Running With Perseverance

Our Psalm last week was Psalm 139. It’s one I’ve read/heard/recited many times but, as happens so often with the Bible, different words jumped out at me this time.

Here is the full Psalm:

 ¹ O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you know it completely, O Lord.
 ⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
   you have laid your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.
 ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
 ¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.
 ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place.
   When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
 ¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
   All the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.
 ¹⁷ How precious to^[b] me are your thoughts, O God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand.
  When I awake, I am still with you.
 ¹⁹ If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
   Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
   your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
   and abhor those who rise up against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
 ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.

I usually focus on these verses:

 ¹ O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you know it completely, O Lord.

Or, if I am feeling lost or alone, these verses comfort me: 

⁷  Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths,you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.

But last week, it was these words that jumped out at me: 

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

It made me wonder if I ever have given thanks to God for making me who I am.

We spend so much time criticizing ourselves that we forget that we are part of God’s creation. In His eyes, we are perfectly made–human flaws and all.

Have you thanked God for your lovely voice, your contagious laughter, your warm heart, your strong shoulders, your muscular legs, your intellect, your compassion, your sense of humor, your way with words, your artistic talent?

Have you given thanks to God because you are wonderfully made?