Psalm 139 · Wednesday · Psalm 139:7-12

No place far from you

"Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you."Psalm 139:7-12

A small boat alone on a dark sea at night, with a path of moonlight on the water reaching it — **On the cover**The small boat alone on the dark sea is verse 9: "if I settle on the far side of the sea". It's the farthest place you can go. And the path of moonlight on the water reaching the boat is verse 10, "even there your hand will guide me", and verse 12, "the night will shine like the day". The night is still night, but there is light coming. No one in the frame: the boat can be yours.

"Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" Whoever asks that has already tried to run. David knew the wish to disappear. To get far away from everything, even from God. Maybe you know it too: that season when you stopped praying, stopped going to church, stopped opening the Bible, because it hurt too much or because it seemed pointless.

And the Psalm answers with a list that goes from the heavens to the bottom: "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there." The depths, there, is Sheol, the place of the dead, the deepest deep. Even there. There is no place so low that God doesn't come down with you, and no place so far that his hand can't reach: "even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."

Maybe your darkness today has a name. Depression, grief, a marriage that has gone cold, a guilt that won't leave. And maybe you think what David thought: "Surely the darkness will hide me." That no one will see, not even God. But the Psalm says one of the most beautiful sentences in the Bible: "darkness is as light to you." Your dark doesn't hide you from him. He sees right there.

That doesn't mean the dark will pass tomorrow. It means you're not alone inside it. The hand that guides you doesn't wait for you to get out of the tunnel to hold you. It's already there, in the middle. If you've drifted away from God, today you don't need to make a grand return. You only need to notice that he never left your side.

How to pray with it today

Today, think about the darkest place in your life right now: that subject you avoid even in prayer. Say its name to God, in your own words. Then repeat verse 10 slowly, like someone holding a hand: "even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." If you can, write it on a piece of paper and keep it close.

A short prayer

Lord, I've tried to run, and you were there. I hid in the dark, and the dark didn't hide me from you. Wherever I am today, hold my hand. Make my night a place where you still are. Amen.

To keep today

There is no place too far or too dark. Even there, God's hand guides you and holds you.