Psalm 139 - A personal prayer

Sometimes it is helpful to take a well-known scripture and meditate on it in a very personal way. Here is Psalm 139 written in such a way:

O Lord,

Please search me and know me.

I give you permission to know my sitting down and my standing up;

To understand my thoughts from far away.

Please understand the path of my life,

My lying down –

Indeed, all of my ways.

Lord, please purify the words on my tongue…

Before…

I speak them.

Put your hedge around me,

Lay your hand upon me.

May you overwhelm me with your wonders.

Help me understand my place in the world.

Let there be no escape for me from Your Spirit.

Don’t let me ever be out of Your Presence.

If I ascend into heaven or

Pitch into hell –

Please still be there.

Even in the early morning and at the seaside,

May your hand hold me wherever I go.

Even in the darkest night:

May your light shine on me.

Thank you that you’ve formed my inward parts,

Put me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank you.

I marvel how you put me together secretly.

Before I was born you already knew every day of my life.

Your thoughts are so precious to me, Lord!

You are so big! So wonderful!

I can’t even begin to count or explain your thoughts.

How could I ever really understand what’s on your mind?

Every morning I wake up –

You are still with me!

Oh Lord, please get rid of wicked, evil people who don’t acknowledge You.

Please get them away from me.

They are so anti- God, so hate-filled.

They take your Name in vain.

I hate those who hate you, Lord.

I loathe them.

I hate them with perfect hatred.

Your enemies are my enemies too.

(Now back to the NKJV for the last two verses)

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

Today’s Poet’s Corner was written by Mandy Hudson, and is arranged each month by our resident poet, Steve Page.