Inscribed on a clock-case in Chester Cathedral, England, is a poem, Time’s Paces, attributed to Henry Twells. It reads:

  ‘When as a child I laughed and wept, Time CREPT;

   When as a youth I waxed more bold, Time STROLLED.

   When I became a full-grown man, Time RAN.

   When older still I daily grew, Time FLEW.

   Soon I shall find, in passing on, Time GONE.

We do everything we can to deny the passing of time. We pay attention to the skillful marketing of products that can supposedly delay the ravages of the passing years or even reverse the process. But no one is able to stop the advance of time.

In Mark chapter 13, verses 24-27 we read some very sobering words from Jesus: “In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”

There are times when significant events occur that impact the course of history. We saw this with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the destruction of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001, and the unprovoked, barbaric attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The world around us seems to be growing more selfish and corrupt. Nearer home, parents are concerned about the influences of social media and the impact of gender issues. Drugs and alcohol, homelessness, violence and rape seem more prevalent. Any sense that humanity is the special creation of a personal God seems to be gathering dust on the shelf of history.

Will there ever be a time when the evil and troubles of the world are brought to a close?

In Mark chapter 13, we read that Jesus doesn’t beat about the bush concerning the realities of our troubled world. He speaks of suffering and using metaphors, predicts global, catastrophic events. In this context he forewarns us of a day of his return.

His expression, the Son of Man, takes up the prophecy of Daniel some five or six hundred years before. Daniel chapter 7 speaks of the Son of Man coming in dominion and glory and that all peoples, nations and languages will be brought under his rule.

Consider for a moment the splendor and pageantry of royal occasions on earth such as a coronation, then multiply the scene a million times, and then a million times more. We might just begin to imagine the dazzling glory and the awesome power of the return of God’s king.

The idea of an end of time is dismissed these days. The thought is laughable. Catastrophic events impacting the world is a theme that books and films play with. But in the human mind such catastrophies never mean an end of time. Movies such as 2012 and The Road portray humanity coming to the rescue in the aftermath of any global catastrophe. Opinion-makers today tell us there will always be survivors to carry on and chart human destiny.

How different is the picture that Jesus portrays. He foreshadows a world catastrophically consumed by fire and his appearing across the skies for all to see – all of which may seem fanciful. Yet he is clear. He points to an end-time and the beginning of a totally new age – one where there will be no crying or mourning, where death itself will have passed away (Revelation 21:4).

What we forget these days is the Person who speaks so clearly and firmly about these matters. Prophecies made by people such as Nathan (2 Samuel 7), Isaiah (Isaiah 7, 9, 11 and 61) and Ezekiel (chapter 34) centuries before Jesus was born, came true with Jesus’s birth and life. Furthermore, his specific predictions about his death and resurrection came true. And he was correct in his predictions about the destruction of the temple and fall of Jerusalem that occurred in 70AD. Is it not conceivable that his further prediction about his return will also be fulfilled? We would be foolish not to pay careful attention to him.

In his Pensées, Blaise Pascal, the 17th C French philosopher, mathematician and chemist, wrote: “Either Christianity is true or it’s false. If you bet that it’s true, and you believe in God and submit to Him, then if it IS true, you’ve gained God, heaven, and everything else. If it’s false, you’ve lost nothing, but you’ve had a good life marked by peace and the illusion that ultimately, everything makes sense. If you bet that Christianity is not true, and it’s false, you’ve lost nothing. But if you bet that it’s false, and it turns out to be true, you’ve lost everything and you get to spend eternity in hell”.

In Mark chapter 13, verses 28 through 30, Jesus uses the analogy of the fig tree to illustrate his remarks about the future. Just as the sprouting leaves on the fig tree indicate that summer is near, so do catastrophic events indicate the coming of God’s new age.

When will this happen? As history reveals, star-watchers don’t help us with an answer. And Jesus tells us that not even he knew (Mark chapter 13, verse 32). However, he is sure of this: there will be an end time when he will return. Indeed, he tells us that despite calamitous cosmic events in the world, his words will not pass away.

Why is it then that we so easily put aside this thought? Why is it that we don’t pay greater attention to what our Bibles say? Are we too busy? Do we not believe Jesus’s words?

