Lutheran Seminary's God Pause "Moved by the Promise" Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Tuesday, 13 January 2015 - Scripture: Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

Lutheran Seminary's God Pause "Moved by the Promise" Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Tuesday, 13 January 2015 - Scripture: Psalm 139: (A psalm by David for the music leader.)
The Lord Is Always Near
1 You have looked deep
into my heart, Lord,
    and you know all about me.
2 You know when I am resting
    or when I am working,
    and from heaven
    you discover my thoughts.
3 You notice everything I do
    and everywhere I go.
4 Before I even speak a word,
    you know what I will say,
5 and with your powerful arm
    you protect me
    from every side.
6 I can’t understand all of this!
    Such wonderful knowledge
    is far above me.
13 You are the one
who put me together
    inside my mother’s body,
14 and I praise you
    because of
the wonderful way
    you created me.
Everything you do is marvelous!
    Of this I have no doubt.
15 Nothing about me
    is hidden from you!
I was secretly woven together
    deep in the earth below,
16 but with your own eyes
    you saw
    my body being formed.
Even before I was born,
you had written in your book
    everything I would do.
17 Your thoughts are far beyond
    my understanding,
    much more than I
    could ever imagine.
18 I try to count your thoughts,
    but they outnumber the grains
    of sand on the beach.
And when I awake,
    I will find you nearby.[Contemporary English Version]
Recently there's been resurgence in record players and vinyl in the music world. Due to technological advances, a musical record was even recently made from the cross section of an old growth tree. An engineer designed a needle for the player that ebbs and flows with the natural order of the growth rings. The engineer's theory proved to be true, and—behold!—a song was indeed embedded in nature within the wood.
The psalmist sings of the expansive presence of God from the heights to the depths, throughout the vast expanse of creation. Like the annual rings of a tree being played by a piano, the creative presence of God continues to bring wonder, love and praise to expression among us.
God of Creation, your presence brings a sense of awe and wonder. May you give us a song today to sing of your glory and creative work. Amen.
Matthew A. Maas
Pastor/Chaplain, Swedish Medical Center
Seattle, Wash. 
Master of Divinity , 2010
Psalm 139:1 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 far away.
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, O Lord, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know 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 beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.[The Revised Standard Version]
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