Psalms: A Journey of Worship

DEAR READER: I invite you to join me for the rest of 2023 on a journey of worship. And the book of Psalms will be our guide. Psalms, the songbook for the human race, expresses worship like no other. Throughout its many pages, Psalms encourages its readers to praise God for who he is and what he has done. It describes the greatness of our God and affirms his faithfulness to us not only in times of blessing, comfort, and ease but also in times of trouble, heartbreak, and seeming defeat. And at the end of the day, whether in the valley or on the mountaintop, the Psalms remind us of the absolute certainty and necessary centrality of worship in our lives. So, let’s journey together through these 150 psalms. I will post devotional blogs each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday … and I hope they will be a tremendous blessing to you on your journey of worship. In today’s devotional, to give you a preview of the kinds of devotionals to come, I have skipped way ahead to Psalm 139 and have written on, in my opinion, one of the most encouraging and comforting verses in the entire Bible, verse 16. Then on Monday, we will start with Psalm 1 and begin our journey until it concludes with Psalm 150.

A Journey of Worship // Psalm 139:16

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How many days do I have left? I don’t know. No one does except God. He knows the exact number of years, days, and hours — even right down to the final second — that I will occupy my address on Planet Earth, the exact moment that my death will occur.

Now that may not seem like a cheery thought to you, and in fact, most people would find that sobering at best and frightening at worst. Not me. I find great comfort and security in knowing that God has my life so ordered that I will neither die a day sooner nor live a day longer than what has already been recorded in his book. You see, life and death are far above my pay grade, so I will happily let Father God take care of that department, thank you very much.

So, if I truly and correctly understand this profound truth, then I am set free from the fear of death to fully live the life that God has planned for me. So, what does that me for you and me?

We can enjoy an intimate walk with the One who is intimately involved in each minor detail of every single day we have lived — and will live:

You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too — your reassuring presence, coming and going. (Psalm 139:1-4)

We can rest assured that we are never out of his sight, and, in fact, he is guiding our every move:

Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit, to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, you’d find me in a minute — you’re already there waiting! (Psalm 139:5-10),

We can know with confidence that our Heavenly Father is not limited by our circumstances:

Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light! It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you. (Psalm 139:11-12).

In fact, God is so involved in our lives that he was even there at the very moment our mother and father conceived us, and that he superintended even the most infinitesimal details my physiological and temperamental formation:

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God — you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration — what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you. (Psalm 139:13-16)

Yes, we can relax, knowing that God sees us, knows us, guides us, and continually cares for us:

Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong — then guide me on the road to eternal life. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Wow! God knows everything about you and me. He planned us, built us, watches over us, can steer us back on track when we wander from his purpose, can be completely trusted to keep us safe until our sovereignly allotted number of days ordained for us are up, and then will take us to the next life that he has prepared for us for all eternity.

The psalmist was spot on in summing up this marvelous and loving Heavenly Father’s perfect oversight of our lives:

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand. (Psalm 139:6, NLT)

Yet even if we can’t quite wrap our minds around such knowledge, let’s not allow our limited comprehension to keep us from enjoying this day and praising the One who oversees every detail, big and small, of our lives!