Intimately Acquainted with All My Ways
Isn’t it nice to know someone cares? Like when you’re feeling down and someone close to you notices. God notices you too! Psalms 139 verses 3-4 New American Standard Bible shows us just how closely He notices:
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
So why would God scrutinize our path and lying down? Maybe, because He cares? My husband and I care about our children and you better believe we scrutinized their paths and lying down. When they were heading out somewhere and were dressed inappropriately, we might ask, “Just where are you going dressed like that? Go change please!” When they were ‘lying down’ too much as teenagers and wouldn’t get up to do chores, yup, we scrutinized their paths and they got to work on the chores! All this because we cared about them and wanted them to grow up to be mature godly adults.
So, yes, God scrutinizes our paths for the same reason, because He cares! Scrutinize H2219 means to winnow. And winnow means “to blow a current of air through (grain) in order to remove the chaff”. In Luke 3:17 NASB we read about how God feels about chaff:
His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
In this verse, the chaff are the wicked which God will thresh out. But from Psalm 139, we can see that God also winnows our paths. When He lets the winds of affliction, trials, difficulties blow through our lives, He is blowing away the chaff that we have allowed to accumulate. He’s getting rid of the waste that clutters our lives and makes us unfruitful. He wants us in His barn, but not our chaff.
And according to our verse, He knows all your ways. The way you twirl your hair. The way you get your sensitive feelings hurt so often (That would be me! Working on it!). The way you hate Brussel sprouts with a passion. He knows. You don’t have to explain yourself or your ways to Him.
That word on your tongue…Ever wonder why when you are about to say something that’s off, you get a little check in your spirit? Maybe I shouldn’t say that. Because He knows what you are about to say! Because He knows your thoughts even before you have formed them into words to speak out with your tongue. Wow, what a gift to save us a lot of trouble and to keep us from speaking hastily. If we would just learn to listen to His Spirit within us when He give us that little check! But praise God we have His forgiveness to cover any words spoken unrightly.
Remember the virtuous women in Proverbs 31: 26? She opens her mouth with wisdom. This means that there are times she will keep her mouth closed and it is wise to do so. Like if she doesn’t have control of her emotions in that moment- she may want to keep her mouth closed. Like if what she is about to say will not build someone up or give grace in the moment, she may want to keep her mouth closed. Like if what she is about to say, she will have to ask forgiveness for later (Yup! Done that many times!), she may want to keep her mouth closed. Still learning this personally!
So in that moment when you are feeling misunderstood, please remember that
YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER KNOWS IT ALL, HE KNOWS YOU AND YOUR WAYS AND HE CARES.
In His Love,
Suzanne
Mom Morsels 