“Unnerving at all?
Meditation – Saturday, June 10, 2023
Psalm 139:1-18 (Forward, p. 43) CEV p. 640
One of the worries of the 15 Minute City conspiracists is that the ‘authorities’ are not only going to lock people down into specific neighbourhoods but that they are going to set up surveillance cameras to enforce this policy. This is quite ‘interesting’, seeing as many jurisdictions, like Britain for instance, already widely have this technology in place, and even many establishments here at home already have cameras set up to monitor patrons and others.
Anyway, these conspiracists can only see evil or malevolent designs concerning these measures and so are, quite frankly, worried, upset and fearful. It is sort of like the way that some children are come Christmas time, worried that Santa Claus knows everything about them, as in the famous words, “He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows when you’ve been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake.” And, because of this, such children might well fear some repercussions from Santa
In a similar way, given the words of today’s psalm, some people might be worried about God. After all, it sounds like surveillance cameras, but much worse. On the one hand, it says, “You notice everything I do and everywhere I go” (verse 3) and “Nothing about me is hidden from you” (verse 15a). But then, on the other hand, it goes way farther as it says, “You have looked deep into my heart, O Lord, and you know all about me” (verse 1) or “Before I even speak a word, you know what I will say” (verse 4). Furthermore, we are told in numerous verses (verses 7-12) that we can never escape God’s presence. All of that, if taken one way, can be pretty intimidating.
However, if one sees here that God not only understands us fully and completely, understands us truthfully with all the extenuating circumstances factored in and taken into account, but is also near us, with us, to help and protect us. That, then, should surely be quite comforting and reassuring to us. And then, to know, as our psalm doesn’t bring out, that God took into account our weakness and our helplessness and sent His Son into our world to save, forgive and redeem us and free us from whatever besets us.
Surely, that should engender, not a sense of foreboding or anxiety or fear, but rather a sense of relief and hope and trust. Rather than being unnerving, God’s knowledge and nearness should be something we can rely upon and be grateful for having. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Forward notes: “How deep I find your thoughts, O God! How great is the sum of them! “(verse 16).
“Does God think? Does God have thoughts? The psalms confront me with basic yet profound questions like these. Is it merely anthropomorphism to say God has discrete thoughts that come in and out of God’s mind? Is it possible for one who knows all things, has perfect recall, and is not circumscribed by time to have a thought in the sense of an idea that comes and goes?
“Is the total set of all God’s thoughts present in God’s mind at all times? Is there a finite number, or are they infinite? Are God’s mind and processing ability limitless?
“How does the incarnation—the fact that God has now taken on humanity—affect these questions? Does the presence of a glorified Jesus within the Trinity make God’s thinking more comparable to ours?
“I love the wonder I feel when simple questions like these bring me to an encounter with the balance between the transcendence and the immanence of God.”
Moving Forward: “Imagine God’s thoughts about you and the state of your spiritual life. Write them down in a journal and reflect.”