Do You Know? | August 26, 2015

 August 26, 2015

Rather than going into two more “woes” in the gospel today (reference yesterday’s reflection), I thought I would reflect on today’s Psalm 139, which is one of my favorites. First of all, it is highly likely that I would have fallen madly in love with King David it I had lived during that time. He was a rugged guy, a fearless underdog, but he was a sensitive musician and poet, who loved to dance in his underwear (2 Samuel 6:14). If you really knew me, you’d know that the way to my heart is to write me a poem, or better yet a song, or better yet ask me to dance. Irresistible. (And yes I do know about David’s indiscretions, but his love affair with the Lord trumps all of that in my book) I have spent hours gazing upon the statue David in Florence, trying to read his thoughts, to imagine what his singing voice was like (I’m going with Michael Bublé), and to understand the depth of his love for God.

Psalm 139 is one of David’s prettiest and most tender pieces. To be known is at the core of every human’s deepest desire and to be known as intimately as David describes in this Psalm is as raw and vulnerable as it gets. Being a poet myself allows me to read this Psalm in a different light for I know what it feels like to choose words and images to describe deep emotions. This Psalm is well crafted and comes from the most intimate place in David’s heart. He knows without a doubt how much he is loved by God and he is amazed by it. Do you know? Do you know how much God loves you? I often forget or find myself doubting, but meditating on this beautiful Psalm always helps me to remember that God’s love is bigger and unending. He knows every part of me and he STILL loves me.

Read the Psalm for yourself (I might add my thoughts and comments along the way). When you are done reading it, sit in love for a while, and then I suggest listening to the song Psalm 139 by Danielle Rose (https://youtu.be/EFJ14c11lis) and hear how you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Have a beautiful day.

Psalm 139 | For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. God has studied His masterpiece and He knows exactly what He created, like a mother studies her sleeping child.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. He already knows my thoughts like an intimate friend can read your soul even when you cannot.

You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. He knows all your little quirks including the sound of your giggle and the gleam in your eye.

Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. We are surrounded in His grace (hemmed in by it) and He physically touches us.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Too wonderful? What a great dilemma?

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. I think I spend a lot of time trying to hide from God like David is describing, but He is the inescapable lover of my soul.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I picture Peter Pan trying to sew on his own shadow, but it’s God in a rocking chair singing to me my very own heart song while uniting my soul, to my mind, to my heart, to my bones, to my being, to my whole self.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Fearfully and wonderfully made!!! Fearful of a life without God and filled with wonder that I am God’s favorite! It doesn’t get better than that.

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. Like Michelangelo created his beloved David, God chiseled and labored over my frame to make it perfect in His sight.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. God writes me! Yay! What words does He use for me in His book? I can’t wait to read it.

How precious to me are your thoughts, 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. Have you ever wondered what God was thinking? He’s thinking about you!

If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. David had a lot to deal with because of His relationship with the Lord. We will be tested as well, but when we join our ways to God’s, we can never be defeated.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. If you are ever anxious, this would be a great prayer for you. Me too.

See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Reading 1 1 THES 2:9-13

You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery.
Working night and day in order not to burden any of you,
we proclaimed to you the Gospel of God.
You are witnesses, and so is God,
how devoutly and justly and blamelessly
we behaved toward you believers.
As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his children,
exhorting and encouraging you and insisting
that you walk in a manner worthy of the God
who calls you into his Kingdom and glory.

And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly,
that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us,
you received it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God,
which is now at work in you who believe.

Responsorial Psalm PS 139:7-8, 9-10, 11-12AB

R. (1) You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
Even there your hand shall guide me,
and your right hand hold me fast.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall hide me,
and night shall be my light”–
For you darkness itself is not dark,
and night shines as the day.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.

Alleluia 1 JN 2:5

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever keeps the word of Christ,
the love of God is truly perfected in him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 23:27-32

Jesus said,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside,
but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.
Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,
but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the memorials of the righteous, 
and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,
we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’
Thus you bear witness against yourselves
that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;
now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”