The Inescapable God

Psalm 8:1 (NIV)

¹ Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

I took a break the past two weeks to go camping with my family. The first week was at a National Park in Quebec with no internet or telephone service. Armed with my sketchbooks, a few books, and my Bible I had planned to take the time to spend with God. Instead I found myself taking walks, sitting silently looking at nature and appreciating the beauty of the woods around me. I read the stanzas from the Dark Night of the Soul, but this time around did not read his long examination into its meaning.

Instead I gazed at nature’s beauty and reimagined God’s love for humanity in the perfect world he created.

Psalm 139

The Inescapable God (NVSVC)

¹ O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
³ You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is so high that I cannot attain it.

⁷ Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light around me become night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
¹⁵     My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
    all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.
¹⁷ How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
    I come to the end I am still with you.

¹⁹ O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
    and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
²⁰ those who speak of you maliciously,
    and lift themselves up against you for evil!^[b]
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
²² I hate them with perfect hatred;
    I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any wicked^[c] way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

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I thought about our first parents. How beautiful it must have been before the Fall. The essence of God’s beautiful creation is still evident all around me. Taking time out to embrace God is nurturing my soul.

To sit quietly with God meant taking myself out of my comfort zone and literally spending time away from the din of my everyday. There was no internet, no household chores to distract me, and no thinking “I’ve got to…!”

Sitting quietly with God, my mind emptied in quiet adoration.

I was surprised I didn’t spend time praying excessively, or reading theological material – instead I sat in silent adoration.

The KJV below recalls a hymn from my childhood.

Psalm 19

19 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

² Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

³ There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

⁴ Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

⁵ Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

⁶ His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

⁸ The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

⁹ The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

¹¹ Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

¹² Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

¹³ Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

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Thank you God for showing me that I can sit in quiet adoration.

God Bless 💕🙏🙌

Note: I will get around to making my blog more readable and user friendly in August 💕