Psalm 139

I am a worrier.  I think I have always been a worrier.  I think I was born worrying.  I don't know how to stop.

 Many of the tasks that I am assigned at work don't take a lot of concentration.  My mind starts to wander and it never fails that I start to worrying and stressing.  Then it just snowballs.  I spend the entire day worrying and by the end of the day my mind is a mess of mush, my stress levels are through the roof and my neck and shoulders are tense.  I finally decided that I needed something else to occupy my mind during the day because I was trying to lower my stress level and I was making myself crazy.  So, I decided that I would try memorizing scripture.  Any time that my mind was not occupied, and I felt myself starting to worry and stress, I just started working on my verse.

For my first verse I chose Psalm 139.  It was a verse that I started memorizing while I was in high school and never finished.  It took me about a month even with the head start, but I do only work three days a week, at least that is my excuse, it is NOT because I am getting old.

Psalm 139 (NIV)

O LORD, you have searched me 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 know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in - behind and before;

you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee form you presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if i settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me 

and the light will become night around me,"

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for the darkness is as light to you.

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 woven together in the depths of the earth, 

your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me 

were written in your book 

before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are you thoughts, o God!

How vast the sum of them!

Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I awake,

I am still with you

If only you would slay the wicked, Oh God!

Away from me, you blood thirsty men!

They speak of you with evil intent;

your adversaries misuse your name.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,

and abhor those who rise up against you?

I have nothing but hatred for them;

I count them my enemies.  

Search me, oh God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

I really love this passage and it definitely helped keep my stress and worry levels down.  Now that I have finished this one, I am looking for my next passage to work on during the week.  If anyone has any suggestions I welcome them!