomorrow will be a new day filled with Christ’s mercy, love, and grace and that whatever lays ahead, Christ has already overcome it through his love and grace on the cross, thanks be to God!!!
May we rest in Jesus, believing we are beloved forgiven children of God, beginning each day a new giving glory to God and asking God to help us love our neighbor as ourselves.
Amen.
Perpetual Joy in Christ’s Service,
+pastor alexis