Although we don't often focus upon the Psalm, it is in fact one of the scriptural readings of the day, deserving to be read prayerfully and meditated upon just as on the first reading and Gospel. The Book of Psalms is indeed a book well worth our study and prayerful attention-it includes the most important hymns of the Jewish people, and there is little doubt that Jesus himself prayed these psalms along with the rest of the Jewish people since they were used as part of the cycle of religious festivals and temple worship services in Jesus time.

Psalm 139 is one of the most beloved of the psalms and used as the basis for some of our own popular modern hymns. The theme of this psalm is the mystery of God's intimate knowledge of each of us and His presence in all things and in all places. How often do we long for those who can truly 'understand us,' who are able to genuinely sympathize with us because they know the complexity of our lives and the difficulties we have encountered along our life's journey. In this psalm the one who prays recognizes that it is the Lord who always understands us best, for it was He who created us, who wove us together in our mother's womb. It is the Lord who also accompanies us along our way, sustaining us and comforting us. There is nowhere we can go where God will be absent from our lives or separated from us.