TLIC Psalms. December 15. You Are There.  

Read Psalm 139:1-12. ¹O Lord, you have searched me and known me! ²You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. ³You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. ⁴Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. ⁵You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. ⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. ⁷Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? ⁸If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! ⁹If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, ¹⁰even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. ¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” ¹²even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

There is no more personal psalm than this one. Truly nothing else like it exists in antiquity, a cry to a God who knows his individual creations at this depth of intimacy. And surely this psalm becomes all the more true by our union with Christ.

Christ in us searches the inner man and knows us at a level that we don’t even know ourselves. Christ not only discerns our thoughts, his thoughts become our thoughts for we have the very mind of Christ. There is nothing that we do and no place that we go that we do not take the Lord Jesus with us. The omnipresent Spirit has taken up residence in us. Not only is fleeing from the presence of God impossible, it is unimaginable for those who are in Christ.

Wherever we go, whatever we do, Jesus is there. You are there! In sky. In sea. In light. In dark. In Heaven. In Sheol. To live is Christ is to never be without Jesus. No time. No place. No circumstance. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

You: Have you ever tried to escape Jesus.

You in Christ: Our union with Christ means that we are never outside of the presence of God. How does this encourage you?

Christ in you: How can you live more fully aware of Christ’s presence with you each day?

Pray: Jesus, I couldn’t escape you if I tried, and I’ve tied. But I don’t really want to be without you. Thank you for being everywhere I am and for bringing me everywhere you are. Amen.