1. Do you feel good about yourself? About your life? It is so easy to not feel very good about ourselves. So easy that we so easily believe that to be a Christian and to take our faith seriously, we should never feel good about ourselves. That to feel good about ourselves is a great sin. After all, are we not totally depraved, without any good in us whatsoever?
2. Well, this morning I hope to be able to help you feel good about yourself. About who you are and about your life. To make you feel special. I believe we have been created with a need to feel special. To feel that we were created for a purpose. To feel that we are not alone. To feel that we are understood. To feel that we are loved. To feel that we have some value.
3. In this most beautiful Psalm that David composed we are given a number of reasons why we can feel good about who we are. And these reasons come down to who God is and His relationship with us.
4. David praises God. And he does not do it in a simple matter-of-fact way. Not a quick prayer - that starts with "God is great, God is good!" But he makes us really think about God. In such a way that we are awestruck, overwhelmed by His greatness. That makes us say with David "such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." It is too much to take in. But we must try to.
5. We must meditate upon God. For as John Calvin says - it is only in knowing God that we know ourselves. Only as we see who He is can we feel good about who we are.
6. David tell us that God is all knowing. He knows all things - all things on earth. He perceives the thoughts and actions of each one of the billions of people who inhabit the earth. He knows each one better than they know themselves. That seems impossible. Not even Bill Gates could build a computer that could do that.
7. God is everywhere at the same time. At the ends of the universe, at the deepest parts of the oceans.
8. And He created all things in all their splendour.
9. These things are worthy of much more thought than we give them this morning. But read this Psalm each day this week and meditate on how great God is.
10. But the amazing thing is that though God is transcendent, all-knowing and all- present, that though He governs all things, He is a personal, a very personal God.
11. Some people consider themselves special because of who they have met or who their friends are. After I shook Pierre Trudeauís hand I had to tell all my friends about it. At the time it made me feel important. And so we can feel some importance or worth in the fact of the relationship we have with this mighty God. And not just because we shake hands with Him. We must consider the depth and the extent of that relationship.
12. In verses 1-4 we get a picture of how well God knows us and understands us. David says "you have searched me." You have dug deep into me and you know what makes me tick. You understand me better than anyone. You deeply understand my emotions and my motives.
13. Friends, we feel special when someone understands us. That does not mean they agree with everything. But they care enough to take the effort to know us. One of deepest needs we have is to be understood. It is easy to say to someone "you should not feel this way." But to be able to say "I understand" means a lot. When I visit those who have lost a loved one. They may tell me they feel very alone. That no one really understands their grief. No one understands them like their wife or husband did. Or a teenager who feels her parents do not understand her. Well the good news is that God does understand us.
14. Vs. 2 tells us that He knows all the details of our routines and whereabouts. While reading our thoughts. He knows completely what we are going to say before we even form the words on our lips. God knows and understands us. We are special.
15. And He loves us. Despite knowing us. Sometimes someone thinks they love us, but when they get to know the real us, their love disappears. But Godís love does not disappear.
16. He hems us in. He surrounds us with His love. His love will not let us go. And so He lays His hand upon us. We are understood and we are loved.
17. Another thing we seek is to be with someone. Recently I spoke at Maple City about this passage. One of the things they told me that makes them feel special is when someone is with them. When we feel no one visits us, when we feel alone most of the time, then we do not feel very good about ourselves. "There must be something wrong with me that no one cares to be with me. Popular, attractive people have lots a people around them. But I am a nobody, all alone." We may feel this way but that is a lie, for God is always with us.
18. Even if we try to get away from Him, He remains there. There is nowhere in all creation that we can hide from Him. We cannot hide in the dark for He sees clearly in the darkness. For the darkness is as light to Him. Jesus promises that He will never leave us for forsake us.
19. We have so much reason to feel of value. For we are of value to God.
20. David next considers Himself. The value of his very being.
21. I heard somewhere that if we were to consider the value of all the materials and chemicals that we are made of it would come to only a few cents. We are something like 70% water. But our value is much greater. Just like a painting by Rembrandt would be worth much more than a painting by John Kapteyn (even if use same paints), so we are of great worth because we are Godís workmanship, His piece of art.
22. He created our inmost being. He knit us together in our mothersí wombs. God not just created us on an assembly line. But each one of us uniquely put together by Him. Think of the intricacies of the human body. God is involved not just in all we think and do, but He is involved in our very creation from the moment we were conceived.
23. And that includes the inner parts. This means reins or kidneys. These were considered to be the seat of our emotions and thoughts. The inner self. The spirit, the soul. Around this He knit our physical bodies.
24. We have been give all these reasons for realizing that we are not nobodies. We are special. And we can rejoice in that. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
25. How do we respond to this? Do we go around with pride because of how great we are? No, we are humbled because of how great God is and what he has done. His thoughts and ways are precious to us. And because of that we share in His abhorrence of sin. For they go against the very being and will of God. The wicked speak against God with evil intent. They hate God. And so we hate those who hate God. We abhor those who go up against God.
26. But then we also look at ourselves. We realize that we also sin. And we hate the sin within us. And so again to ask God to search us, to dig deep within us. To see if there is sin in us. Any anxious thoughts which reveal a lack of trust in God. Any ways that are offensive to Him. So that we can deal with them and be led in the way everlasting.
27. Friends, we have many reasons to be discouraged. To not like who we are and what we do. But these negatives are a result of sin and are sinful in themselves. Let us remember how precious we are to God. Praise His holy name
28. We can feel good about who we are because of whose we are. We are Godís. He understands us, loves us, dwells with us, made us and sanctifies us.
