“Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Psalm 139:16
I’ve been an Army chaplain for 10 years, and I lost my third soldier to suicide several months ago. I cared for his heartbroken widow and stood by her as she explained to her three-year-old boy that his hero-daddy would never come home again, because he is now at home with Jesus. Someday, she will have to explain this to her one-year-old boy as well.

Three precious lives, all snuffed out early in life… it can feel overwhelming. I have counseled and comforted thousands in their suffering and depression. The cumulative weight of all of this would undo me if I did not know Jesus, and if He was not faithful to save and sustain me too. 

Psalm 139 has always been special to me in the dark night of depression. Here, we see God’s perfect knowledge of us from before birth and all the way to death. His knowledge of us pierces to the depths of our hearts. This fact could be both scary and humiliating, but this perfect knowledge is combined with perfect love. His works are wonderful, and His gentle love pursues us, even to His death on a cross. 



Scripture Focus

Psalm 139

Insight

Many who suffer from depression “travel most of the way to heaven by night,” Charles Spurgeon said. May God search your depressed heart and heal it for Christ’s sake.

Bible In A Year

  • Job 39-40
  • Psalm 61
  • Luke 24

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