The Journey - Pt. 4

 

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. (Psalm 139:1-6 ESV).

 

As you drive Route 66 you will find a spot about 100 yards from the Interstate with little more than an abandoned car and an informational marker. The old car is placed on what was the famous route across America. The utility poles actually mark the path of the old road. For our last little devotional concerning the journey of life, I want to call attention to the truth found in our reading today. No matter how abandoned or desolate you feel your path is at this moment you are not alone or forgotten. God knows precisely where you are and is there beside you. From the moment we get up until the time we go to bed, he is there. God knows our thoughts, and he even knows our words before we speak them. In the words of the psalmist, God is familiar with all our ways because he is where we are.

 

Some 3,000 years after David wrote this psalm, another Jewish author, Elie Wiesel, said just the opposite in his book, Night. While he suffered in a German concentration camp, he watched his mother and little sister led away to a gas chamber. Sometime later he found himself in the same barracks where his father was beaten to death. Years later, when he wrote about what he saw, he said, “I was alone in a world without God.” I have no doubt it “felt” that way. I cannot imagine a more desperate time in anyone’s life. However, the truth is as David writes. God is where we are. He says, “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me” (v. 6). The image here is of a shepherd making a temporary enclosure of briars and branches to keep the sheep safe during the night. A good shepherd always “hemmed in” his sheep. Then he slept across the only entrance/exit to the enclosure. He never left them alone.

 

That’s the reality of life: God is where we are. No matter how much evil we may face or how dark things may be, God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. When it seems to you that this world is void of God, turn to God’s Word, which tells us: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). His coming is the living proof that God is where we are. Accept God’s invitation, and come to him. That makes the journey well worth taking!