We may forget that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The giving of the law to Moses caused people to tremble with fear as they stood at the foot of Mt Sinai (Exodus 19:16). Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the temple caused him to cry out, “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips…” (Isaiah 6:5). Significantly in Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 11, Paul the Apostle writes: Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others…

How then should we now live? Watch, pray and work. Watch. Be aware that this world is passing. Be prepared for the return of the King. Pray. Pray that God, in his compassion, will open blind eyes and soften hard hearts. Work. God calls us to partner with him in rescuing the lost and bringing them to their true home in knowing, loving and serving Jesus Christ.

If you will allow me a personal note, you might consider getting two or three copies of my book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs. It’s available globally through Amazon. I’ve written it to encourage God’s people in our walk with Jesus, and as an easy-to-read book to pass on to family and friends – perhaps as a present for Christmas.

I didn’t tell you there’s a last line to that poem in Chester Cathedral: ‘Soon I shall find while travelling on, time gone. “Will Christ have saved my soul by then?” I asked.’

A Prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, so that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

Uncertain times challenge us with the bigger questions of life and whether a good and caring God exists. Come with me to Jesus’s words in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill.”

These are remarkable claims. The Law, the Prophets and the Writings is the title in the Jewish world for our Old Testament. In speaking of the law and the prophets, Jesus was referring to the Scriptures at that time. What did he mean when he says that he did not come to abolish, but rather to fulfill the law and the prophets?

The events that unfold in Matthew chapter 1 provide an important clue to Jesus’s meaning.

Before Jesus was born, Joseph had a problem. Mary his fiancée was pregnant and he knew he was not the father. When Joseph planned to divorce Mary quietly, an angel spoke to assure him that everything about Mary’s baby was ‘to fulfillwhat the Lord had spoken through the prophet’.

Furthermore, in Matthew chapter 11, verse 12 we read Jesus’s words: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, … For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John”. Jesus is saying that both the Old Testament prophets and the law pointed to him. He was not working in opposition to the Scriptures – our Old Testament. Rather he was bringing everything they said to fruition.

Think of it this way. Imagine the law and the prophets are light waves. They are travelling in parallel lines foreshadowing the coming of Jesus. As we now look back at his life, we could liken his coming to a lens through which the light waves of the law and prophets are filtered. We see that the climactic events of his death and resurrection are the focal point of the law and the prophets.

Jesus said so himself. In Luke chapter 24, verses 27ff, we read what he said to two grief-stricken followers with whom he walked on the road to Emmaus on the day of his resurrection:

“Oh, how foolish you are,” he said, “and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures (our Old Testament).

Let’s think about this and tease out some application. To return to the analogy of the light waves of the law and the prophets passing through the lens of Jesus’s coming to the focal point of his death and resurrection, the light waves are filtered as they appear on the other side of the focal point. Some of the ‘law and prophetic’ waves have come to an end, while others are given a new shape.

So, for example, the laws concerning sacrifice for sin pointed to the need for a sacrifice that would perfectly satisfy God’s righteous requirements. This is uniquely found in Jesus’s death – as we read, for example in Romans 3:22b-25 and Hebrews 12:12, 14-16. The principle of the need for a sacrifice for sin remains; however, the need for further sacrifices to atone for sin is now over. The 1662 Anglican Prayer Book rightly speaks of Jesus’s death as the one perfect and complete sacrifice for the sin of the world.

To take another example, the Ten Commandments set out God’s expectations of his people for their relationship with him and with one another. Unlike us, Jesus throughout his life perfectly kept God’s law. His life and teaching are the perfect exemplar of Godliness and goodness – not least in the way he honored God by loving and serving us, his neighbors, in our deepest need, in his sacrificial death on the cross.

Furthermore, to return to my analogy, as the filtered ‘light waves’ emerge on the other side of the focal point of Jesus’s death and resurrection, we come to understand more fully the high standards of God’s kingdom that Jesus sets out in his Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapters 5 and 6 especially, Jesus opens up the deeper meaning of commands concerning murder, adultery, love and prayer for enemies, prayer and possessions, self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

Jesus commands his people to practise and teach these things. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 19 we read: “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Significantly, we will only ever begin to keep them if we have discovered God’s love for us. For only then will we want to turn to him in honesty and deep repentance, asking for his forgiveness. We will also want to pray that his Spirit will so change our hearts and his Word so teach our minds, that we will want to honor and serve him with thankfulness in our hearts.

