Catechesis Notes for the Week — A Prayer of Comfort from the Lord’s Abiding Presence—Psalm 139 offers us great comfort as we meditate upon the account of the Fall, the First Promise of the Gospel, the Curse of the Fall, and the sin of Cain who murdered his brother Abel. Genesis chapter 3 describes how the world came to be a place of brokenness and sin when Adam turned away from God’s Word, but it also offers to us the promise of salvation in the Seed of the Woman (Jesus) who would crush the Serpent’s head (Satan) in His suffering and death upon the cross (the bruised heel). Psalm 139 puts all things in perspective as does Paul in his sermon in Athens. There is no place we can travel where the Lord is not present for the help, comfort, and salvation of His people who believe in Him. He searches our hearts. He knows everything about us. He is acquainted with all our ways. He knows every word we speak before we utter it. We cannot hide from His presence. We cannot fully grasp the wonder of His omniscience. He orders the affairs of our life, so that we are drawn to Him to seek His help in repentant faith. He has made each of us individually in our mother’s womb. He knew us before we were born. Our days are ordered in His book. His thoughts toward each of us are precious and more than we can number. We ask Him to make His will our own and to lead us each day in humble contrition and repentance, and in prayer to seek His guidance. If there is any wicked way in us, we pray that He would turn us to the good and to the way of everlasting life.CP221009