AP

Psalm 139:13-16  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 very sobering and comforting it is to read and reflect deeply on these words!

Throughout our lives every one of us faces various perplexities and uncertainties in this strange and troubled world, and it is easy to despair about the future, both for ourselves and for those for whom we care deeply. 

The amazing discovery of the human genome and DNA add a depth of meaning to these words that would not have been available to David as he wrote them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; but nevertheless he knew with real confidence that the Sovereign LORD God is always in full control of every part of our lives, and our days and circumstances have been intricately mapped out in detail by him from before we were even born!

This fact should keep us humble when things are going well for us, but encouraged when they are not.  Because he is a loving, gracious, merciful and forgiving God, and because he is all-knowing and all-powerful, I can thank and praise him in the times of blessing, and trust him in the hard times.  All this was obviously part of Job’s DNA when he wrote things like, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (13:15, KJV) and, “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west I do not find him.  When he is at work in the north, I catch no glimpse of him.  But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me I will come forth as gold” (23:8-10).

‘My Lord wants to shape me like Jesus, to rid me of all that’s  impure; but that will mean time in the furnace, with suffering and pain to endure.  I’d like life to be free from trouble, in comfort and peace to grow old; but that would mean staying as rubble, when God wants to change me to gold.’

– Bruce Christian