Sunday, 27 December 2020
Psalm 139:1-12 God knows all things including us personally and leads us.
Written by Abraham Verghese

Read and meditate on Psalm 139:1-12 (for overall context read the whole of Psalm 139).

It is very obvious from this passage that God knows all things (omniscient) (vs 1-6) and is everywhere (omnipresent) (vs 7-12). Answers to the following questions are taken for granted:

• Where is God? Everywhere.
• Does God know all things? Yes, nothing can be hidden from God.

However, sometimes the basic truth that God knows all things and is everywhere does not seem to really apply to our individual situations. Verse 10 says, “Even there your hand shall lead me” and that is what we can hold on to.  At times it seems like a threat and we may feel the need to hide from God (Genesis 3:7, 8) even when we don’t quite understand how, we know that God is leading us and we should be led by the Spirit (Gal 5:18). Even when we are exhausted, running on little sleep, and things seem to keep going wrong, God is with us. Is there any where indeed that we can go to flee from His presence? (v 8). Nowhere at all! (vs 9-12). I hid for a long time or rather thought I was hiding but I was fully exposed to Him all the while and I know that I no longer should even bother to try or to pretend to hide.

Even though our days can feel meaningless, when we go through our days exercising faith, we are bringing glory to God. Remember that God knows what we would be doing at a specific time, and remember that He is with us and using those very tasks for our sanctification. It can help us put into perspective and draw us closer to Him. He knows what we shall be doing at any specific point in time as He is not in time and sees the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) – our wonderfully created minds may still be limited to fully understand this.

Let us rejoice that we are clothed with Jesus’ righteousness which comes through faith in Christ. We need not hide as our Father looks at us through the righteousness of His Son, not our filthy rags. We can bear to let God expose us and to overcome our distorted self views – our views that tend to be biased and confused. Our Loving God is absolutely committed to us and He points out our flaws. While it may be hard but knowing that He loves us we can and should listen. His love enables us to accept the unpleasant truth about ourselves and such acceptance opens the gate to continuous growth through sanctification as we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us (Gal 5:18).

Prayer:

Omniscient and omnipresent God, there is no where we can hide and nothing that You do not know. Thank You for Your abundant love that You look at us through the righteousness of Your Son who lovingly paid the penalty for our sins and not our filthy rags. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

每日灵粮
星期日，2020年12月27日
题目：全知的上帝认识我们、引领我们
作者：亚伯拉罕·韦尔盖塞
翻译：杨仕涵弟兄

阅读、默想诗篇139:1-12（阅读诗篇139全篇为了解背景）

这段诗篇很明显地写出上帝是全知的（无所不知）（第1-6节），也是无处不在的（无所不在）（第7-12节）。以下两个问题的答案是非常明确的：
• 上帝在哪里？处处都在。
• 上帝知道万事吗？是的，没有一件事是对上帝隐藏的。

但是，往往上帝无所不知和无所不在的基本真理似乎没有真正适用于我们的个人情况。第10节说：“就是在那里，祢的手必引导我”，这是我们可以投靠的。有时这仿佛是一种威胁，即使我们不太了解如何，我们也可能感到有必要躲避上帝（创世记3：7，8），我们知道上帝在引导我们，也知道我们应该被圣灵引导（加拉太书5:18）。即使我们精疲力尽，几乎没有睡觉，事情似乎一直在出错，上帝仍与我们同在。我们有何处可以逃离上帝的身影吗？ （第8节）。无处！（第9-12节）。我躲藏了很长时间，或者可以说以为自己在躲藏，但是我在上帝面前是显露的，而我知道我不再应该费劲去尝试或假装躲避上帝。

即使我们的日子感到毫无意义，但当我们在操练我们的信心时，我们就将荣耀归给了上帝。记住，上帝知道我们在特定的时间会做什么，并记住，祂与我们同在，并以这些是成为我们成圣路程中的一部分。这可以帮助我们以另一个角度看待事情并使我们更亲近上帝。祂知道我们在何特定的时间点做些什么，因为祂在时间以外，不被时间捆绑，并且从起初指明末后的事，从古时言明未成的事。（以赛亚书46:10）- 我们受造奇妙的思想目前无法完全理解这事。

让我们欢欣，我们得以披上公义，是因信耶稣基督。上帝不再看我们污秽的衣服，而是看基督的义，我们因此不必在躲避上帝。我们可以忍受让上帝揭露我们，并胜过我们扭曲的自我观点-我们的观点往往带有偏见和困惑。我们的上帝爱我们，但祂也指出我们的缺点。虽然可能很难，但知道祂爱我们，我们可以并且应该听。祂的爱使我们能够接受关于自己不好的事实，而透过圣灵的引导，这种愿意接受的心态就为我们打开了持续成长的门（参加5:18）。

祷告：
无所不知、无所不在的上帝，我们无处可逃避祢，也无事可隐瞒祢。感谢祢丰盛的爱，基督以爱心还清我们的罪债，祢因此看我们为基督的义，而不是为污秽的衣服。奉耶稣的名祷告，阿们。