By Dr Tamale Ssali
O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Psalms 139:1
Not by Accident
As a child between the ages of 4-6 I always observed my mother help women give birth. My mother was a traditional midwife, and she used to deliver babies and look after maternal patients at our home, which was a very simple house.
And it was in the bush (woods) and the banana plantation around our house that my mother was able to deliver babies. And ever since I was born and from my very young age, I came to know that: ‘there was a God’, and that ‘there was a creator’, I knew from childhood that you and I never came into existence by accident.
Neither are even a product of any scientific module or invention; after all, God is in control of all the sciences that we know. It is from these experiences that I realised that God is the creator who created you and created me, it is he who created the whole universe, the sky, the stars and everything that is in it.
Can’t Run Away
So, Psalm 139:1 will read that: O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. It is very important to understand that we can never hide from God. We can hide from the police, hide from our fellow people, in fact, every time we read newspapers, we see faces of people who are on ‘wanted lists’, people who are being looked for either by their loved ones, or by criminals sought by the authority.
There is a very good example in the Bible of a man who tried to flee away from God, his name is Jonah. He thought he could run away from God and hide somewhere where God could not see him, but he was fooling himself, and most of us fool ourselves when we hide away from God.
Not Ashamed
There is a friend of mine who was a professor in the United Kingdom, where I was, so we always had discussions about God. So, one day I asked him why he could not commit his life to believing in God, and he answered: I don’t want anything to do with Jesus, nor God or whatever you call him.
I asked him how he came into existence, then? He then said; Well, I am just like any other creature. Just as cows and all other creatures came into existence, so did I.
Just like my professor friend, many rich, educated, and affluent people are like him. We see many famous people, like politicians, wealthy people, today who might want to come to Jesus but feel afraid of what other people will think about them.
They feel like an embarrassment for people of their status to give their lives to God. I would like to challenge these elites who feel ashamed of believing in Jesus Christ by telling them that Jesus said: whoever shall be ashamed of me before the world, I shall be ashamed of him before my father in heaven.
My friend, if you think and believe as the professor did, then I would like to tell you and remind you that it is God who created you. Well, you might challenge me and say, Dr., you must be crazy; how did you know that God created me?
Well, I have no other source of my assurance of creation than the Bible. As a scientist, I have come to agree that the Bible is consistent with all true and honest science. The Bible is the only coherent and corresponding record on the origin of man.
That is why David the author of today’s Psalm said: O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Psalms 139:1 He continues and says in verses 2-3 that: Thou knows my sitting down and mine uprising, thou understand my thought afar off. Thou compasses my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. My dear Friend God knows you, will endeavour to know him too, today?
Prayer: Today dear God, am glad to know that you know me and I cannot hide a thing or myself from you. Search me Oh! Lord and help me. For you are wonderful to my life. Amen.
