Choir and Psalm 139, NIV

I finally did it...yes, I finally joined the choir at church! It was a great time this evening! When I was going to A&M United Methodist in College Station (while I was a student at A&M), I joined the University Choir. I LOVED it! However, I haven't been part of one since then. So, when we moved to C-town over a year ago now, I wanted so badly to join the adult choir. Tonight I made the leap of faith and joined my first practice session! It was full of laughs, fellowship, prayer, oh and some singing, too! Good times! You gotta love a small town First Baptist church choir...membership includes the superintendent of schools, a few teachers, daycare operator, retirees, retired highway patrolman, a local lawyer, and many others. I will sing at church this Sunday for the first time (a song I've sung once...about halfway through) and I'm really excited to be part of a great group of believers!

In a previous post I mentioned I am doing Beth Moore's Believing God study on my own. I am still at it, and really enjoying my quiet time, alone in God's word with this study. Plus, I love Beth's enthusiasm. It literally will put you on fire for God, and I truly seek this for my day to day life. During the study, I was asked to read Psalm 139. I have read this chapter a few times before, but I don't think I have ever read it in its entirety in one sitting. I can't get enough of it. It gives me this feeling I can't describe...like I can hear the sound of God's voice coming from the lines as I read. I thought I would share Psalm 139 in this post because I PRAY you will feel the same way as you read it.

Psalm 139: 1-24

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 from your 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 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.

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,
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 your thoughts, O God!
How vast is 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, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty 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, 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.