Most mornings these days as I bike, I’m praying Psalm 139.

“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.”

It has been a favorite prayer for decades, this twenty-four verse reminder that God knows me—body and soul, comings and goings, anxiety and anger and deepest desires—and he’ll never let me go.

The reminder that I’m intimately known is precious, but even more precious is the welcome to settle into that “known-ness,” to rest there as I find myself not just known but tenderly loved and cared for in the midst of all that is going on in and around me.

This morning, I lingered especially with verse 5. The words, as I memorized them in the NIV, read:

“You hem me in—behind and before;

You have laid your hand upon me” (Ps 139:5 NIV).

In past years when I’ve felt hemmed in by illness or other unchanging circumstances, it has been a special comfort to know that the God who “know(s) when I sit and when I rise” (v. 2) and “discern(s) my going out and my lying down” (v. 3) is near. When the hours of lying down vastly outnumbered the hours of going out, he was there, ahead of me and behind me, surrounding and protecting me and gathering me close.

And now?

And now, in a time of change, the words are a special comfort once again. After sixteen years in Vancouver, I’m preparing to return to Nova Scotia at the end of November to be near my parents in this season of their lives. The decision has come about quickly, and though God has confirmed its rightness again and again (for which I am deeply grateful!), all that’s involved in the change can feel overwhelming. What a gift to be reminded once again that God is going before and coming behind me and my family, keeping us from racing ahead or lagging behind! He is preparing the way, and he has our backs. And, as the New Living Translation reminds me, He is also placing his hand of blessing on each of our heads, quieting us with his love.

“You go before me and you follow me,

You place your hand of blessing on my head” (v. 5, NLT-SE).

This good news is over here too. . .

I love how one passage of Scripture can lead us to another. As I sit with this verse, I’m drawn back to another favorite passage: Psalm 23. Here, too, God goes before (“he leads me. . . he guides me”) and comes behind (“surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.”) In this Psalm, too, God places his hand on our head, blessing and honoring us (“you anoint my head with oil”).

And so, whether life feels like it’s hemming us in, keeping us from moving as quickly as we might like, or pressing us on into change and challenge that stretches us, we can rest in the certainty that the One who knows us and loves us is going before and coming behind, honoring and comforting us with his touch.

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I’d love to hear: What situation are you facing these days that is stretching you? What does it mean to you that our loving God is going before and coming behind you, placing his hand of blessing on your head?

Are there other favorite verses you turn to in times of change and challenge that help you settle a little more deeply into the comfort of God’s loving presence?

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P.S. I’d planned to return to twice-monthly posts in September, but that was before I knew this move would happen! So these posts will continue with less frequency for now—probably once a month—while I’m sorting and packing and moving.

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Photo by Frankie on Unsplash.