Furthermore, as we read in Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapter 13 and Luke chapter 22, Jesus specifically speaks of a time when he will return in all his glory and power, to judge the world and to gather his people into his kingdom. The world as we know it, will pass away. How important it is, as Jesus warns, that we remain alert and are prepared for his coming.

These truths are so encouraging in the midst of the uncertainties of life. They awaken within us true hope and a spirit of thanksgiving to the Lord, especially in this the season of Thanksgiving and as we begin the season of Advent – when we focus on the return of God’s King. In Revelation chapter 21 we read:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men and women. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away’ (Revelation 21:1-4).

In Jesus fulfilling the law and the prophets, we learn of the God who serves – the God to whom we have every reason to give our heartfelt thanks at every twist and turn in life. And so, rejoice. With these thoughts in mind, may you enjoy a truly Happy Thanksgiving!

A Prayer of Thanksgiving.

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your amazing love in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory.

And, we pray, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be truly thankful, and that we may declare your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

Hallelujah is a wonderful word! It’s a compilation of two Hebrew words: Hallel which means praise and Jah which is a contraction of God’s name, Jehovah or Yahweh. Hallelujah is an exhortation: ‘Praise the Lord’. It’s the word that forms the bookends of the last five psalms.

Hallelujah challenges us to ask, who is God that we would want to praise him? We can only truly worship God when we know something about him. In his conversation with a woman at a well in Samaria that we find in John’s Gospel, Jesus says that true worshippers worship God in spirit and in truth (4:23).

Significantly, Psalm 146, following the opening call Hallelujah, tells us about God. Two themes stand out: False Hope and True Hope.

False Hope. Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish (verse 3).

Psalm 146 was most likely written in the 6th century BC, when the Jewish people were in exile in ancient Babylon. But as earlier prophets had indicated, they were given the opportunity to return to Jerusalem – something Cyrus, the Persian leader decreed in 520BC.

But the psalm warns, Don’t put your trust in princes. Princes is a reference to the powerful and the rich, the elite, the celebrities and influencers, who seem to offer a better world – more often than not, as opposed to God. Even good leaders will disappoint, the psalm warns, for none can offer true, lasting solutions to the world’s problems. They’re not saviors. And their biggest problem is that they all die.

Now, Paul the Apostle in his Letter to the Romans, chapter 13, tells us that God has given us governments for the good order and protection of society. Nowhere is the Bible against governments. In a flawed, troubled world God in his mercy uses governments to provide a framework for justice and peace, and – in most democracies – security, education, healthcare and so on. Furthermore, in his First Letter to Timothy, chapter 2, Paul exhorts us to pray for all in authority so that everyone may enjoy peace and so that the gospel can be promoted.

Interestingly, despite being a global celebrity Taylor Swift acknowledges that she isn’t able to offer solutions to the longings or pain we feel – she is not a savior. In the chorus of Anti Hero she sings, “It’s me, hi/ I’m the problem, it’s me”.

And, to apply the warning of Psalm 146 to my own ministry, I ask everyone to work with a paradox: trust me when I say, don’t put your trust in me. I am in need of a savior to rescue me from my failings before the Lord; also the day will come when I will pass from this world. And even Mary, the mother of Jesus, called God her Savior (Luke 1:46-47).

The warning of Psalm 146 about false hope has lost none of its relevance through the millennia.

True Hope. Where then can we find true hope? In verse 5 we read: Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,…

I’m sure you have noticed what the psalm is saying: God who made unbreakable promises to the Jewish people, is not only the source of true help in life, but also our only hope.

Who is this God? Verse 6 tells us: The Lord who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;… The God who created all things, isn’t fickle. He always keeps his word.

And as the psalm continues to unfold, the focus is on God as creator, his faithfulness and his justice, his love and his commitment to give us life and hope.

The notion of a creator God is aggressively dismissed today by opinion-shapers. Yet some of the finest scientific minds agree that we are not here by chance: the universe is the work of a supreme intelligence.

For example, Dr. John Lennox, emeritus professor of mathematics, Oxford University, writes in God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? ‘To the majority of those who have reflected deeply and written about the origin and nature of the universe, it has seemed that it points beyond itself to a source which is non-physical and of great intelligence and power’.

