{eleven monthiversary}: a psalm for Bangkok

A song.  

To be sung in the morning while brushing teeth and hair.  To be sung swimming in the ocean or pool, while sitting in the hot tub or steam room.  To be sung in times of uncertainty and times of perseverance.

You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
You know when I walk to the BTS and when I faint;
    you perceive my anxiety from afar.
You discern my going to 7-11 and Big C and my friends' homes.
You know which page of which book I will fall asleep reading;
    you are familiar with all my flaws and quirks.
Before a text message has been typed and auto-corrected, 
    you, Lord, know it completely.
I look behind me and you’re there,
    then up ahead and you’re there, too—
    your reassuring presence, coming and going.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the top of the Buddhist temple, you are there;
    if I walk past the sound of the call to prayer, you are with me.
If I wake up at the same time others are going to sleep, 
    or if I sleep the day away, 
    even then you are with me.
If I settle in Milwaukee or Bangkok or elsewhere,
    even then you will guide me,
    a voice whispering which way to go next.
If I climb the rooftop of a brothel,
    converse with a trafficker,
    or pray with a lady of the night,
    even then you will not leave me.
If I say, "Surely the darkness is too dark for God--
    the nights of Bangkok too strong to break through,"
    even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you. 
For you created the longings and desires of my heart;
    you formed me from inside my mother's swollen belly.
I praise you because I am unlike any other;
    your presence fills me with praise.
My arms and legs and face and shape were never a surprise to you;
    from when I was secret until today.
How amazing that you, God, knew this path before I stepped onto it!
You knew my roommates, jobs, and plane flights before one of them came to be.
You knew all the people I would meet all over the world before I knew how precious they would be to me.

Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
    God, I’ll never comprehend them!

If only you would slay the wicked!  O GOD!
    Away from me, you who use and abuse people for your own reasons;
    you who oppress others through unfair wages and laws.
These wicked people talk about you like they know you, God,
    they act like you endorse their schemes,
    like you take pleasure in their success. 
But I know you.  
I know your goodness, your purity, your truth.  
Do I not hate those who hate others, Lord?
Those who slander your name by mistreating your created image?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
Investigate my life, O God,

    I invite you to continue the journey with me.

Help me look to your presence to bring about your kingdom through me

    here on earth, like it is in heaven. 

It is for your glory that I trust my next steps of unknowns--

   walk with me now and into eternity.

*Psalm 139

NIV; The Message; author's interpretation