Psalm 139 and Summer and New Life Resolutions

My dad got the lastest Sons Of Korah CD for christmas, and so far my favourite track is number two, a rendition of Psalm 139.



Not to retract from the original, which still astounds me every time I read it.

Psalm 139


For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.


You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.


Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.


For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
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.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.


If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Those words just... move me. The fact that they are true blows my mind. And freaks me out.

It's been an amazing summer so far. It began when I flew to Adelaide and roadtripped to Melbourne. I then went on to Canberra for National Training Event (NTE) and from there to Sydney to work with a church and put some of what I'd learnt into action. I stopped in at Newcastle for a night to visit a few good friends before another brief stop over in Katoomba and a three day bus ride back to Perth. It was a crazy five weeks!

Christmas was hectic and heartwarming and holy! It's a joyful celebration which is eagerly anticipated as my favourite festival every year and I'm sad it is over.

And now here we are, the New Year of 2012!

This is the part where I post about my new year resolutions (or new life resolutions, as I like to call them!). I look at me and I see the things about me that I want to change, the not-so-Christ-like bits, bits I want God to take and replace. Isn't this what we've been called to do? Isn't every day a new challenge? "If anyone should come after me he must deny himself and take his cross up daily." (Luke 9:23, thanks Colin!) So, this is my new life resolution - to remember that old, would-be, sinful me is well and truly dead (thank-you Jesus!) and to take up my cross every day.

I've decided to start reading my Bible daily in the mornings, before I start uni or go to work, no matter how early. I would also like to challenge myself to read it in a year.

I want to live healthier. Eat healthier. Sleep earlier. Exercise daily. But most of all, strive to put God first in everything I do. I know this is idealistic but I also know that God is greater, God is stronger. 

"Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."