Contemplating God’s Work

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.
  O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me
                                                                              Psalm 139:15-19

Summer in the Psalms continues in the Chronicle with today’s blog. The psalmist spends several times acknowledging that God is the author of life and proclaims that God is inescapable. The psalmist may wish to escape the responsibility and the vulnerability of knowing and being known by an omniscient God.  The psalmist does not censor himself or herself and lets the thoughts flow, including the scripture that comes next where the psalmist wishes God would kill his or her enemy. When we are highly emotional it is proper to, like the psalmist, allow our theology–our varied and sometimes embarrassing thoughts about God to ask open-ended questions. Contemplation is not all about sunshine and rainbows, but much like the psalmist had countless thoughts about God and was faithful enough to share those thoughts with God. Find time this week to contemplate God’s work in and through your life or in a specific situation. 

In Christ,
Rev. Elyse Milligan Nielsen