Lord, You Are WITH me.

Hi everybody. It’s Pastor Dave with another Real Daily Devotion. If you have a Bible, grab it and turn it to Psalm 139 again today. It’s awesome if you can focus on your own Bible as we go today. I use the NLT version of the Bible, and if you can’t look at your Bible, or if you’d like to focus on the same version I’m using, the actual verses will be on the screen in the video version of this devotion.

We’re taking three devotions to look at Psalm 139. This is part two, and we will be looking at Psalm 139:7-12. In the first six verses of Psalm 139, our devotion was titled, “God You Know Me.” Today in verses 7-12, our title is “God You Are With Me.” We started this three-part devotion as a prayer to God, so let’s keep that going. I’ll continue to make this my prayer, and I hope you can do the same. As you listen and as you focus on God’s Word, please make this your own personal prayer.

God, you are with me.

Psalm 139:7 - I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! Not just because you are omnipresent, Lord. But because you are “relationally” with me. Lord, you are with me – today – right now, right where I find myself. You are with me. God, your Word says nothing can ever separate me from your love, neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, neither my fears for today or my worries about tomorrow – not even the power of hell can separate me from your love, Lord. Your love for me is not an “out there somewhere” love. Your love for me is a very present love. It is a love I cannot escape from, and I cannot escape from your Holy Spirit. Lord, you are with me.

Verse 8 - II go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. Lord, this is so “personal” – you, Lord, are there – you are personally present with me. No matter what “state” I am in, no matter what condition I’m in or my life is in – Lord, you are with me. If I am walking on the clouds of heaven, you are with me. And if I’m crawling in the gutter of the grave, you are with me. God, when I feel far from you when I feel separated from you, YOU have not left ME. Though your Word says, my sin separates me from you relationally until I repent and seek your forgiveness, even then, in your incredible love and faithfulness – even when I have stumbled in sin – you are still with me, loving me back to yourself.

Verses 9-10 say, - If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. No matter how far I run, Lord, no matter where I go, no matter where I find myself today, even there, your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. Lord, once I am yours by putting my full faith in you, then I am truly yours forever. Even if I try to run from you, even if I stumble, even if my sin alienates me from you, Lord, you are faithful – you will never leave me. Your Word says even if I am faith-less, you will remain faith-full because that is who you are Lord, and you cannot deny yourself. In the highest mountains and the lowest valleys of life, you are with me.

Verses 11-12 say, I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— 12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. Lord, you are so faithful that even if I ask the darkness to hide me, even if I ask the light around me to become night, I cannot hide from you or from your love. Even if I bring darkness into my life, or if I experience the dark valleys of this life, it CANNOT hide me from you, Lord, and it cannot separate me from your presence or from your love. Whether I am walking in the light or clawing my way through the darkness, you see me just as clearly, either way. You see me, and you are with me, and you will never leave me.

God, you are with me because that is who you are. You will never leave me nor forsake me because of your faithfulness. Lord, may this knowledge always drive me toward you, may it always cause me to cling to your great love and faithfulness – no matter what. May this knowledge of you drive me out of the darkness and into the glorious light of abiding in you, Jesus, knowing you better, and walking in the light of your Holy Spirit. May I know your great faithfulness and love more and more, and may I know you Jesus, more and more as my ever-present Savior and Lord. In your name, Jesus, amen.

Lord, You Are With Me

Pray through six verses of Psalm 139 with Pastor Dave.