Furthermore, God is truly the God of good news. In verses 7 and 8 we read: …who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;.. He opens the eyes of the blind. He lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.

The oppressed, the hungry, the prisoners, the blind, and the righteous, the sojourners (immigrants), the widow and the fatherless (verse 9), are the recipients of God’s help.

The flow of the sentence tells us that these are not different groups of people, but the same people. It speaks of God’s people as a whole. The righteous are those who are righteous by faith. They don’t put their trust in the influential or powerful. They put their trust in the God who is faithful, the God who has good news to offer, the God who offers hope and a future.

Now the psalmist is not saying that there is no place for human agencies. That’s not his point. His question is: ‘Where do you put your trust – in human princes or in God?’

Let me ask, do you truly worship God? Let me urge you to open your mind and heart to him and to the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider God’s unchanging character, his special love and his majesty which one day will dazzle and be seen in all its glory throughout the universe. God’s final triumph will eliminate all evil and rebuild once and for all the paradise of Eden lost.

Friends, when we focus our minds on him and let our hearts be drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ, we will find that whatever our song of experience was in the past, it can finish with Hallelujah, the heartfelt song of praise, of hope and of joy, because God is truly good, loving and merciful. His beauty, glory and love are now perfectly revealed for us in his eternal Son whom we know as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let the concluding words of Psalm 146 reach into the depth of your soul: The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord!

Now that God has come amongst us in person, the Lord Jesus Christ, we have greater reason to sing with the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel’s Messiah: And he shall reign forever and ever.  Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Prayer. O God, the author and lover of peace, in knowledge of whom stands our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; defend us your servants in all assaults of our enemies, that surely trusting in your defense, we may not fear the power of any adversaries, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

Do you have any regrets? Perhaps words you have spoken and can’t take back? Or a relationship you should never have started?

Second Samuel, chapter 11 tells us of the time when King David was relaxing on the roof of the palace when he saw a woman bathing. Attracted by her beauty he invited her over. But she was the wife of one of his officers. He’s away, he may have thought. And, I am the king.

But Bathsheba became pregnant, and David’s attempts to arrange for her husband, Uriah to return home and sleep with her, failed. So he developed a more devious plan. Uriah was sent back to the battlefield and positioned so that he would die. Like the ophthalmologist in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors who had an affair and then arranged a murder, King David seemed to have committed the perfect crime.

But David had forgotten God. In Second Samuel chapter 12, we learn that Nathan the prophet arranged to meet the King. Knowing the power of kings, Nathan told a story of a wealthy man who had many sheep and a poor man who had just one little lamb. When the rich man needed a sheep for a meal to entertain a guest, instead of taking a sheep from his own flock, he took the poor man’s lamb. David, a former shepherd, was furious: ‘The man should be brought to justice,’ he said. Nathan’s response? ‘You are the man!’

The heading of Psalm 51 reveals that David wrote it following his affair. It is a complex, very personal psalm, but is timeless in its application as it also speaks to us about ourselves and about God. It is so important that I am repeating, with tweaks, what I have written before.

Have mercy on me, O God, David begins. His cry for mercy reveals that he understood he had no right to expect God’s favor. But because God had sent the prophet Nathan to speak to him, David understood that God had not forgotten his promise. He therefore not only cries for mercy but also appeals to God’s covenant love and compassion: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. Have me mercy on me, O God, according to your abundant mercy (51:3).

Confession. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me, David continues (51:3). Fully aware of his guilt before God, he didn’t just regret what he had done. He truly repented of his actions.

It’s important we think about this. David had tried to cover up and excuse what he had done. It’s something we’re all tempted to do. Over the last 100 years or so, academia has provided us with more and more excuses for what we do. Freud taught us to blame our parents. Marx taught us to blame the capitalist system. And 21st century medicine tells us to blame our DNA. But our guilt can fester and re-appear. It’s sometimes why we can’t sleep.

We need to do as David did: speak to the Lord. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, he said. But what about Bathsheba and Uriah? With his words David is voicing something we all have to reckon with: our sin is first and foremost against God. Adultery and murder are second commandment issues. But when we break the second commandment – love your neighbor as yourself – we are in fact breaking the first, for the second is consequent upon the first. Sin against our neighbor is primarily sin against God.

