Unknown Territory: Psalm 139:9-10

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

What place on this planet seems the most foreign to you? Would you be most out of place in the big city or out in the solitude of the mountains, forests, or deserts of the world?

Psalm 139:9-10 says, “If I take the wings of the morning” —that means going east— “and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me” (ESV).

From the vantage point of the average Israelite reciting this psalm back in the day, the eastern sea was the Mediterranean, a vast expanse they had never traveled. What was past it, no one truly knew. That was unknown territory, foreign, far, vast, empty.

They were saying, “If I were to go where I’ve never been, where none of my family has ever been, where we have a few legends but no concrete knowledge— If I were to go out into the unknown, the vast, empty, foreign unknown, even there, God would be with me, holding me and leading me.”

They were not talking about geography really. They were using geography only descriptively, to talk about all the unknown situations to which life leads us, or more precisely, to which God leads us. They were noting that the unknown is not all that uncommon. Life is full of unknowns, full of never explored places and situations where God leads us. And wherever he leads us, he holds us: “even there your hand…shall hold me.” If you put your trust in his Son Jesus, you are banking on this very fact, that wherever God leads you, he holds you.

Can you join these ancient Israelites in this psalm of faith? Can you take all the places where you commonly go, as well as the places you are afraid to go, and also the places you are right now that are new or foreign— Can you put all those places into this psalm of faith and say with the ancient Israelites that wherever God guides you, such as _________, he also holds you. And if he holds you, will you look to him and ask him to tour guide you through them?