A Psalm/Prayer

Series on “I am Joe’s Favorite Verses”: Psalm 139:23-24
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Psalm 139:1-24

[Many years ago, there used to be articles in the Reader’s Digest titled “I am Joe’s ___” with the blank being filled with a body part or organ. Over the years, I’ve written down verses that are meaningful to me on 3x5 cards. In this series we’ll be looking at some of my favorite verses. In other words, “I am Joe’s Favorite Verses”.]

  

Have you ever noticed how someone who is really close to you knows what you’re going to say before you say it? After fifty-two years of marriage, my wife does that with me. In fact, on occasion, she will finish my sentences before I’m even done.

 

God is like that with us. He is all-knowing – omniscience is the theological word for it. David put it in a much more personal and practical way in his psalm/prayer.

 

² You know when I sit down or stand up.
    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
⁴ You know what I am going to say
    even before I say it, Lord.         NLT

 

Because we are all sinners, to be fully known by someone, and still having them love you is staggering. David, for instance, had some glaring skeletons in his closet – an affair with Bathsheba and then having her husband, Uriah, killed. Yet, the Lord loved David. In fact, the bloodline of Jesus ran through him.

 

David also wrote in his psalm/prayer how God’s Spirit was with him everywhere he went. The theological word for this is omnipresence. But again, David framed it in a much more personal and poetic way.

 

⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.      NIV

 

The impact of this was that David realized even in the darkness of his sin, the Lord was there. Not only was the Lord there, but he was at work in his life, using his trials and temptations and failures to grow in his faith.

 

Finally, David wrote about the all-sovereign God – or how God is omnipotent. In doing so, David defined himself not by his failures or successes, but by the truth of being created by the Living God.

 

¹³ You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.    NLT

 

As David meditated and wrote about who God was and how God worked in his life, he concluded his psalm/prayer where he started – a desire to follow the Lord and obey him in all that he did.

 

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ Point out anything in me that offends you,
    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.       NLT

 

This is a psalm/prayer worth repeating every day of my life.

 

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

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Behind Door #1

Revelation 4:1-11

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+4%3A1-11&version=NIV;NLT

In 1963, Monty Hall was the original host of “Let’s Make a Deal”. The show continues today under the same premise as when it originated. Contestants have to choose between prizes that are relatively known, and what is behind Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3. “What’s a person to do? Oh my!”

 

John saw a door of a different nature with a different prize behind it.

 

¹ Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.”          NLT

 

In John’s vision of Heavenly worship, he describes God as the brilliant image of someone sitting on the throne. Then he goes on to describe the scene that surrounds the throne including the living beings and the elders. They are the ones who worship God continuously.

 

⁸ Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty—
    the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”            NLT

 

¹⁰ …the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say,

¹¹ “You are worthy, O Lord our God,
    to receive glory and honor and power.
For you created all things,
    and they exist because you created what you pleased.”     NLT

 

Most likely, you’ve never experienced worship like this before. But when we come together to worship God, we are in His presence, just like John’s vision. There may not be strange looking creatures or a throne surrounded by gemstones or lightning and thunder; but, be assured that your Heavenly Father is there.

 

So the next time you have the opportunity to choose what’s behind the door that has flashing lights with heavenly and earthly beings in it, choose that door. You’ll win an eternal prize beyond your wildest imagination.

 

 

 

 

A Masterpiece

Ephesians 2:1-10

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A1-10&version=NIV;NLT

 

Many masterpieces have been created over the centuries. Michelangelo’s sculpture of David; Shakespeare’s Hamlet; Handel’s Messiah; Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, just to name a few.

 

An argument could be made that God has created His own masterpieces in nature. The beauty of a sunset; the wonder of the Grand Canyon; the power of Niagara Falls; the gale force of a hurricane; the serenity of a mountain stream. But have you ever considered that you are one of His masterpieces?

 

¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. NLT

 

The NLT introduction to Ephesians states: “Every once in a while, God grants his people a glimpse of their place in the grand scheme of history. There is a brief moment when they can assess who they are, where they have come from and where they are going. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians provides the church with such a vision.”

 

God has a plan to create a masterpiece, and you are an integral part. In addition to the verse above, consider these.

 

⁴ Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. ⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1 NLT

 

⁶ And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.    Philippians 1:6 NLT

 

¹³ For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.        Psalm 139 NIV

 

Have you considered whose you are, where you have come from and where you are going? Without even knowing you, I can say with certainty that you have God given gifts that He wants you to use for His work. You are His masterpiece!