Contrary to what psychology and psychiatry might tell us, guilt is not just a psychological hang-up. It is something objective, something real, because it arises from thoughts, words and acts that stand between us and our Maker. The God who rules the universe is not just some impersonal force. He is a moral being, an awesome holy judge. When we fail God, we offend him. As David recognizes, God’s anger towards him, as it is towards us, is just.

The pricks of conscience we feel, reflect our awareness of an objective moral order and the existence of God. It’s not enough for the psychotherapist to help us come to terms with our guilt. It’s not even enough for the human beings we have hurt to tell us they forgive us. We are all accountable to God.

See how David puts it: You are justified, God, in your judgment, for against you alone, have I sinned… And, he adds, Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me (51:5).

David knows that his sins are the outcome of a self-centered nature. He’s not speaking against his mother nor the nature of his conception; nor is he blaming her for his actions. Rather he makes a chilling statement about human nature: no one of us is intrinsically good. As Psalm 130 says, If you, O Lord, should mark our iniquities, Lord who could stand? And as Paul the Apostle writes in Romans, chapter 3, verse 23: We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Yet human wisdom today fails to recognize this reality. It is something that impacts every arena of life – politics and the courts, economics and education, family, local community and international relations. Malcolm Muggeridge, one-time editor of the English Punch magazine wrote: The depravity of humanity is at once the most unpopular of all dogmas, but the most empirically verifiable.

Cleansing: You desire truth in the inward being, David continues; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart (51:6). If we are going to find peace of mind and heart, it’s in our minds and hearts that the process of acquiring God’s wisdom must begin. What’s buried in our thoughts needs to be exposed before God.

Consider David’s further words:  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities (51:7-10).

We need more than the band-aid of education or more laws. It’s not just isolated acts of sin we need to be cleansed from, but the powerful grip of our self-centerdness.

Yet, as even the Old Testament reveals, God is willing to forgive. Psalm 130 tells us, But there is forgiveness with you (Lord)…

However, it is not until we come to the New Testament that we learn the true cost for God to cleanse us. In Colossians 2:13 we read: And you who were dead in your trespasses … God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Heart-Change. Create in me a pure heart, O God, David continues (51:10). Too often our problem is that we don’t want to pray this prayer. Indeed, unless God’s mercy and grace are at work within us, we won’t want to change. But David also knows that he can’t presume on God’s mercy. That is why he also says, take not your Holy Spirit from me (51:11).

How we need to pray with David: Restore to me the joy of your salvation (51:12). Restore reminds us that God was no stranger to David. He could recall times when things were different, when he had enjoyed an intimate close friendship with God. Now, more than anything else, he wanted to experience again the joy of that relationship.

‘All I can bring, Lord,’ David continues, is a broken and contrite heart (51:17). He knew that as well as being pure and just, God is also willing to forgive us and set us on a new course of life that is good and honors him. How often we need to meditate on this.

There it is. A very personal, complex psalm with many layers. King David’s cry for God’s mercy is not so much a psalm for a General Confession in the gathering of God’s people, but a psalm for our own personal reflection and prayer in the privacy of our own relationship with the Lord.

Before you go to sleep tonight, let me encourage you to reflect on your own relationship with the Lord with this psalm open before you. Be honest with him, asking him to forgive you for failing to honor him at all times in your life. Pray that his Word and his Spirit will bring about the changes that God in his perfect wisdom knows are for your best, so you may know the joy of his perfect forgiveness and love. Pray further that the Lord will give you the opportunities and the courage to share with family and friends the joy you have found in him.

Where is our hope in life? It is in Christ alone because of God’s amazing grace.

A prayer. Lord God, without you we are not able to please you; mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

The Bible is a book without pictures. This is because there’s an essential, impenetrable mystery about God. To try to paint a picture of God reduces his eternal nature to dimensions that can be comprehended by the human mind. But when we think about it, such a truncated, ordinary God is God no longer.

How then can we begin to grasp God’s awesome majesty, holiness and power? The answer is that because relationship is at the heart of his nature, we come to know him through words. When it comes to the Being of God, the pen can communicate the mystery of God in a way that an artist’s brush cannot.

Psalm 139, sometimes called the crown of Hebrew poetry, is an intensely moving meditation on the invisible attributes of God. In it the power of words brings us into the presence of God whom the Apostle Peter calls the majestic glory (2 Peter 1:17).

We can identify four themes in the psalm.

