Saint Louis, Missouri, United States - 2014 Lenten Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Reverend Wayne Palmer "Childhood Memories" Sunday, 23 March 2014 - Read Psalm 139

Saint Louis, Missouri, United States - 2014 Lenten Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Reverend Wayne Palmer "Childhood Memories" Sunday, 23 March 2014 - Read Psalm 139: For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
1 Yahweh, you have searched me,
    and you know me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up.
    You perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
    but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in behind and before.
    You laid your hand on me.
6 This knowledge is beyond me.
    It’s lofty.
    I can’t attain it.
7 Where could I go from your Spirit?
    Or where could I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there.
    If I make my bed in Sheol,[a] behold, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the dawn,
    and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there your hand will lead me,
    and your right hand will hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me;
    the light around me will be night”;
12 even the darkness doesn’t hide from you,
    but the night shines as the day.
    The darkness is like light to you.
13 For you formed my inmost being.
    You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I will give thanks to you,
    for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful.
    My soul knows that very well.
15 My frame wasn’t hidden from you,
    when I was made in secret,
    woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my body.
    In your book they were all written,
    the days that were ordained for me,
    when as yet there were none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is their sum!
18 If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand.
    When I wake up, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would kill the wicked.
    Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 For they speak against you wickedly.
    Your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you?
    Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred.
    They have become my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart.
    Try me, and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any wicked way in me,
    and lead me in the everlasting way.
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 139:8 Sheol is the place of the dead.
TEXT: Yet You are He who took me from the womb; You made me trust You at my mother's breasts. On You was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb You have been my God (Psalm 22:9-10).
Jesus has shared His pain and sufferings a second time. Now it's time to listen to God's answer to that prayer, and gain firm confidence in His Father's faithfulness and love.
Earlier in the Psalm Jesus took comfort by recalling His Fathers' faithful deliverance when the Israelites cried out in sore distress. "In You our fathers trusted; they trusted, and You delivered them. To You they cried and were rescued; in You they trusted and were not put to shame" (Psalm 22:4-5). Now Jesus looks back on His own life, and recalls the tender care His Father provided from the beginning.
"You are He who took me from the womb." Miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, the Father granted Jesus a safe birth that first Christmas, provided a warm, dry manger, fed Him and met all His needs. When King Herod sought to destroy Him, the Father sent an angel to warn Joseph in a dream to take the Christ Child and Mary and flee to Egypt (see Matthew 2:13). From His earliest human days Jesus' Father had proven reliable and trustworthy. Surely, in this time God the Father will remember and deliver Him as well.
Like Jesus we can look back on God's faithful care throughout our lives, and be confident He will always provide our needs and protect us, especially since Jesus has paid the full price for our sins in His suffering and death on the cross.
THE PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for remembering Your Father's faithful protection and care. Remind me to look back at His faithfulness in my life that I may always live in faith, confidence and peace. Amen.
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