A reading for today from Psalm 139: 1-6

Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I get up;
You understand my thought from far away.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, Lord, You know it all.
You have encircled me behind and in front,
And placed Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot comprehend it.

This is God’s word.

Thanks be to God.

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God.

If we are honest, David’s words scare us.

As independent, bootstrapping, extroverted, self-motivated, anxious, perfectionistic, introverted, American, post-modern, modern, multigenerational humans, the words feel uncomfortable, prying, constraining.

Though he couldn’t have known it, David’s words feel like a description of an AI-based smart-phone app.

Like our movement monitors, which count our steps and track our sleep and tell us when we’ve been sitting too long, you know when we sit down and get up.

Like Facebook, which monitors our thoughts from afar and put ads in front of us and stories that will rile us up, you know what’s in our hearts.

Like a Chat that can scan all our words and the roads we take regularly and all our online searches and interactions and texts, even the ones we hope are anonymous, you are acquainted with all our ways.

And yet.

We sense that all that information about our lives that we’ve shared freely to make things easier may go to make other people more money and give other people more power.

David suggests that your goals are more glorious.

You know without planning to blackmail, or to get us to buy one more thing.

You follow without planning to corrupt us, or to foster our fear of others.

You know and follow and surround because you love us.

Help us understand.

Amen.