Monday, July 07, 2008

Psalm 139- a fresh reading

God is in a season of building intimacy with me, I believe. This weekend I was blessed with Psalm 139 to meditate and keep on my heart.

The Spirit moved me to try this exercise to make it more personal. It was born out of thinking about Yahweh, the personal name of God, and what that should mean to us. Then I envisioned the Lord speaking my name to me when he talks to me.

So I took Psalm 139 and switched the voice around to make it read from the Lord to me. The result stirred my heart so deeply that I thought this type of exercise it might bless others as well.

Maybe the Lord is wanting to reveal his love letter to you. Take this and replace the "Ann"s with your name. Let me know if you are blessed with any other scriptures read in this way.

Ann, I have examined your heart, and I know everything about you.

I know when you sit down or stand up.
I know your thoughts even when you're far away.

I see you when you travel and when you rest at home. I know everything you do.
I know what you are going to say even before you say it, Ann.

I go before you and follow you; I place my hand of blessing on your head.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for you, too great for you to understand!

You can never escape from my Spirit! You can never get away from my presence!

If you go up to heaven, I am there; if you go down to the grave, I am there.
If you ride the wings of the morning, if you dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there my hand will guide you, and my strength will support you.

You could ask the darkness to hide you and the light around you to become night—
but even in darkness you cannot hide from me.
To me the night shines as bright as day; darkness and light are the same to me.

I made all the delicate, inner parts of your body and knit you together in your mother’s womb.
I made you so wonderfully complex!
My workmanship is marvelous—how well you know it.

I watched you as you was being formed in utter seclusion, as you were woven together in the dark of the womb.
I saw you before you were born.

Every day of your life was recorded in my book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

How precious are my thoughts about you, Ann.
They cannot be numbered! You can’t even count them!
They outnumber the grains of sand!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is an interesting way to read 139! It's so easy to forget that the Scriptures are for each and every one of us and often treat it as a history book... something that happened to other people and abstractly relates to us. But of course, that is not so, and this is definitely a new way to read 139 for me. So much more vibrant and intimate, indeed!

Matthew said...

I love reading the Psalms too for a reflect read.

Angie said...

Ann, I rediscovered your blog!! I'm pretty excited about it. I miss you friend

jaypeesee said...

What an awesome way to read that. It's hard sometimes to make that connection that God is really speaking that to us. I am blessed by revelation. Thnx for sharing it.