The President is Following Me

I travel around the US quite a lot on business.   Part of the joys of travel are being delayed at airports – mostly by the weather or due to broken airplanes.  You try to learn to live with them.  For me a disturbingly common cause of delays is that the city or airport I am in is shut down because the President is also in town, and when Air Force One is moving or about to move – no one else does.  I reached a stage last year when I was wondering why the President was following me everywhere and I wished he would stop.  I have whined about this in a previous blog.

This week I am in a sleepy little village near the southern tip of Africa hoping to get away from it all for a few weeks.  So imagine my delight when today’s church service was cut short and we were encouraged to leave because … Marine One was due to land in the fields across the street.  There is no escaping him, even on the other side of the planet!

This thought leads to Psalm 139.

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 afar.

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,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

5 You them me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall 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 dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10 even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

12 even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it 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 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.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!

O omen of blood, depart from me!

20 They speak against you with malicious intent;

your enemies take your name in vain.

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 complete hatred;

I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting

 

God is there, wherever we go, and that is one of the fantastic promises made to all believers.  His presence is what sustains (as opposed to delays) us. 

Unlike the President, God does not hide behind bulletproof glass. God as the true Sovereign does not need protection, indeed He is the protector. 

Also, unlike the President, God knows each one of us, intimately – talk about name dropping!  Our response then is to worship and be thankful and to seek to know Him better.  Therein lies the path to satisfaction and salvation.