Stephen Mitchell, A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. Psalm 139, final section, continued from last week.
You fashioned my inward parts;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
My soul was not hidden from you
when I was being formed in secret,
woven in the depths of the world.
How can I keep from praising you?
I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
and all your works are marvelous.
Your eyes saw all my actions;
they were written down in your book;
all my days were created
before even one of them was.
How measureless your mind is, Lord;
it contains inconceivable worlds
and is vaster than space, than time.
If ever I tried to fathom it,
I would be like a child counting
the grains of sand on a beach.
Search me, Lord; test me
to the depths of my inmost heart.
Root out all selfishness from me
and lead me in eternal life.
2 comments:
The final section of Psalm 139 echoes the creation story in Genesis in which God creates human beings and sees that we are good. In this passage, the psalmist describes how she was made by God in the womb and is "wonderfully made" and "marvelous." When we are able to believe in our own basic goodness, it is easier for us to stand before God, longing for closeness and transformation.
I pray that I may have faith in the goodness with which you made me, ever reaching towards that goodness.
If I ever tried to fathom your mind, O Godess, I would be like a child trying to count the grains of sand on the beach. Please, help me to spend time daily on the beach with you, your beach, counting the grains of your sand, that I might take the best time of my day contemplating Your magnitude and breath. Awomen.
Post a Comment