Psalm 139 & Exodus 34:6-7

To help me in my daily Christian walk, a dear friend has encouraged me to study and memorize Psalm 139.  And I agreed.  So I began reading and rereading the psalm.  I began making notes and observations about what I read.  I found a couple songs that used the words of Psalm 139 as their lyrics and I even listened to a sermon about the psalm.  But after all that I felt the same.  What was I missing?  Why do so many people find comfort in this psalm?  Why wasn't I comforted?

As I reviewed my observations about the psalm, I saw a God who is intimately aware with us individually.  A God who's omniscience includes our inner man, our thoughts, wants, desires and imaginations, as well as our outer man, our every step while at rest or at play He sees us all throughout our day.  Then as I read further I see a God who is omnipresent, He is everywhere.  We cannot escape His presence.  There is no where we can go where He is not with us.  Even when we flee to the remotest part of the sea (Philippines?), He is there. Why does God know us so well?  Because we are His creation and He is our creator.  He knit us together in our mother's womb.  He knew us before anyone else ever did, and He saw all the days of life even before we were born.

All of this information brings comfort to David, the writer of the psalm.  When he praises God he uses words like wonderful and precious.  I couldn't help but wonder, why is David's response so different than mine?  God's individual omniscience and omnipresence of me does not make me break out in immediate praise.  Instead it causes me to stop and ask a question. 

"Who is this God who knows me?  Is He good?  Can I trust Him?"

Then I noticed the second word of the pslam, "LORD".  David addresses God in His covenant name Yaweh, I AM WHO I AM.  David was comforted by God's intimate knowledge of him and his life BECAUSE he knew the God who knew him.  So perhaps I could be in agreement with David if I took time to know this God.

The LORD - Yaweh - I AM WHO I AM
Its the name that God gave Moses when he asked for God's name.  That name is rich.  It tells us that God is self-existing and self-sufficient.  It reminds us of the covenant God made with His people of Israel.  We learn more in Exodus 33 when Moses asks God if he can see His glory.  God answer was no, because no one can see His face and live.  But God did say He would hide Moses behind a rock and let His goodness pass before him.

Exodus 34:6-7
"The LORD passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generations.' "

What do we learn about God from these two verses?  Not only is God self-sufficient but He is also all sufficient for us!  He is...

MERCIFUL - tender, compassionate, and gentle
GRACIOUS - freely showering us with kindness
SLOW TO ANGER - long suffering, and waiting in order to be gracious with us
ABOUNDING IN STEADFAST LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS - He not only is gracious, but He raises our expectations to receive mercy from Him.  It is a promised goodness and overflowing mercy that never runs out.
KEEPING STEADFAST LOVE FOR 1,000's - eternal
FORGIVING INIQUITY - sin as an act; to bend, twist and distort the law.  Carries the idea of penalty and consequence.
AND TRANSGRESSION  - spiritual rebellion, deeds that affect Yaweh and His sovereignty, consequently requiring forgiveness or judgment
AND SIN - moral wandering, erring, going astray most commonly unitentionally

These two verses are very encouraging to me!  I was particularly interested in the various words used for sin and their accompanying definitions.  The word for sin was what I was looking for.  Moving to another country has made me have to relearn all the basics of life.  How to drive, how to shop, how to keep the home, how to feed and bathe my family.  Because of this adjusting period it has revealed that I am not sufficient.  I do not have the wisdom to accomplish seemingly everyday life activities.  These constant insufficiencies in my life tempt me to respond fleshly, to loose strength and desire rest.  So reading a psalm that highlighted that God was intimately aware of me during this whole adjustment period was not encouraging by itself.  Would He be mad at me?  Would He be disappointed at my insufficiencies?

In Psalm 19 verse 12 David asks a similar question, "who can discern his errors?" Dr. Barrick defines errors here as: "an act of turpitude [shameful character and depravity] perpetrated through distraction under the affects of anger, alcohol, passions of the heart and hatred."

Okay now I am encouraged!  The merciful God who made a covenant with me from the blood of Jesus Christ has promised to be all sufficient for me.  He is relentlessly pursuing me with compassion and mercy. And when He sees my insufficiencies, my weaknesses, He is slow to anger and long suffering, waiting in order to shower me with grace.  It is not an ignorant forgiveness He gives His children, but a forgivenes from One who is intimately acquianted with all my thoughts.  He sees my every step.  He knows when I get up at night to help my children.  He sees me scared and confused when I make a wrong turn and get lost in a new city.  He knows my imaginations, and the irrational thoughts of "what if?" that temped me.  He knows my insufficiencies and He is not surprised because He is my Creator, He knit me together in every detail.  And yet He pursues me with relentless compassion and gentleness.

Oh amazing love!  How can this be?  That thou my God shouldst die for me!  Thanks be to Jesus Christ to bring me into fellowship with my LORD.