Finding comfort in Psalm 139

Psalm 139 has faithfully carried me through hard times and celebrations. With delighted anticipation, I read Psalm 139 nightly to the children growing in my pregnant belly. I read it to my daughter A when Rett syndrome began stealing her skills and I needed a reminder that God is truly in control. At her diagnosis, I read it with her as more of a prayer to build my faith in God’s control. I still read it often when I need to hear God’s promise of His deep caring. I insert A’s name to remember how precious and perfect she is. There is a design to her life that I don’t need to understand (a good thing, since I don’t see the bigger picture) and that design is flawless.

I find myself clinging to Psalm 139 for comfort and promise right now.  Uncontrolled seizures--again--compromise A’s skills and alertness. It's a tough time for her and so for me as well, sharing her pain by proxy and suffering my inability to kiss the hurt and make it go away.

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 Psalm 139

¹O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.

²You know when I sit and when I rise;

You perceive my thoughts from afar.

³You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

⁴Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.

⁵You hem me in--behind and before;

you have laid your hand upon me.

⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

too lofty for me to attain.

⁷Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

⁸If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

⁹If I rise on the wings of the dawn,  

if I settle on the far side  of the sea,

¹⁰even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,

and the light become night around me,”

¹²even the darkness will not be dark to you; 

the night will shine like the  day,

for darkness is as light to you.

¹³For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together  in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

¹⁵My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
¹⁶your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

¹⁷How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I awake,

I am still with you.

                                             New International Version

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What verses bring you comfort when your child is going through a rough patch? Does one stand out for you as being especially helpful?