Sovereign Lord, Loving Friend

He's getting on and he's in ill-health. But he has a clear call from God and he's convinced it isn't complete yet. In comes the big-name minister with a cast-iron reputation for words of knowledge that strike to the heart of situations. 'Sort out your affairs' he says, 'Say your goodbyes,  tonight you're going to die'. Not what you had in mind, not what you hoped to hear. He knows the Psalms of course: 'In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.' He might be expected on that basis to lie down and die. God knows the days, knows the plans. The great prophet Isaiah has spoken, the future is fixed. Time to die.

But of course that's not how he responds, because he knows that's not how it works. 'I'm not done yet, there's a job to do - God gave it to me. I'm going to pray and see if He will change His mind'. Now Isaiah could respond by saying 'Don't be ridiculous, I've told you what is going to happen - it's fixed, your days are all written and you've got to the last page.' But he doesn't. He too knows that's not how it works. So Hezekiah prays and God reveals to Isaiah that on the third day he will be healed and live for a further 15 years.

The book has been re-written.

So what does David mean in this psalm? Well firstly, let's remember that psalms are poetry, they use all sorts of literary devices in order to reveal truth about God. We understand something of the character of God when David says that He is a shepherd, but we don't believe that He actually has a staff and crook! Similarly, whatever David means, it isn't that the future is fixed: After Bathsheba gives birth to the son she and David have conceived, he prays and fasts knowing that what looks like a fixed plan might yet be changed, that the child might be healed and live.

In the light of the whole of scripture, perhaps psalm 139 says this:

God has great dreams for us. As he considered our potential from that first conception moment, all His thoughts were for our good and the good that we could be. In His mind He mapped out futures that we could enjoy together. An array of wonderful possibilities beyond our grasp.


As we grow and give permission to Him, He examines our heart and mind, becoming intimately understanding of our ways, to the point that even before we speak, He knows what we will say. Out of that relationship He reveals His dreams for us. We still have freedom to choose those paths or not, but wherever we go, He stays with us. Even if we drag Him through hell, He will not leave us. What is more, He is infinitely creative to find new routes to our destination from where we have wandered.

Then, as we walk in the paths He reveals, even as our enemies seek to deflect us, we have confidence that God is wise beyond our comprehension, powerful beyond our understanding, to protect us and bring about the plans that we have worked towards.

There is mystery - we cannot grasp or comprehend the magnificense of God's plans, His ability to see them through, often despite us. We cannot fully understand the depth of love that tenaciously holds on when we drag a holy God through the experience and consequence of sin.

But there's also knowledge - knowing that we are loved enough to have the dignity of choice. Loved by a God who is so beyond our comprehension that He is well able to handle the uncertainty of our choices. Well able to redeem our mistakes. Big enough to dynamically adapt His plans, His dreams to fit the new circumstances. Loving enough not to insist on His own way. Sovereign enough to weave all of this into the picture He declared from the beginning.