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.
Psalm 139:3-4 (NIV)
Nothing Left to Edit
The hall light goes on before the kitchen light every morning, and there is no reason for it. Then the left side of the sink, then however long it takes to sit on the edge of the bed before the day has a single word in it. You have been doing it that way since before you noticed. I could name the order I do mine in, and I’ve never had a reason to tell anybody.
David’s list is made of the same material. Going out, lying down, all my ways: the door in the morning and the bed at the end of it. David says God discerns all of that and is familiar with every part of it.
Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. The words in that line belong to the man praying. He is talking about his own speech, the thing he hasn’t decided to say yet and the thing he decides against.
Being known completely is good news depending entirely on who knows you. David seems to feel that edge himself. He asks where he could possibly go to get away from God’s Spirit, the question of a man checking the exits.
You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. David leaves being held and being closed in standing together. He states both things and leaves them to a man who is already praying hand.
David says both things about the same God and does not soften either one. If you have spent years packing what other people get to see, with the wrong thing never on top, that is a kind of rest. God has never been managed, not once. He watched you sit on the edge of the bed this morning, and he heard the sentence you swallowed at dinner.
A Prayer to Remember
You were there for the part of this morning that has no words in it, the bed, the sink, the order I do it in. Nobody has ever asked me about any of that, and you’ve never had to ask. Whatever I arrange for the people who will see me today, none of it has ever worked on you.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
