You Are There

Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. - Psalm 139:7b-8 (NRSV)

 

Psalm 139 speaks to our greatest fear as human beings: being abandoned, left alone in desolate places, far from home.

 

It speaks also of God’s greatest promise: that no matter where we are, God will be there. I’ve used Psalm 139 for memorial services, and I’ve prayed it in the shadowed nights of my own soul.

 

But last June, on my church’s trip to the Arizona/Sonora-Mexico border (our first since the pandemic), Psalm 139 took on new meaning. I’d been to the border ever since I was a child growing up in Arizona and then as a pastor serving in New Mexico. The Sonoran Desert was my first home, with all its beauty and biodiversity—and its desolation and fearsomeness. Tragically, as the border has become more militarized, the wall longer, and the asylum process stopped, crossing the desert has become a descent into Sheol.

 

To be sure, God’s presence can be known through the words of Psalm 139. But for the people trying to find their way through an ever more dangerous and deadly place, that Presence needs to known in the flesh—their flesh and our flesh.

 

The flesh of hands that leave water jugs along migrant trails and give out granola bars at the wall. Arms that embrace and uphold. Voices that make phone calls for help and speak out for just and humane policies.

 

Psalm 139 promises that God will be present in all times and places. And God calls us to make good on that promise.

 

Prayer

Compassionate One, Present One, help us be your Presence in the lives of your people. Amen.