Inside Out

The Bible is called a "living" book. To me this means that one can reread a passage and always find a new depth of meaning, an added insight. There's always a little something more just around the corner. And this like with no other book. It' quite uncanny. God speaks through it in the now and sometimes it is startling, sometimes a whisper. This morning I was reading Psalm 33. I have always liked the part about "Sing to him a new song" because I always like learning and singing and playing new songs. It's nice to know one is being obedient to God in doing something one enjoys. In that regard, on down the chapter there is something that is usually taken as a warning: "From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth - he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do." Okay, so he is always watching me. That can be a nervous thing at times, but usually it's good to know he's watching out for me. But the twist of the day for me is "...who forms the hearts of all..." He wired up my heart. He designed the way I feel about things. The joys and sorrows and ambitions and longings I experience are functioning according to his careful crafting. So his watching is not as a big brother policeman but as one more intimately familiar and concerned with how I experience things and respond to them and feel and care about them than I am. He is more deeply inside of me than I am myself. He knitted me together in my mother's womb. "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Sam. 16:7) He not only sees past the exterior to my heart, a very comforting thought, but he sees it from the inside out.