God's Thoughts About Me (Psalm 139) Series

Gods Thoughts About Me

Psalms 139

QUIZ – Meant to be really difficult – might take you all of a second to answer these… (answer them silently)

Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador

In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? November. The Russian calendar used to be 13 days behind ours.

How long did the Hundred Years War last? 116 years, from 1337 to 1453.

From which animal do we get catgut? From sheep and horses

What is a camel’s-hair brush made of? Squirrel fur

The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? The Latin name was Insularia Canaria—Island of the Dogs.

What was King George VI’s first name? Albert. When he came to the throne, in 1936 he respected the wish of Queen Victoria that no future king should ever be called Albert.

What color is a purple finch? Red.

Where are Chinese gooseberries from? New Zealand

How long did the Thirty Years War last? Thirty years, of course. From 1618 to 1648.

Anybody get them all right?

Anybody get more than one right?

Our knowledge is very limited isn’t it?

Even when we think we know something

we’re often wrong.

Fortunately, that’s not true of God.

God knows everything,

and he is never wrong.

We’re continuing in our series on the greatest Psalms,

and today we’re looking at Psalm 139.

Turn there in your Bible.

Bible teachers will tell you that of all the 150 Psalms,

this is the one that best describes God’s personal relationship with us.

the idea that God is not far off,

but is near to each of us.

The first thing we learn from Psalm 139,

is that

1. GOD SEES EVERYTHING ABOUT ME.

Lets start by reading verses 1-4

LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

This section is describing an attribute of God,

that theologians call his Omniscience.

If you split that into 2 words,

Omni means all.

Science is the study of knowing about the universe.

Omniscience simply means all knowing.

God knows everything.

Hebrews 4:13 "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare to Him to whom we must give account."

There is no question God cannot answer, no problem that confuses Him. He’s never surprised. He’s never shocked. He never says, "Oh, really?"

These verses list three specific areas,

that concern you and me.

First it says,

You know when I sit and when I rise;

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

In other words, God knows everything you do,

He knows when I plop into the lazy boy and when I get up to get some more nachos and cheese.

Those two opposites of sitting and rising represent all of our actions throughout the day.

He knows all your habits,

your good habits and the bad ones.

The weak areas and the strong ones,

he sees them all,

he knows them better than you do.

God also knows every word I say.

Verse 4

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

He doesn’t just know it after I say it,

he knows it before I say it.

Now if you’re like me,

this can make you really frustrated,

if you think about it.

Because I’ve said a lot of things I really regretted later.

And then I think,

God, You already knew I was going to say that,

and you knew I was going to regret it,

couldn’t you have just, like

warned me in advance,

so that I could just keep my mouth shut?

Maybe if he just sent me an email once in a while, that said,

Ken, Friday at 2:38 pm,

do not say anything.

keep your mouth shut,

Use duct tape if necessary,

Signed, God.

But I haven’t gotten one of those emails yet.

(now I know that Pastor Chris is going to send me an email, and sign it, God,

and say, Ken, at 10:30 on Sunday morning…

The third thing God knows,

Verse 2 says,

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You know, doctors can do some amazing things with the technology that’s available today.

They can take a tube and stick it down your throat

and look at your insides,

and take pictures.

That’s amazing.

But magnify that a billion times. You’ve got God seeing everything inside, not just my physical body but even my thoughts.

God knows everything you’ve ever thought about. Think about that for a moment.