Numbers 9-11
Mark 5:1-20

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.”   
—Psalm 139:7-8

“Most of Scripture speaks to us; the Psalms speak for us.” This statement is attributed to the early church father, Athanasius. God speaks to us through Scripture, but through the Psalms, we speak back to God. The people who composed the Psalms did not speak to God what they ought but what they really felt. They not only expressed their joy and gladness, but also their sadness, fear, anger, envy, guilt and shame. The psalmists freely prayed what was on their heart and what they were feeling.

Psalm 139 is an example of honest prayer expressed to God. David, the author of this psalm, writes, “You have searched me, LORD, and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You, LORD, know it completely….For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth” (Psalm 139:1-4, 13-15). Through the psalm, we can gather that David feels seen, safe and secure in God’s presence. David acknowledges that he is fearfully and wonderfully made and that the Creator wove him together in his mother’s womb, knowing him intimately more than he even knows himself. 

When we feel safe and secure in God’s presence, as David did in the presence of the One who knows and loves him far greater than anyone could, we can remove our mask, shed the half-truths and express what is truly on our heart. Whether it is our fear, anger, sadness, loneliness, guilt, shame or our delights, hopes and joys, we know we are safe to disclose what we feel in the presence of God.

Bestselling author Bronnie Ware was a palliative care nurse who wrote the book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing outlining what she learned from people who were dying. One of the most common regrets she found among the dying was “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.” Many of the patients that Ware cared for developed illnesses because they had stuffed down their feelings of anger and resentment and had not expressed or released them.

There is nothing about us that God does not already know. May we take time in God’s presence today and let Him know how we are doing and how we really feel.

Dear God, You know everything about me—the good and the bad—and still You love me. Thank You that I can come before Your presence and be my true self. Praise You!