Psalm 139
A Terrifying Development in the Akron Area
Recently, a disturbing article appeared in the Sunday Akron Beacon Journal. The headline article read, “Akron Children’s Hospital opens Center for Gender Affirming Medicine.”[1]
Think about the juxtaposition. Gender affirming medicine at Akron Children’s Hospital. “No cause for worry here, folks. We’re only here to help those who question the biological truth about their identities.” The article was upbeat and featured photos of smiling staff members.
At this time, according to the article, the Center practices only counseling.
The truth is more sinister. If gender affirming medicine lies literally inside the hospital doors, how long will it be before the hospital takes the inevitable step to include sex-change procedures? The moral barrier between “counseling” and carrying out irreversible sexual mutilation on our youth is about as thick as a hospital privacy curtain.
What Happened?
We who stand on the faith recognize that what comes from God is orderly. For us, the understanding that truth is absolute is unquestionable.
Over the past fifty years—a blink of an eye historically—Western culture has rejected that idea. When I attended college in the 1970’s, the idea was academic, the subject of philosophers.
A few years later, however, the academic notions filtered into our schools with the teaching tolerance. Tolerance told our children that in areas of religion and opinion, “knowledge” amounts to nothing more than personal preference. What one believes is true for him, and what another believes is true for her. No one is right, because the idea of moral absolutes might offend others.
Now, the subjectivity that ruled religious notions has invaded biology. At last count, the LGBTQ+ movement claims to have discovered thirty-six genders, none of which has anything to do with biology. On many college campuses, biologists who defend biological male- and femaleness find themselves driven from the building.
Finding Our Identities in God
Where can we go?
Psalm 139 gives us the anchor that the world has rejected. The psalm is a meditation on David’s relationship to his God, and it sings of grounding. David knows who he is because he knows his God. And he knows his God because he sees God’s intimate care for him at every point in his life.
The opening of the psalm begins with three observations on his relationship with God.
The First Stanza: The Comfort of being Known by the All-knowing God, (verses 1-6)
The sense of wonder in these verses rings throughout the text.
O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thought from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways….
--Psalm 139:1-2
This is just the first two verses. Even in these introductory words, God’s knowledge of our being is astounding. The word for known in the first line does not refer only to factual knowledge. It also expresses intimacy. The same word occurs in Genesis 4:1, “And Adam knew his wife and she conceived….” God knows us completely.
Notice also that God searches us. His knowledge is purposeful. His knowledge of us is not just a remote corner in his infinitely large collection of facts about the universe and history. He has chosen to enter into a relationship with us, and he wants us to know him in the same way.
He knows our sitting and rising—that is, our habits. He knows our thoughts, and he is altogether up on the things that drive us to be who we are.
A few verses later, David writes, “You hem me in, behind and before, / and lay your hand upon me” (verse 5).
Our identities are tethered in God. He saves us from the tyranny of casting about trying to find something from our thoughts to make us unique.
The Second Stanza: Secure in God’s Presence, (verses 7-12)
The second stanza of the psalm begins in verse 7 and speaks of God’s omnipresence, or his being everywhere. The language intensifies.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!...
--Psalm 139:7-8
One of the wonders for David is God’s inescapability. David’s words represent a truth that began in the creation account in Genesis and permeates the rest of the Bible. From the beginning, God’s presence has been the foundation for our dignity as human beings created in God’s image.
The Third Stanza: Created Purposefully and Well, (verses 13-16)
The third stanza stands as a defense against the now-popular notion that we are undefined beings whose greatest aspiration in life is to become whatever we think.
According to the psalm, we are completed works of art. Here is a short sample of the third section.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
--Psalm 139:14-15
From these verses, we can make the following conclusions.
First, God has created well, and his craftmanship is evident if we only search for it. He is praiseworthy for his work in creation, and that means that he has done rightly.
Second, God’s process for bringing us into being is both evident and secret. On the one hand, David knew that he was fearfully and wonderfully made. In the modern age, the have revealed many of God’s marvels invisible to David. In this sense, his work is intricate, deep, and obvious.
On the other hand, it is also mysterious. We will continue to learn much in biochemistry, but God’s ultimate understanding of his creation will remain his alone.
Third, God’s work is purposeful. David concludes the section with these words:
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
--Psalm 139:16
This does not mean that our days are mechanically fixed. Our purpose is clear, however. We are to adore God for his handiwork and grace.
The Moral of the Story
God’s desire for us is to relish the relationship that we have with him as the God who created us, redeemed us, and loves us. The beauty of knowing God does not lie in our intelligence. It lies in the fact that God has chosen to know us.
In the desert of confusion, Psalm 139 is an oasis. Knowing God becomes a deepening awareness of God’s encompassing knowledge of us. That truth defines us. It drives us to worship our Creator rather than ourselves. It In the end, it stands as the only hope for humanity to be humanity.
Doug Knox
[1] “Akron Children’s Hospital opens Center for Gender Affirming Medicine,” Akron Beacon Journal, Sunday, July 28, 2019, A1, A4-A5.