Known by God: Trusting His Presence in the Darkness

“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.” —PSALM 139:1-3

The Christian life is not based on feelings, though feelings are naturally involved. There are times in our worship of God we’re completely overcome with praise and gratitude. Other times it’s as though we’re in a darkened tunnel, and God feels distant. 

Our relationship with God is not one in which He has to keep explaining what He is doing. It is a relationship of love, trust, obedience and dependence. Psalm 139:11-12 says, “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you’.” (Psalm 139:11-12) In other words, though we slip into these darkened tunnels, God works with us totally in the light. There isn’t anything He doesn’t see or know about us. 

Psalm 139:16 says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” We know God has a plan for our lives, but with silence from heaven, we’re stuck in neutral, perhaps even worried we might slide into reverse. Some may be looking back over decades and seriously wondering, “Did I really live well in the sight of God?” Others, eager to accomplish a work of God, grow frustrated, waiting impatiently for direction. 

If God feels distant, there are two vitally important factors we need to remember. At the end of Psalm 139, David writes, “Search me, O 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” (Psalm 139:23-24). It is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ the Christian life is lived, and there may be aspects of our lives that have become a barrier to the word of God and the will of God. If we’re unaware of them, Jesus will reveal them, and help us to overcome them. Secondly, the greater portion of Psalm 139 is about God’s love for us and how intricately He knows us. 

We may be in a darkened tunnel, but we know with certainty God is with us. His love does not diminish, nor take a leave of absence. We are His treasured possessions, and it is in these darkened tunnels the discourse of fervent praise and exaltation of our Lord will bring us all the nearer. “Lead me in the way everlasting,” David writes. That is God’s will and purpose for us, and we rest in the fact we have a God who knows where we are and what He’s doing. 

Dear Lord, help me to overcome any barriers that may be blocking your will in my life, and teach me to wait patiently upon You. Thank You, Lord.

Am I praising and exalting God even when He feels distant?