Marvelously Made--Psalm 139

This past Sunday, our pastor preached on the first reading, Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18. That Psalm contains one of my favorite images of God (oh, it's so hard to choose, though, isn't it?): God as knitter, creating us in the womb. As I listened on Sunday, I also heard echoes of God as weaver. God as fabric artist--now that's a God I can love!

Our pastor focused on the view of God that so many of us have: God as judge, with a big, black book, keeping track of our sins. Our pastor said, "There's just no scripture that supports that."

Instead, God delights in us. Go back to the first Genesis story (not the one with the snake and the deception, but the one before that). God creates this thing and calls it good. God creates that thing and declares it good. God never says, "Well, that was a horrible mistake. I won't be doing that again." God never descends into self-loathing: "How could I have been so stupid! These humans disappoint again and again." No, God creates humans and declares them "Very good."

Psalm 139 reminds us that God knows us from the inside out. And still, God loves us and declares us very good.

I wish I could get away from the self-loathing voice in my head. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to replace that voice with the loving voice of God. So, from now on, when that voice pipes up, I'm taking some words from Psalm 139 and doing battle! I'm going to say, "Thank you--I am marvelously made." It will be a way of vanquishing that voice as well as a brief thank you prayer.