Have you ever wondered how much you actually miss when reading the Bible? For me, I notice this most often when I am reading about the names of people. I tend to skim through the genealogies, taking note of the names I recognize from other stories and books in the Bible, but not giving much thought to all the other names. Yet, God knows my name and every name recorded in His Word for a purpose.
Who were these people? What did they do for a living? Where did they go? What did they enjoy doing? What did their lives look like? Often the Bible doesn’t give us answers to any of these questions, yet God thought it significant to record their names in His story–for generation after generation to read about.
He Knows You
We all have days when we feel invisible or even forgotten by God, lost in the mundaneness of life. But God KNOWS us intimately. Jeremiah 1:5 tells us God formed us even before we were born; that He knit us together in the womb (Psalm 139:13). We are KNOWN by God. Even if no one else on the planet knew our name or who we are, God KNOWS.
How are you feeling today? Do you feel lost in the daily grind; unseen by those around you? Take heart. You are not alone or forgotten. Meditate on Psalm 139 today. You are seen and have been fearfully and wonderfully made by your creator.
Psalm 139
O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!