How strange that the slogan “All Lives Matter” has been a recent source of dissension and debate! Instead of viewing those words as a political or social statement, let’s try to get a glimpse of God’s perspective.
Revealed throughout the Bible, this higher view shows us clearly that all lives matter to our Creator God – the God of Love Who favors each of us equally and uniquely – the Holy God Who created each of us to be forever in His presence, His family.
Perhaps this Bible prayer from the book of
Psalms will help us to refocus our vision.
Psalm 139:13-24 – contemporary version
Lord, You
formed my inward parts.
You wove me
in my mother’s womb!
I give thanks
to You, for I am
fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Your works
fill me with wonder,
and my very
soul knows that quite well.
My frame was
never hidden from You
when I came
together in secret – as though
skillfully
wrought in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes
have seen my embryonic self,
and in Your
book You have written
all the days
ordained for me – even before
my day of
birth had yet begun.
How precious
are Your thoughts, O God!
How vast the
sum of them!
If I tried to
count them, it’d be like trying
to count each
particle of sand.
When I’m
awake, I’m with You, but oh, I wish
You’d get rid
of malice and hatefulness!
I wish
violent people would stay far from me,
for they say
terrible things about You,
and Your
enemies take Your Name in vain.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Test me to know my anxious thoughts, and see
if there’s anything hateful or hurtful in me.
Lead me in
Your everlasting way.
From the Book of Bible Prayers – actual prayers of the Bible collected from a variety of translations and paraphrased into everyday English by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019
…
Psalm 139:13-24 – KJV
For thou hast
possessed my reins:
thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise thee;
for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous
are thy works; and that
my soul
knoweth right well.
My substance
was not hid from thee,
when I was
made in secret,
and curiously
wrought
in the lowest
parts of the earth.
Thine eyes
did see my substance,
yet being
unperfect; and in thy book
all my
members were written,
which in
continuance were fashioned,
when as yet
there was none of them.
How precious
also are thy thoughts unto me,
O God! how
great is the sum of them!
If I should
count them, they are more
in number
than the sand: when I awake,
I am still
with thee.
Surely thou
wilt slay the wicked, O God:
depart from
me therefore, ye bloody men.
For they speak against thee wickedly,
and thine
enemies take thy name in vain.
Search me, O God, and
know my heart:
try me, and
know my thoughts:
And see if
there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me
in the way everlasting.
From the Book of KJV Prayers - actual prayers from
the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) collected by Mary
Harwell Sayler, ©2019
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