Such Knowledge Is Too Wonderful For Me

Today is Tuesday, June 19, 2018. Day 22,013. Juneteenth.

Fifteen days until July 4!

148 days until Fallout 76!

“I loathe the expression ‘What makes him tick.’ It is the American mind, looking for simple and singular solution, that uses the foolish expression. A person not only ticks, he also chimes and strikes the hour, falls and breaks and has to be put together again, and sometimes stops like an electric clock in a thunderstorm.” ~ James Thurber, 1894-1961, The Quotations Page

The word for today is turophile, “a connoisseur or lover of cheese.” I would think I qualify. I’m no connoisseur, but I certainly love cheese.

Not really a whole lot to write about on a personal level, this morning. The Rangers beat the Royals by the score of 6-3, and are on a three-game winning streak. Their record is 30-44, and they remain 19 games out in the AL West. The Red Sox did not play last night.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS
All Scriptures are from the ESV unless otherwise noted

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
Be not silent, O God of my praise! 
For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. 
They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. 
In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. 
So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love. 
Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand at his right hand. 
When he is tried, let him come forth guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin! 
May his days be few; may another take his office! 
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow! 
May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit! 
May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil! 
Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children! 
May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation! 
May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out! 
Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth! 
For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted, to put them to death. 
He loved to curse; let curses come upon him! He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him! 
He clothed himself with cursing as his coat; may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones! 
May it be like a garment that he wraps around him, like a belt that he puts on every day! 
May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life!
Psalm 109:1-20

So this is in the Bible. And, while it must be here for a reason, I’m pretty sure I could never bring myself to pray this kind of thing against someone, no matter how badly I had been treated. But I think it is okay for us to vent to God. Tell him how you feel about things. He can handle it.

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 
You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 
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! 
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. 
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 
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. 
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. 
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 
If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. 
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! 
They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. 
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 
I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. 
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 
And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 139

This Psalm was in my Bible reading plan for the day. This plan bounces around in the Psalms, depending on what the other portions for the day are. It has long been one of my favorites, as it speaks of the absolute, infinite knowledge that God has about us. It also speaks of his presence. Since he is everywhere, there is nowhere I can go that he is not. For some, this creates awkwardness, uncomfortableness, or even terror. For me, it is comfort.

Father, I do, indeed, praise you, for I am “fearfully and wonderfully made.” When I think about the human body, and the way it works, I am amazed. When I think about the fact that you are everywhere, all the time, my mind cannot take it in. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.” Remind me of these things as I navigate the day ahead of me. There will be challenges; there will be pleasures; there will be joys. May they all reflect your presence in my life.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you. Psalm 33:22

Grace and peace, friends.