The security of the ubiquitous gaze of The Lover ( a meditation on Psalm 139-This psalm is evangelism from a statement about the nature of Reality. In short, it sings: if Reality is like this, then here is the proper response… )
There is nowhere you can be, where God is not. That is the simple definition of Reality. The “Hound of Heaven” is the One who finds us, regardless of where we go. There’s no corner to hide in! We are confronted with God whatever we do, and whoever we are. The God “who is there” (Francis Shaeffer’s statement) is an argument from the nature of Reality to you and me. We cannot escape the fact of God’s Presence wherever we turn. Now this is also David’s meditation in my favorite Psalm 139. Here is a midrashic essay riffing off this song…
I am known by God. I am coming to know God. Psalm 139 teaches that firstly, we are fully known by God, much more than we know ourselves. Only God can reveal to us who we are; for only He is in a position to do so. So David asks God to search him and know Him, then states that God already knows every single thought, word, action-even our potential actions. We are known fully.
Then, in his meditation, David moves on to our knowing that we are seen fully, and also loved fully. There is no part of who we are that is outside the reach of God’s loving gaze. This love stare is tangibly present, in the metaphysical fabric of Reality! He sees and knows and loves us en todo, entirely, absolutely. This also has to do with the epistemology of God’s Perception. When He sees, something is known. That action on His Part is through His Son. You are known, seen, beheld, understood. by God Himself, by your Source and Origin. In this sense, there is no private action. For, all the days patterned beforehand to be the way of Christ through me, were in His imagination before. He who knit us together in our mother’s womb, knew how to call forth this identity, of “the one He sees” even before we could speak. (He who justified also sanctifies and is able to cause us to stand-Romans 14:4) We, in fact are, the one God sees. Our true identity is how God sees us to be; but also His seeing calls this true identity into being! There is no islandic venture, there is no place we can hide, there is, in truth no such thing as isolation. Not in terms of God’s Perception.
Now, our security from this other passage in Ephesians 2:10, is that this path–which we ARE–is eternal in Him. That is, in the end, it cannot be stolen, violated or taken from Him. Why? Because He is God, and the strength of the Cross is what holds your identity together. That is the Force of true integration of who we are. The energy of Christ’s Life released in that action on the cross, forced “being” itself, to stop disintegrating, and instead, reversed things, even molecularly, to return to wholeness. Now, we are on this journey in Him towards full wholeness, full coming together of all the parts of who we are. This is the metanarrative of sanctification, which is finished up by The Author in His Full manifestation over and in all He has created.
There is great security in this, once we know God, and that He is not only there, but He is loving us there- that the universe in all its dimensions is a potential meeting place with God–even our personal suffering; once we know, in short, the indomitability of His Presence, we are free to live. This was David’s meditation in this song. This truth also frees us up to venture into any area of interest, knowing we can meet God there. It frees us up in our studies of culture, our travels, our art history learning, our writings, our business, our family life etc. There is no place where we cannot meet God. This is why David and Daniel could be in government without fear of getting too “worldly”. He knew He could meet God in leadership, and that was their main motivation for partnering with God in ruling nations!
Daniel is another example of someone who knew He could meet God in any type of activity. That if He was studying other’s culture, interpreting dreams, counseling kings, or ruling over large areas of land and resources, He could meet God through all these activities and areas of endeavor. Whether waking or asleep, Daniel ran into God and conversed and gained understanding of His Ways. He was not worried that God would drop off the edge of the universe in any area of his life. He trusted The Center to hold! So he was free to explore even into the spiritual realms.
There is no metaphysical atmosphere which can block us from God through Christ. For Jesus has fully chartered and fathomed the depths of our humanness. He is acquainted with all our grieves and sufferings. There is no potential human experience, that God is alienated from. He has also ascended into heaven, where we are seated with Him, so there, too, we can know and be known. Our true adventure then is always, perforce, into God. There really is no other option. Wherever we turn, we run into God. We may be blind and not see Him, but He is there. Once we accept His “thereness”, as Francis Shaeffer puts it, we are free to enjoy entering in more deeply. We go through His Gates with thanksgiving, and enter into His mysterious Being in praise. We join Daniel’s prayer pattern of confession, into thanks into sheer praise of God! We enjoy life here, because it is this ongoing multifarious adventure into God’s Very Being. Again, there is great ontological reassurance in this knowledge.
This secret, that God is there, at every corner of the universe in every dimension; in short, the inescapability of God; the ubiquity of His Being; this truth allows one to be held in the Father’s Arms at all times regardless of circumstance.
No matter how low or how high, He is there, and He is Love there!
This is the Great freedom; to live within this truth.
Lots of people want to know where they are heading. This is the question of destiny or calling in life. But the answer always begins with who we are. Being precedes doing. Identity precedes calling. We cannot know Eph 2:10 before we know Psalm 139. We must be searched and known, in order to find the path prepared beforehand to be our way.
Once we stop joining Adam and Eve in hiding, and realize we are always standing before God, we are freed to let down our guards and be known and know back on a much more profound level of being. For since we are seen, we can gaze back and see–spirit to Spirit. We can search one another, God and I, and live in the constant dialogue between our beings. Our very lives become this constant spiritual exchange There is a tremendous security in knowing we are constantly seen by a loving God. It is said of Elijah–“and he lived constantly before his God.”
To focus on allowing Him to reveal to you your true identity is also a way, to find your course for life. Seek to be known by God. He desires to reveal you to yourself! I am not talking about solipsistic healing here, where we are totally self focused constantly. We become known as we enter His knowing. When we enter into His knowing, we like Him and in Him want to serve others. For service is a core part of God’s Heart. But we cannot serve others in Him, if we do not know Him in ourselves. If I am not known by God, or have not been searched, i am not able to offer God to others in that area of myself. I must be kissed by His Love and Being in an area, before I can offer Him in that area to others.
