Your Turn for 05/20-21/2023 - Psalm 139:7-12
Welcome to the weekend, Seeds of Faith community!
Because this is a reflection on scripture using the SOAP method (Scripture-Observation-Application-Prayer), part of the purpose is sharing an example of what you might practice in your own scripture reading. So, the weekend invitation is to practice your own SOAP reflection.
Each weekend, I share a passage of scripture to work from. If you’re up for sharing in the comments, I’d love to see what you come up with. This week the prompt is Psalm 139:7-12, which you’ll find below. If you share, please copy and paste the sentence or phrase you are reflecting on.
Brief guidelines for a good practice:
The Basic Method. Pick a sentence or phrase in the scripture passage that stands out to you. Write down something you observe going on in that sentence or phrase. Reflect on how that observation gives insight that might apply to your faith and life. Write a short prayer about that.
Observe Well. Think about what the sentences and phrases are saying and not saying. Take care also not to extrapolate more than is there.
Stay Balanced. Focus on the particular scripture while keeping the whole witness of scripture (as well as you know it) in mind. Isolating a verse or passage from the whole can lead us to heresies, but reading each verse or passage deeply and well makes for a robust understanding of the whole. This is one purpose of the early creeds (Apostles’ and Nicene)—they summarize the major points of Christian scripture and doctrine so as to help us read individual biblical passages faithfully.
Psalm 139:7-12
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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SCRIPTURE:
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
OBSERVATION
We cannot hide from God, He is everywhere; He surrounds us; He is all knowing and sees all! He hears us when we need Him and “his right hand will hold us fast”.....guide us to safer ground. This is a beautiful Psalm in the full version. I love the King James Version, extremely beautiful and lyrical but I am especially fond of the Psalms.
APPLICATION
We should feel comfort and safety in these Words from David. Our “Blessed Assurance” because we are never alone. Our Father is all around us every day seeking to guide us to safety in rough seas, show us the way.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, wrap your arms around me every day. Guide me and show me the path you would have me take. Let me please you and reflect your will. In Christ I pray, Anen.
AMEN!