I feel lonely

What this passage says

The psalm states that God has searched the writer and knows his sitting down, his rising up, his path and his words before he speaks them. Verses 7 to 12 then ask where he could go from God's Spirit and answer with a list of extremes: heaven, Sheol, the far side of the sea, darkness. In each place the psalm says God is there and his hand holds the writer.

What describes your situation best?

Only if it helps. Nothing you choose is saved or sent anywhere.

• I feel alone even around other people
• I recently lost an important relationship
• I feel forgotten
• I don't feel close to God right now
• I am physically isolated
• I'm not sure, I just feel lonely

What would help you most right now?

• Give me Scripture to read
• Help me understand what Scripture says
• Guide me through prayer
• Give me a short study
• Create a 7-day Scripture journey

Read these next

• The same theme carried on

  Loading Deuteronomy 31:6-8…

  The same claim spoken to a whole people at a border: the Lord goes with them and will not forsake them.

• This passage quoted here

  Loading Hebrews 13:5-6…

  The New Testament quotes that promise and applies it to believers who are tempted to measure their security by what they have.

• Old and New Testament together

  Loading John 14:16-18…

  Jesus tells disciples who are about to lose his physical presence that they will not be left alone.

What this means for you

Psalm 139 does not say loneliness is imagined. It says the writer cannot reach a place where God is absent. That is a statement about God, not about how the writer feels, which is why it can be read on a day when nothing feels close.

One thing to do

Read Psalm 139 slowly, and mark the verbs the psalm gives to God: searched, known, hemmed in, led, held. Read them back as facts, not as feelings to work up.

Pray this passage

Father, this psalm says you know my sitting down and my rising up, and that darkness is not dark to you. I feel unseen today, so I am asking you to teach me what this passage says about you rather than what my feelings say about me. Hold me as verse ten says you hold me, and keep leading me.

Or pray in your own words

• Tell God what part of your day feels most unseen, and read verse 3 back to him.
• Ask him to make verse 10 real to you before it feels real.
• Pray for one person you could sit with this week.

A 7 day Scripture path

Seven passages, one a day, read in your own translation. Kept in this browser only.

Where to go from here

• Read the whole chapter around Psalm 139:1-12
• Put one of these verses to memory
• Save a verse or write a note in your library
• Choose another subject