Psalm | Psalm 139 (with Tom Gastil)

About this Episode

Opening Song:

O Lord, open our lips and our mouths will declare Your praise.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end,
Amen.

The Scripture for today is Psalm 139:1-18.

Let’s prepare our hearts to hear from God’s word as we listen to 139 by Red Rocks Worship. Solo voice introduces this psalm over minimal strummed guitar chords. The song takes on a gentle, swaying motion with the inclusion of mandolin, light tambourine, and percussion. Three female voices form intricate harmonies with turns and twists, beautifully framing the intimacy of the psalmist’s verses.
Lyrics:

You've searched me and known me
You're ahead of my every thought
All my ways are familiar
You memorize my words before I talk
I can never get away
Why would I want to?
For the night is bright as day and dark is light to You

You are the One I praise
And You say I'm beautifully made
And your thoughts are precious to Me
More than the sand as far as the eye can see
More than the sand as far as the eye can see

So search me and know my heart
Remove from me every evil thing
Try me and all my anxious thoughts
Lead me in the way everlasting
I can never get away
I wouldn't want to

You are the One I praise
And You say I'm beautifully made
And your thoughts are precious to Me
More than the sand as far as the eye can see
More than the sand as far as the eye can see

I can never get away
I can never get away

If I flew on the wings of the morning
And dwell in the farthest seas
Still there Your right hand is guiding
I wake and You're still with me
If I flew on the wings of the morning
And dwell in the farthest seas
Still there Your right hand is guiding
I wake and You're still with me
Passage:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Musical Reflection:

“Breathe on Me, Breath of God,” tune by Robert Jackson
Reflection Notes:

TRENTHAM is a tune by Robert Jackson, an English composer during the nineteenth century. It fits perfectly with the text for “Breath On Me, Breath of God,” by Edwin Hatch; each phrase is allotted ample space for reflection.
Prayer:
O God, the enlightener of all nations, grant your people to enjoy perpetual peace; and pour into our hearts that radiant light which you did shed into the minds of the wise men; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Trium Magorum, Gelasian