1. God is all-seeing. In verse 1 we read: O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

National security authorities have an extraordinary capacity to tap into our phone calls and read our tweets and email. Furthermore, our every move is increasingly watched by CCTV.

Three millennia ago, King David knew that he too, was observed by an all-seeing eye. But in his case, he knew that his thoughts, as well as his actions, were observed. He tells us in this Psalm that this Watcher is not a mere, passive, receptor of information like a spy satellite, but a master detective who sees every detail of our existence. ‘You know me, Lord,’ David is saying. ‘I have nowhere from which I can exclude you. Everything is open to your gaze.’

While we might feel threatened by the thought that we’re being watched by a ‘Big Brother’ figure, David doesn’t see it that way. Yes, his words in verse 5 seem to suggest he feels trapped, You hem me in behind and before, you have laid your hand upon me. But his words, you hem me in can also be translated, ‘you guard me’ or ‘you encircle me for my protection’. The wider context of the psalm supports this.

David views God’s all-embracing knowledge as a refuge: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, he says in v.6. He is not resentful of God’s all-seeing intelligence. The more I learn about you, David is saying, the more awesome and mysterious I find you.

2. God is always-present. Consider verses 7 through 10: Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

David, for a moment, considers flight from the all-seeing eyes of God. He wonders if there’s somewhere in the universe where he can escape from God. But the minute the idea enters his mind he sees how impossible it is. God not only knows everything, but he’s also everywhere. If David could blast off into the stratosphere, plunge into the depths of the seas, travel to the farthest reaches touched by the dawning light, he knows he couldn’t escape God.

At times we may feel frustrated with God’s presence. However, the context indicates that this is not what David felt. He didn’t want to get away from God. Rather, he is grateful for God’s all-embracing presence – to guide him and keep him secure.

Verses 11ff assure us that God is utterly dependable, no matter the situation, day or night: If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

David’s response to God’s knowledge and presence is so different from our response to the ever-increasing surveillance systems around us. What if such information was to fall into hostile hands? Yet there is an irony here: the more we see our dependence on human surveillance capabilities, the less dependent we become on God. David knows that God is loving and just in all his ways. God isn’t fickle; he won’t distort and manipulate the picture.

3. God alone is the creator (139:13). For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

The birth of a child is a mysterious and wonderful thing. David had nothing of our 21st C knowledge of human genetics and embryology. He knew nothing of DNA or chromosomes, and had never seen a living foetus on an ultra-sound scan. But he knew enough to be amazed that something as complex as a human was formed inside a woman’s womb.

And he understood that there is only one explanation for this amazing miracle: the work of God. In verse 14 he says: I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

There is something immensely moving and immensely touching for David about God’s work and presence in his life. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! (139:17)

He is aware of God’s personal interest in every detail of his existence – including his weaknesses and fears. He is also aware that with every new day God is still at work, directing the course of his life. He finds it an immensely precious comfort in all his human vulnerability.

Significantly, David traces his beginning as a person, to the moment of conception: You created my inmost being, he says to God.

You knit me together in my mother’s womb (v.13).

Even in embryo he was a person, not just another part of his mother’s body. Psalm 139 speaks so plainly about the human identity of the unborn – from the moment of conception.

4. God – the all-holy One (Psalm 139:19): O that you would kill the wicked, O God,…

David is aware of intrigue and corruption around him – of godless, violent men and women who are intent on evil, who mock the spiritual and moral sensitivity of anyone who speaks of God. He has a choice: he must either identify with the ruthless and their unscrupulous ways, or he must find the courage to be different – to be a man of principle, godliness and integrity.

In this closing stanza David reveals his decision: to put God before personal popularity and personal safety. His decision is a challenge for us. We may be powerless to prevent godless people from carrying out their evil schemes. David prayed for God’s judgment to fall on them. He refused to number them among his friends.

His concluding prayer for himself, is a model for us. In verses 23 and 24 we read: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

God longs that we pray this prayer, not because there is something he doesn’t know about us, but because he wants our friendship. He wants a relationship with us that will enable him to cleanse us from every offensive way and lead us in the way everlasting. For us who live on the other side of the blood that Jesus shed on the cross at Calvary, it means turning to him in repentance, laying the burden of our sin at the foot of the cross, and hearing his, I forgive you.

A prayer. Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason