Created And Cherished

4. Ohio Governor John Kasich signed a bill into law in December that bans doctors from aborting babies testing positive for Down Syndrome.

5. It’s noteworthy that after the church shooting in November in Texas, state authorities released a complete list of those killed, including the unborn child of a woman who was killed. As tragic as all this is, authorities recognized her unborn baby as a human being.

6. The widespread use of ultrasound and other images is helping people see that life begins at conception.

We’ve been learning the importance of our identity in Christ during this brief series. Two weeks ago we celebrated our forgiveness and freedom. Last weekend we unpacked what it means for the saved to be sinner and saint. Today we’re celebrating that God cherishes what He created.

As good as it is to celebrate our identity, I do want to share a caution. In our search to discover who we are we can inadvertently focus too much on our self-image, self-esteem and self-identity. The key is not so much who I am but who God is.

I came across a very helpful post written by Jen Wilken (BTW, our Wednesday night women’s Bible study led by Deb McFate was developed by Jen Wilken).

Here’s part of what she writes, “We have misdiagnosed our primary problem. As long as we keep the emphasis on us instead of on a higher vision, we will take small comfort from discussions of identity — and we will see little lasting change. Our primary problem as Christian women [and men] is not that we lack self-worth, not that we lack a sense of significance or purpose. It’s that we lack awe…Awe helps us worry less about self-worth by turning our eyes first toward God, then toward others. It also helps establish our self-worth in the best possible way: we understand both our insignificance within creation and our significance to our Creator.”

I also appreciate her insight into our passage for today: “Without question, the subject of Psalm 139 is not us. Rather than a reflection on me, fearfully and wonderfully made, it is an extended and exquisite celebration of God, fearful and wonderful…Don’t tell me who I am until you have caused me to gaze in awe at ‘I Am.’ There can be no true self-awareness apart from right, reverent awe of God.”

We’ve already heard most of Psalm 139 as it has guided our time of worship. That’s appropriate because this psalm is directed to a worship leader. Known as a wisdom psalm, it divides into 4 stanzas of six verses each. Amazingly, there are 34 references to Lord, God, You and Your in this psalm!

I’m going to simply put the text on the screen and make some explanatory comments as we walk through this section of the Word. We’re going to see David explode with praise and worshipful wonder as He considers who God is and what He has done.

1. Omniscient: God knows what you do. (Psalm 139:1-6). In these opening verses there are eight different Hebrew words that pile on top of each other to show that God knows us intimately.

1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me!